NATIONAL MARKETMAKER NEWS
MarketMaker Gets Makeover
Visitors to the National Food Industry MarketMaker website will notice a new and improved site. Users will still be able to find local sources of grass fed beef, grocery stores in ethnic neighborhoods and other useful information that helps food find its way from farm to fork. Now, those searches will be much speedier and even easier and more useful features have been added to the site.
MarketMaker is a free online resource linking consumers, farmers and businesses through out the food chain. It boasts one of the largest collections of searchable food industry-related data in the country -- categorized by buyers, sellers, location and other demographic information. More than just an online directory, the MarketMaker website features a mapping capability, allowing easy location of nearby food sources. The site provides a quick, yet simple method of searching for food-related products in detail, looking for attributes such as humanely-raised or organically grown and product forms such as fresh or frozen.
"MarketMaker has grown exponentially since it was first kicked off in Illinois 5 years ago" says Darlene Knipe, a Marketing Specialist for University of Illinois and one of the founders of the MarketMaker program. "As more and more states went live it became apparent that our system could not accommodate the level of site activity we were experiencing." MarketMaker is now not only faster but the stage has been set for a suite of new features and improvements. One new addition to the website is the MarketMaker Blog. The team of MarketMaker bloggers will share their insights and expertise. The MarketPlace will now include a calendar of product availability. Businesses who are registered on the site will also be able to track how many users have viewed their information and for what reason.
MarketMaker also plans to increase the amount of educational material available on the site. "We have long known the value of MarketMaker's searchable directory of farmers and food related businesses. It is our strong suit" says Knipe. "But MarketMaker can also be a powerful tool for information and education." Our national network of partners includes 14 Land Grant Universities, including the Agricultural Marketing Resource Center (AgMRC) at Iowa State University. We have a lot of expertise in areas of food and agriculture on the National Food MarketMaker team. We plan to showcase that."
National Food Industry MarketMaker can be found at http://national.marketmaker.uiuc.edu/. If you'd like to know how your state can become part of MarketMaker, contact Darlene Knipe at dknipe@illinois.edu or call 309 792-2500
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