It’s no secret that consumers are hungry for safe, healthy, sustainable, locally grown food. South Dakota’s small scale and urban producers are stepping up to the plate by learning how to improve their land, their environment and their communities while producing nutritious food. Now the South Dakota Soil Health Coalition and its partners have launched a new website to help local producers and consumers find each other.
The South Dakota Fresh Connect website (www.sdfreshconnect.com) allows producers and farmers markets to create free accounts and public profiles to list their available products on a map. Consumers, restaurants, markets and other organizations can also create free accounts to locate the nearest sources for the goods they need and directly contact the producers. Users can narrow their searches by location and specific products.
The website will also list resources and educational opportunities to help small scale and urban farmers improve their soil, drought resilience and operational sustainability.
