Maine Food Trader

FYI: From the Muskie School of Public Service and the New England Environmental Finance Center:

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The New England Environmental Finance Center, located at the University of Southern Maine's Muskie School of Public Service, has launched a new website that will contribute to the enhancement of the local food economy.

Mefoodtrader.org ( http://www.mefoodtrader.org ) is free for all users and provides an online farmers market experience by allowing food producers to post what they have to offer - and how to contact them. In addition, a directory will be provided for food producers wishing to place a link to their own webpages , and/or give other general information about their businesses.

The site also allows local individuals, schools and businesses interested in finding Maine grown/raised food to post what they're looking for, as well as their location and contact information.

Further, mefoodtrader.org ( http://www.mefoodtrader.org ) is contributing to distribution of news & events occurring at the various types of farms and food-related organizations statewide. If you have an announcement you would like posted on our news & events page, once you have joined mefoodtrader.org ( http://www.mefoodtrader.org ), contact our administrator Barbi Ives at neefc@usm.maine.edu

And finally, be aware that this email is going to food producers so that their postings will appear on the site in the near future. Next week we will contact a large number of consumers including restaurants, B&B's, and others, so that the online marketplace will be up and running on its own. We would like to invite you to join mefoodtrader.org ( http://www.mefoodtrader.org ), the latest tool in Maine's local food distribution system.

Also note that later this fall we hope to add an "Agtrader" component to this website, where farmers can swap seeds, hay, tractors and other equipment (we're modeling this after a similar site in Maryland, at www.foodtrader.org).