Discussion Forums and Listservs

Discussion forums and listservs both offer opportunities for farmers to take part in online conversations among other farmers and agriculture professionals.  Both are free, but may require registration to participate in the discussions or to post questions or information.  Discussion forums require logging on to a website to join a conversation, while listservs automatically send messages to your email address when someone posts a comment.

Below are links to some relevant discussion forums and listservs for sustainable producers. 

Discussion Forums

Rodale's New Farm website offers forums on over 30 sustainable agriculture topics, including Marketing, Value-Added Products, Cut Flowers, Vegetables, Poultry, Beef, Hogs, etc.

http://www.newfarm.org/talk/

Yahoo EGroups also offers a variety of discussion groups and listservs on farming and agriculture, including more specialized groups such as the grazing and pasture poultry (below), listed at http://dir.groups.yahoo.com/dir/Science/Agriculture_and_Farming

Pasture Poultry and Grazersedge discussion groups -- Share tips with fellow graziers and pasture poultry producers. Scan archives or receive individual or digest email

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/PasturePoultry/

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/grazersedge/

Farm and Garden includes 67 sustainable agriculture and rural living topics.

http://forums.farm-garden.com/

Garden Web has over 90 discussion forums on a variety of farming and gardening interests

http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/ 

...including a forum for professionals 

http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/profind/

Sustainable Farming Connection hosts several discussion forums for professionals:

http://www.ibiblio.org/farming-connection/forums.htm

SSB Tractors offers a discussion of tractors and farm machinery

http://www.ssbtractor.com/wwwboard/farm_tractors.html

Listservs

Sustainable Agriculture Network hosts SANET-MG, a sustainable agriculture listserv with over 600 subscribers from around the globe.

http://lists.sare.org/archives/sanet-mg.html

Ibiblio is an online public library and resource center. Provided on this site are links to a variety of farming and gardening sites that host discussion forums and listservs, which can be found online at

http://www.ibiblio.org/collection/collection.php?second=60

MarketFarming.Net hosts a list on direct marketing

http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/market-farming

Community Food Security Coalition hosts COMFOOD, an electronic mail list created to link individuals and organizations involved with or interested in all aspects of community food security
https://elist.tufts.edu/wws/info/comfood

Usenet provides links to several agricultural discussion forums and mailing lists, including sustainable agriculture newsgroups

http://www.oneglobe.com/agriculture/newslist.html

Community Supported Agriculture list, send the message:

"subscribe CSA-L Your Name" to listproc@prairienet.org

Grazing and pasture management list, send the message:

"subscribe GRAZE-L Your Name" to listserv@taranaki.ac.nz

Very active Sheep discussion group, send the message:

"subscribe SHEEP-L Your Name" to listserv@listserv.uu.se

Vegetable production and marketing, send the message:

"subscribe VEG-PROD-MG Your Name" to almanac@esusda.gov

If you have other discussion forums or listservs to suggest, please let us know: info@ssawg.org