Website of the Week

MOFGA is organization with plenty of activity happening, and their website has a great deal going on, as well. Their home page offers regularly updated sustainable agriculture news from national and regional sources, as well as a calendar of MOFGA events. The site offers access to several years of back issues of the Maine Organic Farmer & Gardener newsletter, online articles designed for reprinting, and the organization's series of fact sheets on crop and livestock topics. The site also provides local food resources, including links to other sources of information and a listing of Maine CSAs by county. A new service on the site is a list of Marketing Opportunities for Maine Farmers, intended to help make connections between growers and the markets available for their products. New listings of farmers' markets seeking vendors and restaurants seeking local food suppliers are posted as they are received. The site also furnishes information for consumers, producers and processors on organic certification.

Its creators describe the New Farm website as featuring "farmer-to-farmer resources, articles and personal stories that explain how to make regenerative farming profitable and build supportive communities." Some highlights of the site are reports on the original research on organic no-till farming conducted at the Rodale Institute, an Organic Price Report that helps growers track competitive prices for organic grains and produce, and several active online forums. The site also has searchable directories for organic certifiers, farms and farm products, and information resources. In addition to offering many tools, the site also has extensive information resources. In fact, if New Farm has a fault, it's that the site contains so much sustainable agriculture information that it's somewhat overwhelming.

On-site field days offer a great way to learn about new agricultural enterprises and management practices. The only problem is that sometimes it can be difficult to get to distant field days held during farming's busiest seasons. The University of Florida IFAS Extension has addressed that problem with its Virtual Field Day website. The site uses a combination of videos and 360° VR Tours to offer visitors the experience of field days held at the UF/IFAS Research and Education Centers and County Extension Offices, or on cooperating farms. The site offers virtual field days on a variety of topics in the areas of Alternative Enterprises, Greenhouse Pest Exclusion, Hydroponic Greenhouses, Organic Vegetable Production, and Water & Nutrient Management. Links to additional online resources on these topics are also provided. A calendar of coming field days scheduled across Florida also appears at the site.

Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project is a non-profit organization based in Asheville, North Carolina. Their extensive and dynamic website includes a searchable Local Food Guide for Western North Carolina and the southern Appalachian mountains that is updated yearly. In addition, the site provides information about the group's Appalachian Grown™ labeling program, and access to the results of original multi-year research on how food and other farm products move through the production and distribution system in Western North Carolina. The site also offers a regularly updated calendar of regional sustainable agriculture events and a selection of documents that can be downloaded, including food safety information, business planning information, guides on how to organize farmers' markets, and information on farm-to-school programs.