Farmer Connections Feature Expands Farmers.coop Website
Starting this summer, members of CROPP cooperative (the dairy farmers coop that owns the Organic Valley brand) will be able to share important notices and content on their Farmers.coop website. Farmer Connections is a new feature on the site that was over a year in the making. Members can post a wide variety of opportunities including:
- Interest in acquiring a farm
- Selling their farm
- Listing jobs available on their farm (including internships)
- Posting their resume to find job opportunities on a farm
Most of the listings are accessible to coop members only but some are open to the public as well. Anyone looking for work on a farm can search the job postings and share their resume with farmers who have positions available.
We worked closely with the Farmer Relations department at CROPP and a team of member farmers who helped identify the critical categories that were most important to be able to post. The Farmer Connections feature is integrated into the Famers.coop website and listed in the main navigation. Within a month of launching, several postings have been added for farm sales, leases and jobs. One of the key reasons for adding this feature is to support organic farm succession. CROPP believes that the majority of farmland will change hands in the next decade and that a significant number of organic farms do not have clear heir. Farmer Connections offers members an important tool for keeping organic farmland productive into the future.