All posts in Technology

Cómo crear un Perfil de Negocios de Google para expandir la presencia en línea de su granja
En este video, explicamos qué es el Perfil de Negocios de Google y mostramos paso a paso cómo establecer un Perfil de Negocios de Google para expandir la presencia en línea de su granja. Para más información sobre el Tech

Apps útiles para manejar un negocio agrícola
Esta presentación brindará una descripción general sobre Apps (aplicación informática para dispositivos móviles y tabletas) que pueden ser útiles para el manejo de negocio de una granja. La presentación ayudará a los participantes a identificar algunas Apps que se pueden

Digital Marketing & CSA Customer Retention – Shared Legacy Farm shares their success!
Learn more about Shared Legacy Farm’s successful use of social media and email marketing to retain a large percentage of their CSA members, to the point of having a waitlist! Corinna provides her top six tips and tricks for successfully

Social Media Best Practices – 5 Marys Farm shares her success!
Learn more about Five Marys Farm successful use of social media and how she sells 100% of their products to 30K customers using direct-to-consumer marketing strategies. Mary provides information on her most used marketing tools which include Instagram and FloDesk

2023 Small Farm Innovation Challenge Winners
Proving that innovation thrives on a small-scale, the winners of the 3rd annual Small Farm Innovation Challenge bring appropriate tech solutions to local agriculture. This competition, hosted each year by the nonprofit Community Alliance with Family Farmers (CAFF), invites anyone,

Civil Eats Op-ed: Want an Agtech Revolution? Center Farmworkers’ Expertise
“Although agtech promises to make farming more efficient, it is often pitched as a replacement for farmworkers, who are usually left out of its development.” Read the full article here: https://civileats.com/2023/01/23/op-ed-want-an-agtech-revolution-center-farmworkers-expertise/ The Small Farm Tech Hub at CAFF looks to

Market Gardener Institute: Educating and Empowering Small Growers
The Market Garden Institute, co-founded by Jean-Martin Fortier and Suleyka Montpetit. It’s mission is to educate and empower growers who change the world through the simple act of growing healthy, nourishing food for their communities. At The Market Gardener you will find

Value-Added Product Success, Three Farms Share Their Stories
CAFF’s Tech Hub is hosting a three part webinar series on value-added products and success stories of small producers using Ecommerce. The series highlights farmers who have developed their business to include value-added products and offers practical information on how they navigated

Data Training for the Small Farm
CAFF’s Small Farm Tech Hub hosted a data training for the Small Farm which was a three-part webinar series held during November-December 2022. The webinar recordings are provided below along with a list of resources referenced during the series. This workshop

Online Directories for Farmers
Getting internet visibility is one of the most important things you can do for your small business. An easy way to do this is to take advantage of online farm directories, many of which will offer your farm business a

MailChimp Templates for your Farm Business
CAFF’s Small Farm Tech Hub created basic templates for you to use for your email marketing. Please note that you need a MailChimp account to access these templates and add them to your account. If you don’t have one, you

Updated Ecommerce Report for the Small Farm
CAFF participates in the CSA Innovation Network who recently updated a report that breaks down how popular eCommerce platforms perform in comparison to one another, based on findings from national farmer surveys in 2020 and 2021. This report was refreshed

Marketing for Farmers by Kendall Ballantine
Kendall Ballantine has created some awesome short, easy to understand blogs on marketing best practices for small farms. We highly recommend her blog https://www.onlinemarketingforfarmers.com/blog for topics such as search engine optimization (SEO), email marketing, and tips for selling online. She has

Details to Consider When Choosing Online Tools
Here is a list of considerations and questions to ask before investing in new tools for your business. Cost Will the costs outweigh the gains/returns? Most sales platforms charge start-up fees or keep a percentage of sales. What is the

CAFF VAPG Scholarship Opportunity
Interested in applying for the USDA’s Value Added Producer Grant? Do you sell your produce as organic, local, free range, grass fed, etc. OR make a finished product from your produce? Are you interested in exploring the feasibility of doing

Choosing an Accounting Software
The software review guide provides a list of accounting options **Our content is intended to be used and must be used for informational purposes only. Every business has different needs, and none of the information provided in this article is

7 Minute Mailchimp Tutorial for the Small Farmer
https://youtu.be/2vDMd0t7ny8Learn the basics of using Mailchimp for email marketing for your small farm business. Brought to you by the Small Farm Tech Hub at Community Alliance with Family Farmers (CAFF). Visit www.caff.org/TechHub to learn more.

Canva Video Tutorial for the Small Farmer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rlTSlZB4AeA&t=1sLearn more about how both the free and paid version of Canva can support your small farm marketing needs! This tutorial is brought to you by the Small Farm Tech Hub at Community Alliance with Family Farmers. Learn more by

Creating Farm Maps Using GIS Software
https://youtu.be/OLfUzNjILvw CAFF invites you to a free tutorial that will introduce the mapping capabilities of Geographic Information Systems, or GIS. Using georeferenced data and aerial images, we will cover how to use GIS software to map farms, organize data, and

Exploring Squarespace for Farm Websites & Online Sales
Spanish subtitles are available on Youtube and slides are available in Spanish (Exploración de Squarespace para sitios web de granjas y comercio electrónico) In this peer-to-peer learning webinar, we reviewed farmer experiences using Squarespace for their website hosting, building, and

Exploring CSA Platforms: CSAware and Farmigo
RECORDING. Pronto proporcionará subtítulos en español. Explorando Los Plataformas de Agricultura Apoyada por la Comunidad – CSAware & Farmigo. In this peer-to-peer learning webinar, we will compare two popular online CSA management platforms: CSAware and Farmigo. Participants will have the opportunity to see

How to Pick an Email Marketing Platform
Email marketing is perhaps the single most important tool that farmers and local food businesses have for connecting with customers and growing sales. This resource summarizes the pros and cons of 10 different email service providers (ESP) with the goal

7 Simple Steps for Creating a Website
There is a saying, “If you don’t have a website you don’t exist!” As of January 2021, it is reported that there are 4.66 billion active internet users worldwide. As a small farm, food hub or farmers market, this is

Driving Engagement with Instagram & Facebook Shopping
Are you looking to broaden your e-commerce audience beyond visitors to your website? Consider this: In 2021, 130 million Instagram accounts tap on a shopping post to learn more about products every month (source). Instagram is no doubt stepping into
Instragram Basics in 7 minutes!
A 7 minute video going over the basics of Instagram for your farm business. https://youtu.be/W0ZIHiMePJo

New Competition Seeks Innovations for Small Farms
While farm tech may conjure images of GPS-driven tractors, robot harvesters, and biotechnology, a new competition in California is calling on innovators to refocus their attention away from scaling up Industrial Ag and towards empowering small farms. Now in its

Software Review Guide – Payroll, POS, DigiPay, Accounting
The Small Farm Tech Hub’s Software Review Guide – a live document kept by the tech hub team that compares different software systems including payroll, point of sales, DigiPay, and accounting. Organized by tabs- scroll up/down and right/left to view

Use Email Marketing to Grow
Email is probably the single most important tool in your marketing toolbox. If you’re not using email marketing to promote your business already, here are three reasons why you should make it a top priority: Audience – Everyone who uses

Google Pay & Apple Pay For Your Farm Business
If you have done any in-person, or even online retail in the past year a customer has probably asked if your business accepts Google Pay or Apple Pay. Expect to hear a lot more of that question. According to one

10 Tips for Getting 10K Instagram Followers
There are a multitude of social media platforms to choose from these days! The good news is, you don’t have to use every platform to market your farm. As a powerful visual medium and storytelling tool (aren’t vegetables and baby

Instagram Basics for Your Farm Business
Looking to build your farm business brand online and engage a broader audience? With over 1 billion users, Instagram is one way to connect with current and prospective customers, and improve your online presence. Here are some basics to get
E-Commerce for the Small Farm, Shopify Examples
E-Commerce for the small farm features the experiences of two farmers with using Shopify. Learning Objectives: Learn how e-commerce supports with marketing and sales Gain basic understanding of e-commerce platforms E-commerce adventures from the field: Learn from two CA farms
Take Your Local Food Online (Webinar)
Take Your Local Food Online provided practical information and tips from farmers using online sales platforms. Platforms covered in this video include: Woo Commerce — Kat Becker, Cattail Farms Graze Cart — Remi Keaston, David’s Pasture Shopify — Cherie Shenker,

Farm to Freezer: The Logistics of Online Sales & Shipping Meat
Webinar: Apr 2, 2020 at 9AM. Topics will include: setting up an online store, different web platforms, accepting payments, updating inventory, meat selection, subscriptions versus ala-carte orders, boxes, insulation, dry ice, maintaining cold chain, shipping carriers, costs, regulations. This will

Online Sales Platforms for Farmers (video)
Watch this webinar to learn more about direct-to-consumer online sales platforms. Hear from representatives from four online food sales platforms: Barn2Door, Harvie, Local Food Marketplace, Food4All, Open Food Network…

CSA & Online Sales during Covid-19
SELLING DIRECT & ONLINE DURING THE COVID-19 CRISIS In the wake of the Coronavirus pandemic, many farmers are being forced to reconsider their sales outlets. While there may be no shortage of food and certainly no shortage of demand (in