County develops online farm market concept

BY KIRK STARRATT

The Advertiser

NovaNewsNow.com

County of Kings information technology staff and the Kings Community Economic Development Agency (Kings CED) have developed a concept for an online farmers’ market for buyers and sellers to become engaged in the “buy local” initiative.

Kings County Chief Administrative Officer Brian Smith, who presented a staff report on the matter at last month’s committee of the whole (COTW) session, said councillor Chris Parker made a presentation about establishing a buy-local portal connected to the county’s website at the March COTW meeting. Staff was asked to look into the concept and report back.

Farmers and consumers would sign on to the site and exchange information about purchasing products. Smith said the site could be launched relatively easily if council supports the initiative. He said there would be a nominal ongoing cost involved with maintaining the site.

Smith said it might cost a bit more to introduce the concept to the Kings County Federation of Agriculture, local women’s institutes and other stakeholders to get them to buy into the idea and promote the use of the site. The county has asked for support from the Kings CED to accomplish this.

Smith said it would be good to back up these contacts with a public advertising program, something that could be funded through the municipal economic development advisory committee (MEDAC) if council wished. Starting with Valley communities, he said the county should have between $5,000 and $10,000 to mount an effective advertising campaign.

Not new, but plenty of support

Smith said they presented the idea to the Union of Nova Scotia Municipalities Rural Caucus May 10 and there was a lot of support for what Kings County is doing to help support agriculture.

The mock-up for the online market has classified ad categories for beef, poultry, pork, fish, produce and miscellaneous. Smith said the concept isn’t new, but there seems to be a lot of interest in the idea both within Kings County and beyond. However, councillor Ted Palmer expressed concern with the “miscellaneous” category.

“I think miscellaneous will open the possibility of having anything on there,” he said. “That’s not the intent, in my opinion.” Smith said someone at the rural caucus meeting expressed a similar concern.

Parker said he thinks staff did a great job developing the mock-up and pointed out that other categories, such as crafts, could be added in the future. He said he’s excited about the initiative and thinks it could end up spreading across the entire province and country. Parker said he fielded several calls on the matter after being interviewed by CBC’s Information Morning.

He said there could be paid advertising on the site to generate revenue or the website could be sold to an entrepreneur if it becomes successful.

Step back?

Councillor John Fuller said he would like some references to local organic food on the site and hopefully local farmers markets would be advertised. Smith said perhaps some web links would be useful.

Councillor Madonna Spinazola said she would like to see items such as local lamb, plants and flowers advertised on the site. However, she expressed concern over the county operating and managing the on-line market because of the potential liability involved. She said a step back should be taken until the legalities involved are explored. In response, Parker said everyone knows it’s buyer beware on the Internet.

The COTW has voted in favour of recommending to council to have staff work with the Kings CED to launch the online farmers market for Valley farmers and consumers. They will recommend to council also to approve having MEDAC consider funding for advertising for the project and report back to council as soon as possible.