Category: Environment

Farm to Plate – A do it yourself MUST

A Landing Page to drive your Business

Public Social Media – Who wins

The Internet is full of Public Social Media where their sole  purpose is to generate income for their owners and they are very good at it.

We can join, “become friends”, but if we are looking to promote our business we need to pay and the results are marginal.

The technology they use can do so much more!

With minor changes your presence on the internet can focus on driving your business – and by adding your business connections, your reach can expand to like-minded consumers in your immediate area and beyond if you market to a wider area.

Read on to learn how to achieve this goal without cost and very little extra time

Landing Page to Market your Business (Market Hub)

The Landing page will be the most important of your digital presence as it will provide your potential consumers with enough detail to make an informed decision on supporting you. Most of it will be a collection of your existing digital pages and most likely include:

 

  1. Your Web Site (if you have one) including access to shopping if included
  2. Mapping & Distance if you are happy to have drop ins
  3. Your existing Social Media pages
  4. List any Farmers Markets you may attend
  5. List any Business Partners (Suppliers, Processors, Retailers or Consumers) with their landing page , that you deal with and would support
  6. Provide a story on your business – the why and the who – usually an extract from your website or Social pages
  7. Product tags for searching
  8. Farmers have an option to include any associated business within the family group that helps support the business

Whilst it is possible to create your own Landing Page it is not a practical “stand alone” option as it would necessitate the duplication of data for each Landing Page (Market Hub) created. 

We have created a platform called Sourced Club which, apart from creating the internal workings, avoids the duplication and in so doing creates additional linkages to your Market Hub further increasing your reach with like-minded potential Business Partners.

The Sourced Club platform is provided totally free to all users (Listing and Searches) to ensure it is available to all. 

In addition, whilst time permits, we are committed to assisting business’ get listed. Simply join your business on the platform and we will start to get your Landing Page (Market Hub) active and contact you if any additional detail is not readily available on your existing pages.

Self Supporting Food Community

Marketing your Food Products

Release 1 - An Introduction

First let me give you a quick introduction to myself.
I have been involved in marketing since 1984 (way before the technology boom) initially within the Financial sector, then in Hospitality eventually leading to the ownership and management of a restaurant.
I am now retired but remain intent on using the skills I have learnt to assist the food community members that are committed to sustainable practices to care for our environment
The best way I can assist is in helping the farmers get their products in front of consumers to compete with the huge budgets of the Supermarket chains.
We can all play a part, it costs nothing but some time for you or someone within your family to keep your digital profiles up to date.
  Let me Introduce you to Sourced Club

Over the next week or so I will be posting additional releases that will provide more detail of how Source Club can improve the business for Farmers, Manufacturers, Distributors, Retail Outlets and Consumers.
This post is an overview to explain the concept and expel any fear that it is another scheme that will cost you money.

Being involved in Retail 10-15 years ago I went through the introduction of Social Media such as Facebook – which started off as a great tool to reach potential customers and became a costly business expense as they altered their pages to ensure that you paid to get the “reach” that was once provided free

What they don’t mention is that for an Industry that is focused on a local area, the technology we have will do the job quite nicely. You see we have the reach – Our Business Partners (Suppliers, Processing Facilities, Farmers Markets and Consumers) who, in most cases, have their own digital presence. We just have to link them – smartly

The Sourced Club Platform provides that smart, free Landing Page for all participants to standardize the display to meet the needs of the greater community.

The page provides:
1. Provision to tell your story
2. Provides one-click Links to your Web Site and/or Social Media platforms
3. Provides one-click Links to your Business Partners
4.Has a locations and directions access to Google Maps
5. Provides access to tags when the general Public use search options
6. No Duplication – The App is one URL for Local, Regional, State, Country or even International access to avoid duplication of information and ease of access

Well – that is my Introduction. Like my page to receive future releases or have an interest in setting up your Local Food Community – I am here to help.

If you would like to have a preview of the App follow this link . Feel free to reach out in the comments section or email me directly at ritzypete1oc@gmail.com

Plastic – Unfinished or misadventure

Plastics are the most common form of marine debris. They can come from a variety of land and ocean-based sources; enter the water in many ways; and impact the ocean and Great Lakes. Once in the water, plastic debris never fully biodegrades. Yellow text in the above graphic shows sources of plastic that eventually end up in the ocean. Orange text shows ways that these plastics move into the ocean. Red text provides examples of the harmful impacts of this debris. Reference US Department of Commerce – National Ocean Service

Yesterday – Today – the Future

It is difficult to understand how Plastic would have been approved and released had we known the impact on our environment and ourselves.

Whilst you can understand the development and rise in popularity of its use at the end of WWII in the circumstances that exited at the time the same cannot be said for our continued use without addressing the issues that are now known.

Plastic & Water – a lethal combination

Plastic never completely biodegrades making its accumulation in any environment an issue that must be addressed. In water its impact on the environment is that of a serial killer. As it claims victims, their bodies are returned to the environment however the plastic that caused its death remains to claim new victims. Consider:

  • Marine Life are ingesting or being entangled in our waste plastic causing many to suffocate or starve as their stomachs fill up with plastic they have mistaken for food *
  • Microplastics have been found in  tap water, beer, salt and are present in all samples collected in the world’s oceans. The chemicals used in the production of plastic and others that attach to microplastics accumulates into our food. The transfer of contaminants between marine species and humans through consumption of seafood has been identified as a health hazard, but has not yet been adequately researched. *
  • The healthy worlds oceans account for over 1/2 of our oxygen produced everyday **
Where to from here?

The most important decision to be made is to commit to taking an active interest.  

  • Research some of the many articles that are freely available to obtain opinions. A great number of articles need to be researched and considered on the merit of the author or their allegiance. Have they a vested interest in a particular view. 
  • Form your own opinion by balancing the research you considered.
  • Consider what you can do in your life to assist. The recent events of CoVid-19 and Carbon emission have demonstrated that the world’s issues are not ones we can rely on others to effectively deal with. We must all make an effort to assist no matter how small.
  • Do it and tell your family and friends to encourage them to do likewise
My action plan

Much of the research I have used in forming my opinion is referenced in this blog. With 300 million tons of plastic produced every year and 8% ending up in our oceans, I believe we have created too significant an issue to simply look for alternatives to plastic and walk away leaving the stockpile to endanger our way of life.

There needs to be a commitment to research and develop ways to biodegrade plastic both in the future and current stockpiles or alternatively utilise it in new developed products that do not now or in the future create an issue for the environment. I will make every lawfull effort to encourage the development of a strategy to assist.

In addition, I am committed to doing what I can for the health of myself, family, local residents and the environment my commitment includes:

  • Reducing my use of plastic (particularly single use) at home with rubbish, storage, cooking/reheating, purchasing – for overall usage I consider alternatives
  • On my daily walks (particularly along the foreshores) look for, pickup and put into rubbish discarded pieces of plastic & glass regardless of size
  • compost food scraps, lawn clippings etc to provide healthy soils to produce our own vegetables & herbs
  • purchase food locally from farmers committed to regenerative agriculture
  • when we go to enjoy the outdoors with local takeaway meals we support Surfrider Foundation Australia Ocean Friendly outlets and take our own reusable cutlery

Very happy to share this journey with other like minded individuals to get/provide ideas and encourage others to join

References

*   International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)

** National Geographic