The SuperMarket Project Brochure

About the Project

Comments from Participants

Project Objectives

SuperMarket History

SuperMarket Participants at the Project Kick-off in Epes, Alabama, April, 1999.

About the SuperMarket Project

The Rural Coalition's SuperMarket Project is directed by its diverse participating organizations and cooperatives who share a vision of economic success for the family farm operation within a just food system. To make this vision reality, SuperMarket members are building an online network, erasing borders and distances, using computer technology and the Internet to cooperatively market their products.

The SuperMarket database, found on the Rural Coalition Web site, will enable producers to share information on products and their availability for purposes of promotion over the Internet. This information will be used in the niche and value-added marketing of specialty, organic and sustainably produced crops, crafts and other finished products. Special emphasis will be placed on the individual farmer or cooperative selling the product, their personal histories, stories and photos, eventually leading to an online catalog of available items. Further uses of the first phase of the SuperMarket database include identification of possible joint contracts of "bundled" products by examining aggregated product information.

The SuperMarket Participants practicing with their digital cameras at a training workshop in Wright City, Missouri.

SuperMarket Participant Comments

The level of committment and determination of participating cooperatives, project consultants and staff are vital ingredients in the success of the SuperMarket.

"The SuperMarket Project has changed our small town mentality into thinking more worldwide. Progressive groups such as ours with the power of the Internet to put our small farms on an equal playing field will definitely have an impact."
Luz Bazan Gutierrez - Rural Community Development Resources

"I would like to share how amazing it was to see people with little or no computer experience discovering that computers, as tools in their hands, can provide limitless benefits and help them improve the qualities of their lives."
Chilo Villarreal - COSYDDHAC - Chihuahua, Mexico

"There has always been a need to aggregate product offerings from small rural producers in order to tap larger wholesale or retail markets over the Internet. SuperMarket participants understand the need for this on-line database system. I have seen them express this need with passion, and have no doubt of their individual ability to contribute effectively to its design, use and operation."
Richard Civille, Consultant - Center for Civic Networking

"The SuperMarket Project is investing in expanded know-how of working farmers to let them reach a more favorable plateau of participation in the global economy. The Rural Coalition is operating in the mainstream of sound economic development practices, specifically, leveraging outside resources to strengthen indigenous people who care about and want to improve the communities where they live."
John Niles, Consultant - Global Telematics

SuperMarket Objectives

• To develop an interactive, icon-driven Web site to be used as a basic marketing, technical assistance and marketing tool.
  
  
• To locate new markets that result in increased earnings for cooperatives.
  
  
• To train a minimum of 100 small farmers in the use of the network, the Internet and the marketing of goods.
  
  
• To develop a secondary, self-supporting cooperative to continue and extend the work begun during the grant period.

SuperMarket Participants as they observe the organic production techniques at participating organization, the Rural Development Center, in Salinas, California.