New website: What's the plan?

First off, I want to thank each and every farmer who appears on our map and every single person who has taken the time to look for farms on it and make a connection. I am really proud of the community we have created together that fuels our passion and inspires everything we do, and I’m truly grateful for your ongoing support.

I started Produce & Provide by creating the self-build website you see today, as an outlet for my passion for British food and farming back in 2019. The response over the past six years has been amazing. To the point that I really believe we can make buying direct from farms a real option for many more people who are looking for great tasting food and who want to support British farmers.

To this end, Lauren at Muddy Prints Marketing is now well on with putting together a brand new Produce & Provide website, to help us achieve our goals of reaching more people and making more connections between farmers and consumers. We plan to launch this by the end of October 2025.

Such is my passion for Produce & Provide that I want to devote all of my time to running it. But what is most important for me is that it delivers tangible benefits for both farmers and consumers. I want it to be more than just a 'good cause'. We want more people to vote for the kind of farms they want to support with more of their household budget. Because ultimately it is trade that will deliver a secure future for our small family farms.

So, we are going to act more like a commercial business than a charity or a social enterprise. That's why Produce & Provide was set up as a limited company. We want farmers doing more business and will continue to look at ways we can help to foster collaboration and growth. But in order to invest in better tools, more promotions and ongoing improvements to help farmers reach more customers, we need to start generating revenue.

This means that when the new website launches we will start charging farmers to be on the map, whether they are already on there or come to us after the launch. But in return you will get more from us. For instance your pin on our map will link to your own page on the Produce & Provide website, which you can manage and update yourself and there will also be a host of other features that you will have access to, which I will tell you about over the next few weeks.

What will happen in practice when the new website goes live, is that you will be invited to claim your listing on the map and set up your own business profile. From there you will have access to the other features I hinted at above.

I know it's a big change to suddenly be asked to start paying for something that you have had for free for some time. But much as I would like to be able to afford to continue doing things at no cost I can't and we need to make this step change to produce and provide more for you and attract more people looking to buy from you.

Making this change easy and comfortable for everyone is challenging. But we have to make the switch to the new site as quickly as possible, to make sure we take our current audience with us. For this reason farmers will need to claim their map listing within three months of the launch of the new website, after which time they will be removed from the map and need to re-register.

To incentivise a swift change over, all farmers already on the map will have two months from the launch to claim their map listing at a discounted rate (see more below). If you leave it longer than two months you will not be entitled to the discounted rate and will need to pay the full charge. As stated above, if after three months you have not claimed your map listing, it will be withdrawn and you will need to re-register at the full twelve months rate.

The cost of having a pin on the map and your own profile page, along with access to a new 'Farmers Area' with a forum and other features will be £3.99 per month. However we will be offering a 25% discount for the first 12 months, to everyone who claims their existing listing within two months of the launch of the new website and any new farmers who register within that same two month window. This means you will pay the equivalent of nine months membership, rather than twelve, which equates to a cost of less than 70 pence a week in the first year.

I hope you will come with us on the journey that we have started together and be a part of this exciting new phase. Together, we’re not just building a website - we’re building a movement that supports farmers, strengthens local food networks, and brings communities closer.