A farmer can be nearby and still be hard to find

A map can put a farm three miles from your house and still leave a fairly important question unanswered: can you actually buy anything there?

Perhaps there is a shop. Perhaps orders have to be placed in advance. Perhaps the produce is sold through a market on Saturday. A pin on a screen gets you somewhere, but it does not necessarily get you dinner.

That gap is the reason I am developing Buy From Farmers Direct, or BFFD. We want to help people discover British farmers and independent food producers, then understand how to buy from them. The ambition is straightforward. Making it useful requires attention to things that rarely make an exciting business presentation.

A useful introduction has to go somewhere

It is easy to ask people to support farmers. Someone still has to answer the questions that follow.

What can I buy? Where do I collect it? Will the shop be open when I finish work? Can I buy a small amount, or am I committing to a large order? Those are reasonable questions from a prospective customer trying to fit food shopping into an ordinary week.

BFFD brings together a developing producer directory with practical guidance on buying, growing and cooking food. We want that information to help people make a connection they can act on.

There is room for different kinds of producer in that ambition. A vegetable grower selling at a market has different arrangements from a farm shop with regular opening hours. A cheesemaker or beekeeper may sell through several outlets. Treating them all as interchangeable names in a list would miss the point of introducing them.

Someone has to own the information

Publishing a listing creates an ongoing responsibility. Someone has to own the job of keeping it useful.

An address may remain unchanged for years. Opening hours, products and collection arrangements can change much faster. A customer needs to understand what is available now, and a producer needs a practical way to keep that account of their business accurate.

Take Home Farm on the Goodwood Estate in West Sussex, one of the businesses already listed on BFFD. Goodwood’s own website offers produce ordered online for collection. It also explains a different buying arrangement at its milk vending machine: bring a bottle or buy one there. The location is the same; the customer’s next step is different. A useful directory must help someone recognise that distinction, rather than leave them to work it out after arriving.

That is why the work behind a directory matters as much as the pages people see. Businesses need clear ownership of their details. Customers need an obvious route to ask questions. Corrections need to reach someone who can act on them.

For me, useful marketing includes this unglamorous work. An appealing photograph might encourage a click. Clear buying information gives that interest somewhere to go. Asking a customer to hunt down basic information turns a possible purchase into another job on their list.

Leave room for an ordinary shopping week

Our ethos starts with respect for both sides of that purchase.

Farmers and producers deserve to have their work seen and understood. Customers deserve information that helps them make a choice without being made to feel guilty about the choices they already make.

A household should be able to buy eggs from a local producer and do the rest of its shopping elsewhere. Someone might try a farm shop once a month, visit a market occasionally or choose a particular ingredient when it is in season. Each is a reasonable way to begin.

Price, transport, time and availability shape those decisions. We cannot write them out of the story. Nor should a directory promise that every direct purchase will be cheaper or that every nearby product carries the same environmental benefits. Those judgements need information about the actual product and circumstances.

The invitation should remain simple: here are producers you can explore, and here is how to find out whether their offer works for you.

Build a business that earns its usefulness

BFFD is a business with a purpose, and it needs to earn people's attention through the service it provides.

We are still developing the platform and building its coverage. That matters when describing what people can expect. We have a UK ambition, not complete UK coverage, and the distinction must be clear to everyone using it.

For us, counting pages alone would be the wrong test. The questions I want us to keep asking are more demanding. Can a customer identify a suitable producer? Can they understand the next step? Can the producer present their business clearly and keep its details current?

Those questions should also govern how a directory grows. Adding another category or location is worthwhile when it improves a real decision. The value has to reach beyond the appearance of a busy website.

Give good intentions a practical route

The wider purpose of BFFD is to bring people closer to the food around them and the people responsible for producing it.

Our buying guides sit alongside growing and cooking content because discovery is only one part of that relationship. Finding a seasonal ingredient becomes more useful when someone also feels confident choosing it and using it. Curiosity can begin with a recipe and lead to a producer, just as a purchase can prompt someone to learn how food is grown.

That is the reason for building BFFD: to give producers more opportunities to be found and give households the confidence to approach them. The measure of progress will be whether those introductions are useful to the people on either side.

The next customer does not need a speech about changing the food system. They need enough clear information to decide what to put on the shopping list, and where to get it.

Thomas Claypole is the founder of Buy From Farmers Direct, a developing UK directory and food information platform helping people discover farmers and independent producers. Find out more at buyfromfarmersdirect.co.uk.

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