Introducing Discover: A New Way To Grow The Local Food System, Together

As the saying goes, “it takes a village to raise a child,” and we find that metaphor equally befitting for farms. It takes all of us, the “village”, working together to help ensure that family farms can continue to thrive for generations to come. 

Of course, as farmers, the importance of working together is not something that needs to be explained. You’re the first ones to share knowledge, share equipment, and lend your neighbor a helping hand. 

At Local Line, we’ve witnessed many times how farmers help each other get new customers and grow their sales. Let’s say one farm makes cheese, and the vineyard down the road sells wine. It’s not uncommon for them to partner up and resell each other's products, which combines their marketing efforts and helps generate new sales for each of them. It works well, assuming you know who to partner with - that’s historically been the hard part, until today.

Starting today, finding the right partners to buy and sell local food has never been easier. We’re excited to introduce our newest feature, Discover, the simplest way to connect with local food suppliers, food hubs, and buyers. Designed to strengthen regional connections and create wholesale opportunities for farms, Discover is the latest and biggest step we’ve taken to create a connected local food economy. 

👉To celebrate Discover, we’re hosting a launch event: Local Line Discover: Connecting Local Food Networks, on April 23 at 3 PM ET. We hope to see you there! 

What is Discover?

Discover is a new feature that connects farmers, food hubs, and wholesale buyers, making it easier than ever to grow your network and find the right partners. Whether you’re a farm looking to find new customers, a food hub searching for new vendors, or a buyer sourcing local food, Discover is the go-to place to connect with your local food system. 

Local Line Discover will be launched in two phases: Supplier to Supplier and Supplier to Buyer. Today, we’re launching the first phase, which gives Local Line suppliers access to every other Local Line supplier and food hub. 

Phase 1: Supplier to Supplier

Supplier to Supplier Discover helps farms and hubs find each other. Use the map to search your area and discover businesses near you and collaborate with.

Who is this for?

• Suppliers that want to sell their products to other local suppliers and hubs. 
• Farms looking to expand their product list by sourcing from other local farms.
• Food hubs searching for new vendors.

Phase 2: Supplier to Buyer

We are already hard at work helping restaurants, grocers, and distributors all across North America grow their local food purchases. These local food buyers come in all shapes and sizes, from your local corner grocery store to nationwide chains. 

The second phase of Discover will empower you, the farm, to contact these buyers directly and apply to become their newest supplier. Farms will be able to see different buyers in their area, and will automatically be presented opportunities where you could be a good fit for a specific buyer. 

Who is this for?

• Farms and food hubs looking to acquire new wholesale buyers.
• Buyers looking for the best local food partners to buy from. 
• Local food businesses eager to expand their market reach.

Why did we build Discover?

At Local Line, our mission from day one has been to help the independent family farms succeed by building direct relationships with buyers. We believe that strengthening the relationships between farms, buyers, and distributors can unlock the full potential of our regional food systems. For us, Discover is a significant step in enabling direct conversations between all kinds of food system participants, and the key benefit is that it’s built directly into Local Line’s award winning commerce platform, so going from introduction to completed order is frictionless. 

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Discover helps the farm and food hub with three main things:

1. Find local food, faster: No more hours spent searching. Find what you need, when you need it. Search by product, location, certification, and more. 
2. Connect, collaborate, and grow: Build relationships that strengthen the local food system. Buy, Sell, Resell, and Aggregate. 
3. Expand into new markets: Open new sales channels and find the right buyers for your products.

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We are excited to continue building on this work and developing the features and functionality that today’s farms need to succeed.

How to start using Discover

Discover can be found under Connections in the back office. To get connected, start by creating your Profile. 

1. Head to Connections > Profile. 
2. Within Profile, you can manage your Discover and Wholesale Buyer profile. Your Discover profile allows you to define how you would like to appear on the map to other farms and food hubs. 
3. Toggle on ‘Appear on Discover’. This is turned on by default, but you can turn it off if you don’t want to be listed! Here, you can define whether you’d like to buy products, sell products, or do both!
4. You can add additional information to your profile, such as what you’re looking to sell and additional information about your business. 
5. You can specify any relevant certifications you have like organic, grass fed, etc. You can also upload the associated Certification Documents.
6. Lastly, you can select relevant Growing Practices and Ownership tags for your profile.
7. Click Apply, and you’re connected! Click on the ‘Discover’ button inside ‘Connections’ to start browsing the other Local Line suppliers near you!

Get Ready to Discover!

Local Line Discover is built to empower farmers and producers to collaborate and create stronger regional food systems. Whether you’re looking to source, supply, or sell, Discover connects you with the right people to help your business grow.

Ready to get started? Log into your account, register for a Local Line account, or connect with our team to learn more!

New Referral Program: Give $300, Get $300

To celebrate our Discover launch, we're launching our biggest referral incentive yet! Until June 30, 2025, receive $300 when you refer a farm or food hub to Local Line! We'll also give the person you refer a $300 discount on their subscription. Refer your friends and earn rewards. Learn more about our referral program here!