<b>By LINDA McGURK<br>
Indiana Correspondent</b> </p><p>

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — A cattle producer who wants to sell branded beef products to high-end consumers. A home-based jelly maker who wants to find a manufacturer that can help her with canning. A chef at a French restaurant who needs fresh organic eggs and vegetables for his entrées.</p><p>
An online tool, developed by the University of Illinois, vows to help them all. In February, it will go live in Indiana.</p><p>
MarketMaker is basically a large database that contains extensive business and demographic data that the user can query.</p><p>
“It’s a place for buyers and sellers to come together,” explained Jerry Nelson, Purdue University New Ventures educator.</p><p>
For example, consumers can use a wide range of search criteria on the site to find out which grocery stores in their city sell certified organic asparagus, or which farmers in their county market grass-fed meat goats.</p><p>
Likewise, producers can use the site to find processors or outlets for their products, such as restaurants, farmers’ markets and food retailers. The database is embedded with a wide range of census data that can help producers find their target markets based on criteria like education, race, household type and income level.</p><p>
Right now, the Indiana MarketMaker site is collecting data from producers who are interested in participating. Registration is free and can be done either online or by hard copy.</p><p>
“It’s for producers of any type, whether they sell beef, wine, free-range poultry or pastured pork. It could be grain, as well; barley, buckwheat, popcorn, you name it,” Nelson said.</p><p>
Purdue’s New Ventures Team is trying to get the word out about the benefits of MarketMaker by visiting trade shows and conventions, and working through the extension service and producers’ associations.</p><p>
“The key is to get the producers to sign up,” Nelson said.</p><p>
So far, about 40 Indiana producers have registered. The goal is to get a minimum of 150 before the site goes live, according to Maria Marshall, a Purdue agricultural economist and chair of the New Ventures Team.</p><p>
MarketMaker is already online in Georgia, Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, Kentucky, Mississippi and New York, and Michigan and Ohio are in the process of launching it. Eventually, the database may become available nationwide.</p><p>
“It seems to have been very successful (in the other states),” Marshall said. “Producers are able to look for target markets not only on a state level, but on a regional level as well.”</p><p>
Nelson has promoted the program ever since he first heard about it four years ago, and thinks it ties in well with a current consumer trend favoring locally-produced food.</p><p>
“It’s all interrelated, and the local-food movement is becoming very active here in Indiana.</p><p>
“People want to know where their food comes from; they want to know it’s safe and build relationships with the producers,” he said.
Besides the Purdue New Ventures Team, Indiana MarketMaker is sponsored by the Indiana State Department of Agriculture, the Indiana Cooperative Development Center and USDA-Rural Development. To register a business with Indiana MarketMaker, see www.inmarketmaker.com</p><p>
To try out a live MarketMaker site, visit www.marketmaker.uiuc.edu