By Emmy Powell
Communications Specialist
The American Farm Bureau Foundation for Agriculture is developing a mobile app called American Farm Trail to give Americans easy access to agriculture.
The app will help grow awareness and knowledge of agriculture among users by providing them first-hand opportunities to visit farms and agritourism venues that welcome visitors.
Venues include farms that rely on agritourism, such as you-pick operations, apple orchards, berry farms and farms that host field trips and tours from schools and families.
“These could be farms that rely on agritourism, like pick your own or you-pick operations, apple orchards, berry farms, or farms that host school field trips or interested families, people who just want to learn about and experience agriculture firsthand,” Daniel Meloy, executive director of the Foundation, said in an AFBF Newsline report. “We’ll be linking the Foundation’s educational resources in the app so that the user can go to an apple orchard and link to our resources that are all about apples so they can learn even more.”
The mobile app will utilize geo-location, which will allow users to find venues near them. Both farms and agritourism venues can submit their information to be included in the app free of charge.
“It’s free for the farms and agritourism venues, so we make that easy,” he said. “Plus, each farm on the app gets to control their own content, how they describe their sites and their hours of operation. We’re working on making it as easy as possible for that content to be entered.”
Registration for the app is simple. To register, visit farmtrailapp.com/registration.
To keep up to date on the app, register to download at farmtailapp.com.
The American Farm Bureau Foundation for Agriculture aims to build awareness, understanding, and a positive public perception of agriculture through education by offering learning opportunities, educational resources, and a selection of accurate books about agriculture. Learn more at agfoundation.org.