We have just been voted as one of the Top 10 Concepts in the Small Business BC Awards! We are now in the Semi Finals with the prize being named ‘BC’s Best New Concept’.

We are a fully mobile optimized website that allows consumers to see all the great local products within a 100 mile radius of them, from great local produce, grains and meats to some of the worlds top wines and beers. They can see how its grown, raised and produced, when its available and where they can buy it. Our site even has a trip builder (named ‘my route’) where you can build driving, cycling or walking trips to any locations in the system that are open to the public. Earlier this year, we launched with just farms, farmers’ markets and wineries but in the past two weeks have expanded to include craft breweries, cideries, distilleries, associations and local sourcing restaurants and stores. Stores and Restaurants listed on our site have to be ‘Farmer Verified’ to appear, meaning that soilmate.com is a place where local is not just a slogan, local means something.

Founder, Matt Gomez “People that shop local know the benefits, not only to themselves but also their community, we aren’t revolutionizing that, we are simply making it easy for everyone to do so.”

Since our launch in May this year, we have grown rapidly and now operate in every state and province in North America. Farmers list for free, but all other categories pay a small subscription fee. Of that fee though, we give a full 50% to local food banks as we strongly believe in being an active member and leader of all food and drink aspects in the communities it serves.

We have redefined the way people are finding local food. It means that small scale producers don’t have to worry about competing on their own with box stores for search rankings and web traffic. Soil Mate boasts some of the highest web traffic engagement of all local food and drink sites, helping connect producers and consumers on a much deeper level, letting them exchange their stories, and values; Soil Mate users spend an average 15 minutes on the site each visit.

On being voted into the Top 10 Concepts in BC, Matt Gomez, Soil Mate Founder and CEO said “This is a nice acknowledgement of what we hear from everyone who learns about what we are doing. In this day and age I think there are few things more important than a) an understanding of where our food and drink is coming from and how its produced and b) applying that knowledge and where possible making purchases form local producers and those who support local producers. Soil Mate allows us access to the information to apply our values on food, community and health.”