Project Overview

The New Mexico Grazing Exchange is administered by New Mexico Healthy Soil Working Group, a nonprofit organization that assists NM agriculture and farmers adopt sustainable practices and revitalize their soil. It's open to people with crops or livestock who wish to collaborate and share their resources. I was delighted to help the organizers to rebuild this site and expedite their assistance to agriculture in NM and added neighboring states to the interface.

Design Philosophy

The essential tool functionality was determined by an earlier iteration of the site that was built by another firm, and then further articulated by the director of the NMHS group. It needed to be available as a networking and inquiry tool for people with land or resources to connect with herd owners. The emphasis is on usability, and the ability to manage multiple land assets in the user interface.

The site opens with an interactive map with icons to easily find or filter for specific land and animal types. Communication betwwen users is made possible after creating free accounts.

Key Features

Interactive map and filter UI

• Map features icon-identifiable resource locator
• Text and icon-based filter toolbar
• Pop-up location info with all details of user resources
• One-click contact

Location Management

• Ability to drag map markers to update and pinpoint locations
• Fully-featured form input for location details
• Registration automation

Other Features

• FAQ and general grazing information for NM
• General resources pages
• Newsletter sign up

Technical Stack

• Astro 5
• Supabase
• Leaflet (interactive online map - made in Ukraine)
• Make.com automations
• AWS SES mail transport

Impact & Recognition

The Exchange is quite new, but successful exchanges exist in at least eight other states. The impact overall is to share agricultural resources and raise awareness of the benefits of grazing to remediate agricultural land.