In case you ever have to do one, an elevator pitch is an “entrepreneur’s explanation of her business model, often heard in an elevator and directed at anyone who might want to provide funding for the entrepreneur’s start-up.”

Clear and Credible Presentation

More than 700 people in the auditorium heard Erika’s elevator pitch along with a panel of seasoned Venture Capital executives.  Investor feedback and enthusiastic reception from the audience was encouraging. The judges used phrases to describe Local Orbit and the business model as  “very clear, credible and understandable.” Erika was “passionate.”

But the line of the evening came from Meena Sooch of Apjohn Ventures, who stated that Local Orbit “is an investable proposition.”  It was hard not to stand up and cheer.

Local Food Works for Everyone

Oprah is talking about local food. The White House is talking about local food.  Chefs need easier ways to purchase it. State and local governments are promoting the economic benefits of local food.  Michigan Governor Rick Snyder talked about supporting local agriculture in his recent State of the State address. Now with the support of communities and investors, Local Orbit can create the bridge between growers and buyers.

Local Orbit Takes Home Another Prize

In addition to winning the Elevator Pitch competition, Local Orbit took home the Great Lakes Entrepreneurs Quest’s second prize for best new business plan. Both awards come with a cash prize that will be used to expand the business, as well as office space and other support services.

To get to this point, Local Orbit has leveraged the support many of Southeast Michigan’s accelerator services and volunteers through New Enterprise Forum, SPARK and GLEQ to provide investment, coaching and mentoring. And for that support we are grateful.

• Humanely-raised, New York state turkeys. Hormone and antibiotic free. Vegetarian fed.
• Butternut squash, potatoes, onions and carrots from John Glebocki, a fifth-generation farmer from Goshen who serves white tablecloth restaurants and food pantries alike
• Organic cranberries from Plymouth, MA
• Christmas cookies from Long Island

It’s all part of a partnership between Local Orbit and St John’s Bread and Life, an innovative food pantry in Bed Stuy.  Local Orbit made it possible for Bread and Life to use its annual holiday meal budget to purchase high quality, local ingredients that were lovingly packed for each family by a crew of 400 volunteers!

Read more about this partnership on our blog and the profile in The New York Times.

1. I cook. Locally grown food simply tastes better.
2. I support my community, including farmers.
3. I want to eat healthier and locally grown food has more nutrients.
4. I’m scared about the overuse of pesticides on conventionally grown produce. I feel more comfortable buying from a farmer I know.

The interesting thing is that I used to think of the buyers profiled above as distinct groups: health conscious buyers distinct from foodies distinct from people advocating food justice.

Give Me a Reason to Buy Locally

But the reality is that you can start at any one point above, and within a short period of time—sometimes days, sometimes months—slide right into another. Care about taste most? Great! But then it’s harder to spray pesticides on the berries you grow in your garden or spray that toxic cleanser you use on your kitchen counter.

Like to support local farmers? Hurray! And you know what? It turns out their food tastes amazing. Funny how food tastes so much better when it was dug out of the ground that morning. With something like a tomato it’s not even a fair fight when you try local vs. a tomato that is picked “dead green” and shipped 1,500 miles.

Big CPG (that’s consumer packaged goods to you and me) companies didn’t focus on green for the longest time. Not big enough they said. Not enough scale. A niche market.  Now everyone is jumping on the green bandwagon.

But before that word “ green” gets completely mangled beyond recognition, there is real cause for hope. Imagine that Hellman’s is coming out with a mayonnaise using cage-free eggs. Okay, that’s not local, but it will have an impact on growing practices. Next McDonalds will be featuring organic beef. Actually there was a rumor that was going to happen last year.

Survey Says There’s Green in Green

Research featured in a recent marketing post by David Almy talked up the Shelton Group’s Eco Pulse 2009 Report, in which researchers asked: “In which product categories are you searching for greener products?”

• Home cleaning products: 75%
• Food and beverages: 65%
• Personal care products (shampoo, lotion, etc.) 55%
• Appliances: 47%
• Home improvement products (windows, insulation, etc.): 46%
• Automobiles: 32%

Now you don’t buy a car or an appliance every day but you do buy food every day if you want to survive and cleaning products on a regular basis, too, if you prefer a tidy home.

I felt pretty smart noting in a recent Friend of the Farmer post on organics:

“If every US citizen ate just one meal a week that was composed of locally and organically raised meats and produce, we would reduce our country’s oil consumption by 1.1 million barrels every week. Small changes in buying habits make big differences.”

But that statement assumes that people actually care about the big picture.  What they really care about is “me”—well, ourselves. Here are the products that will benefit from true green:

“Products That Are Good For Me: Home cleaning, food and beverages, and personal care. People are increasingly concerned with the safety of the products they use in their homes and put in and on their bodies.”

In my recent interview with sustainable Chef Peter Hoffman, he was incredulous that people could brag about a fancy watch or car and then a minute later crow about how little they spent on a slice of ham—something they put in their bodies. (click here for more on this interview.)

“Products That Are Good For My Budget: Appliances, home improvement, automobiles. Selling a big-ticket item like a dishwasher or car in a tough economy is hard enough; focusing exclusively on environmental benefits makes it even harder. Saving the planet takes a back seat to personal finances, unless a connection is clearly made between the product and potential future savings. When asked why it’s important to reduce energy consumption, 73 % of respondents chose ‘to reduce my bills’; 26 % chose ‘to lessen my impact on the environment’.”

David Almy describes this as his Homer (Simpson) moment.

“While environmentally friendly attributes in a product are important, the real interest lies in what personal benefits the products deliver. In other words: what’s in it for them?

By actively promoting a product’s greener attributes (e.g. fewer, more recognizable and natural ingredients) marketers have been able to successfully position their wares as improving a personal environment while also benefiting the global environment. Success comes from emphasizing the former rather than the latter.

What’s a farmer to do? If you sell steak and it costs a bit more than conventional, suggest to a prospective buyer that “it’s so darn satisfying and good for you that you and your family don’t need to eat a pound per person. And you might skip that multivitamin when you have grass-fed beef.”

If you’re a consumer, know that once you start down this slippery slope there’s no going back, unless your budget really can’t take it.

How can you buy Mrs. Meyer Lemon Verbena countertop spray and then get a steak that was grown in half the time of its grass-fed cousins through the use of antibiotics and feedlots. You can’t—or at least it’s a lot harder. And that’s good news whether you’re working as a marketer for a big CPG company or a producer in small sustainable farming communities like those in Litchfield County or The Berkshires.

Further Reading

Organic Food is Not Just for Rich People

Great Questions to Ask Your Farmer

“It’s the Sustainability, Stupid.”

Almost a year ago, I heard Alice Waters speak to—and apparently hold in thrall—a packed hall at the tony Hotchkiss School in Lakeville, CT. I was certain that everyone, from students and faculty to farmers from Sheffield, MA to Millertonm, NY residents, heard her call to action. Charge the barricades! Go local! Boy, was I wrong.

Leaders of the food revolution: 17-year old Sam Levin of Project Sprout, Alice Waters and farmer Dominic Palumbo

The Alice Waters Story

Waters first learned about the importance of food in people’s lives while studying in Paris. Eating food together, she saw, “encouraged conversation and closeness.”

For Waters, food should be a “form of sustenance, not just fuel.” She brought that winning recipe to the opening of Chez Panisse in 1971. Her unstoppable search for great tasting, quality ingredients led her to forage for the best sources of cheese, fruits and vegetables, meat and fish in the Bay area. In the process she created a community of 85 sustainable producers that support and nourish her restaurant to this day.

The Siren Call of Cheap and Easy Food

Fast, cheap and easy may be how America eats but it’s an “illusion that degrades our health and our environment.”  While changing the food system may seem “like rerouting the Titanic,” Waters has her eye on a stimulus plan and a workforce that could transform agriculture and our health in a relative jiffy.

She’s focusing on the one in five Americans who are in school. Working through her foundation and a receptive Administration, Waters wants to create a curriculum and lunch program to show kids how to raise, prepare, cook, and share the food they eat during the day.

For students at Martin Luther King Middle school in Berkeley, their Edible Schoolyard is just part of their daily lives. Now thanks to students Sam Levin, Sarah Steadman and Natalie Akers, Monument High School in Great Barrington, MA also has its own organic, student-run garden, Project Sprout, which is inspiring others across the country.

Wondering whether or not to start your own food-garden? Then consider these two simple facts:  1) the White House garden cost all of $200 to start, and 2) during WWII more than 40% of the fruits and vegetables Americans consumed came from “victory gardens” planted in urban, suburban and rural communities.

Words Have Power

Waters kicked things off early on with a story about arugula. During the presidential campaign, Obama may or may not have said: ” ‘Anybody gone into Whole Foods lately and see what they charge for arugula?’ he asked. ‘I mean, they’re charging a lot of money for this stuff.’ ” Some political pundits even asked what’s wrong with iceberg lettuce. Waters’s take on this cable news tempest? “It’s amazing that it could be un-American to be able to distinguish between salad greens.”

To my amazement, while I was reveling in Waters’s stories and love of food, some students in the Hotchkiss audience were seething. It turns out that a lot of the junk food they loved had been ripped out over the last two years and replaced with food that was “good” for you. Alice Waters was not among friends that day. Instead, she could have had a bulls-eye painted on her chest. Finally, here was the person responsible for the degradation of “our junk-food supply.”

The Q&A period was tense. The first question from a student was typical: “Hey, I’m from New York and you want us to take up urban farming? Where are we going to do that? In Central Park.” It went on from there.

But the interesting thing is that, as distinct from the typical speaker who charms and then leaves, the Waters speech kept students talking for weeks. And it made me think that words have extraordinary power. Why should “foodie” be a pejorative term? What’s wrong with being enthusiastic about your food and the people who produce it?  Or eating arugula, for that matter? But in America “foodie” carries connotations of elitism, even to an audience of students whose annual tuition cost approaches the average American household income.

So how do we create a positive and productive conversation about food in America? Start by listening. Then talk, a little, as reasonably as you know how. And then hand a fresh, locally grown peach to your skeptical friend: It’s worth a thousand words.

Further Reading

Is Organic Food Just for Rich People?

]]> http://localorb.it/field-notes/2010/04/alice-waters-slow-food-and-school-nutrition/feed/ 1 http://localorb.it/field-notes/2010/04/questions-to-ask-your-farmer/ http://localorb.it/field-notes/2010/04/questions-to-ask-your-farmer/#comments Sun, 11 Apr 2010 18:06:06 +0000 David http://localorb.it/field-notes/?p=1330

Most farmers who work farmer’s markets and farms stands are proud of what they produce. And many want to tell just how they do it.

There’s the grass-fed beef farmer who firmly believes you don’t need to use grain to finish beef cattle. Or another farmer who collects stinging nettles with gloves to provide greens early in the season.

Then again I never returned to the farm stand where the farmer talked glowingly about the power of Roundup, a herbicide that’s toxic to wildlife. I understand that it makes his job easier, but today there are a multitude of great alternatives.

Be Curious and Polite

Best not to turn the questions for farmers into an interrogation. Show your curiosity. Slow down. Listen and learn. Chat as you shop. Other shoppers nearby might pick up a thing or two. If the market isn’t too crowded, start slowly.

1. “Beautiful day. So how’s the season been going for you this year?” Sometimes better to start with “is there anything here you’re particularly proud of? Anything unusual?”
2. “When did you pick this fruit or vegetable? Is it ready to eat today? How do I store it?” Chefs will tell you that berries picked after a heavy rain are worthless. This year’s peaches were particularly insipid for the same reason. Some items like winter squash can last for months if stored correctly.
3. “Are you able to use organic or sustainable principles on the farm?” It’s so easy to ask “is this organic” but the fact is many farmers do not have the time and in some cases the money for organic certification. That doesn’t mean they don’t follow those very same principles on the farm.
4. “Does this produce come from your farm?” Small farms can grow an amazing amount of food but it is unlikely that they will have fruit trees and kale growing on the same patch. But that’s okay if your farmer gets produce from growers they know. It’s very likely they can talk about their neighbors’ practices.
   
5. “Do you use any synthetic products like pesticides or fungicides?” The correct answer for organic is no not ever. Dan Tawczynski of Taft Farms north of Great Barrington, Massachussets never sprays, but he still reserves the right to if his crop is in danger. Dan is as leery of chemicals as you would be. Well, actually, more so: He lives on his farm. Instead Dan employs “Integrated Pest Management (I.P.M.) where a farmer uses all of the means at his disposal in order to control a particular pest. IPM includes the extensive use of natural predators coupled with constant field scouting along with crop rotation and biological pest controls. Sprays can remain a part of an IPM program, but they are a last resort rather than the first line of defense”
6. What was the animal fed? Was the animal raised outside or indoors? Was there supplemental food? If so, when was it provided? Was the grain GMO (genetically modified)? You may have a great chicken, heritage breed, raised outdoors—but then the farmer uses GMO feed.
7. At what point do you give your animals antibiotics? Organic means never. In fact once an organically raised animal is given an antibiotic it is often sold to a non-organic farmer. But for many farmers the answer will be only when absolutely necessary to protect the animal. Lynn Mordas at Dashing Star Farm has greatly reduced deworming of her sheep through genetic selection, pasture rotation and by looking into her sheeps’ eyes. Basically, Lynn will not let her sheep graze to where the grass is less than 2” high to minimize their contact with parasites. And the eyes? Well parasites create anemia, which leads to mucous around the eyes.

Knowing how your food is produced tends to become a topic of conversation with friends and family. Learn to appreciate the richer taste of farm-fresh eggs. You’ll try new vegetables, like that delicata squash that you thought was for the mantle but really works better on the plate. By asking questions you learn something new, show respect for the farmer and make an invaluable connection to your food and local community.

Resources:

Fruits and vegetables with high levels of pesticides where organic or sustainable is a must-buy.

Friend of the Farmer