Technology can only help our ideas bloom. Bits and bytes…connecting growers to eaters.
I just ran across this lovely animation promoting the Eat Well Guide’s, Cultivating the Web. Since its 2008 publication, digital tools have been central to the growth of the good food movement, conveying the stories and building online networks that support offline relationships and transactions.
And generating an increasingly broad-based awareness of the value and impact of local, sustainable food on nutrition, on the quality of our eating experiences and on the economic development of communities.
The conversation about fixing our food system continues to move further into the mainstream. Last week, Oprah did a great show on Food 101 with Michael Pollan on Food Rules, Alicia Silverstone on changing her diet (including a funny exchange on poop), and excerpts from Food, Inc.
[UPDATE 2/4/10 - looks like Harpo Productions took the videos off YouTube and are making the Food 101 show available on DVD. A shame they won't allow this information to be distributed more freely, but at least they did produce great content. You can get more info on the Oprah site.
Just wondering - do you think Food, Inc. will get a share of the revenue from DVD sales of this episode that include excerpts from the film? Sure - they get great PR, but still..... ]
Here’s video from YouTube, in 5 parts. No additional commentary needed!
I’m a big fan of Springwise, a site that spots intriguing business ideas (where else would I have learned about Van Gogh is Bipolar a restaurant in Quezon City, Philippines?).
A recent post highlights an unexpected – and very cool – local food distribution model that offers convenience and direct farm-to-consumer sales.
In a world wrapped up in complex supply chains, small farmers are in a catch-22: sell to the supermarkets and get less cash for your carrots, or spend a lot more time and effort trying to sell directly to customers. Consumers, meanwhile, are torn between loyalty to local businesses and the convenience of those established supply chains. Now a German farm, Peter-und-Paul-Hof, has found a solution in the form of… vending machines. The result of a collaboration between the farm and vending manufacturer Stuewer, the specially designed Regiomat machines currently sell fresh milk, eggs, butter, cheese, potatoes and sausage in thirteen German towns and communities.
It’s not a solution that sprung up overnight. Initially, Peter-und-Paul-Hof were operating a service delivering milk to their customers. Finding this too time-consuming, they began encouraging customers to collect the milk from fridges on their farm, which proved successful and inspired them to use vending machines as a more versatile solution. The Regiomat machines can be placed outdoors 365 days a year as long as they’re under a roof (some have even been placed alongside hiking trails in Switzerland), effectively giving locals a 24-hour farmers’ market and farmers a lot more free time. By cutting out the middleman, this system also offers potential savings over retail stores. An update to the traditional farm stand that is beneficial to both farmers and local-loving consumers, this is definitely a concept we can see spreading to other parts of the world.
What if a version of the Regiomat was installed in schools throughout the US – both for student snacks during the day and quick grocery shopping for parents and staff on their way home?
The White House has posted a video about the progress and impact of the garden.
Michelle: “The garden is really an important introduction to what I hope will be a new way that our country thinks about food.”
White House Chef Sam Kass: “Thomas Jefferson, more than any one man, changed the way we eat in this country and the way we grow food. When his ambassadors would go out in the world, he would ask them to bring back seeds. And he’s the first person to start seasonal growing, that is something people are coming back to now and thinking about ways to use a diversity of crops and keep growing throughout the year.”
Obama Foodorama writes of the “under the radar” coordination of the White House efforts with Deputy Secretary of Agriculture Kathleen Merrigan and Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack. Merrigan’s recent memo, Harnessing USDA Rural Development Programs to Support Local and Regional Food Systems, takes an “imagine the possibilities” approach to three USDA funding programs that, as Eddie Gehman Kohan points out, has an echo of Michelle Obama:
Imagine an NGO receiving USDA grant money to construct a community kitchen where farmers drop off produce and families join cooking classes that teach about healthy eating while everyone prepares fresh nutritious meals to bring home…Imagine a community using USDA money to construct an open-sided structure to house a farmers market…Imagine a school using USDA loan money to set up cold storage as part of a larger effort to retrofit the school cafeteria to buy produce directly from farmers and return cooking capacity for school lunch…Imagine…
CNNmoney.com recently showcased community campaigns aimed at supporting local, independent businesses through the recession.
With $2 bills and “buy local” promotions, towns are launching their own stimulus efforts to keep local merchants in business….The names and details vary, but the campaigns all share one goal: Educating shoppers about the power their spending has to shape their local business landscape.
Who knew? According to Inside Social Games, farming games are the most popular games on Chinese social networks, and they’re starting to gain more steam on Facebook now too.
You can build, plow, plant, grow and sell crops in these games, creating virtual farms in the tradition of The Sims.
In the last month, Farmville has grown from 9 million to over 20 million users, ranking among the top 5 applications in terms of user growth. At the same time, Farm Town isn’t far behind, growing from 6 to over 16 million users in the past 90 days. (Inside Facebook) read on…
