by Rob | Jul 24, 2014
This piece by Erika Block and Nina Ignaczak originally appeared on Food Tech at part of Hack Dining, an online conversation exploring how we might use technology and design to hack a better future for dining.
Human brains are wired for story; this is what makes us human and enables us to learn, communicate, remember and act. In “Wired for Story,” Lisa Cron writes “Story, as it turns out, was crucial to our evolution—more so than opposable thumbs. Opposable thumbs let us hang on; story told us what to hang on to.”
As hunter-gatherers, we learned the value of various food items by constructing and communicating the narrative of our diets: the setting of our landscape, the characteristics of the plants and animals that inhabited it, the timing of their ripening, the details of their harvest and preparation. As agriculturalists, we became authors, writing the stories of the land we cultivated.
Throughout history, each chapter in our food chain story has informed the hunter, the farmer, the processor, the wholesaler, the chef, the food maker, the retailer and, ultimately, the consumer, helping them know what happened before, what they need to do next and when they need to do it.
In our deeply centralized, industrialized food system, the food chain story has become long, complicated and opaque. This is both by design and by accident. It’s a result of both the sheer scale of the system and the kinds of efficiencies that allow it to exist—the details of which factory farmers, large processors and distributors would often rather keep under wraps.
Technology enables our industrial food system. It started with plows and tractors and processing technology, and expanded with the technology required to build highways and bridges and refrigeration. It continues today with GMO’s, RFID’s, precision agriculture and robotic planting. Walmart, which has the world’s largest food supply chain, also has the largest, and perhaps most sophisticated, information technology infrastructure of any company in the world.
We are familiar with the problems created by this system. We see the obesity epidemic around us, hear news reports almost weekly of contamination, foodborne illness and recalls and experience the impact of centralization on family farms and local economies.
We also see nascent efforts to relocalize the food system and fix these problems.
Over the past dozen years, local food sales have grown an average of 18% annually, while conventional food sales have essentially flatlined. New production and distribution businesses, new farms and local supply chains are emerging at a rapid pace. Almost daily, we learn about a new food hub focusing on local products, a new group of farmers joining forces to market their crops, a kitchen incubator that helps foodmakers launch new products or a hospital or university initiative to increase local sourcing to 20% in the next ten years.
Clearly there is a desire and a market for healthier food created by producers in our community whom we know and trust, but the reality is that local food sales currently represent about .0005% of total U.S. food sales. To get beyond this infinitesimal number and truly capture a share of the market that reflects the demand, the people who are rebuilding local food systems need tools that enable them to compete with the industrial food system.
Relocalizing the food supply chain will require more than the vision and passion of individual pioneers or the good intentions of large institutions. Like the industrial food system, robust local food systems will require sophisticated technology infrastructure—but infrastructure that values regional diversity and transparency over consolidation.
Aggregating the New Food Supply Chain Narratives
Local food entrepreneurs are creating an ever-increasing number of shorter, more transparent food chain stories. And because there are fewer players, there are fewer stories to track, which enables greater transparency. But these stories are also as fragmented as they are diverse. How does a large university or a school district deal with hundreds of local producers and suppliers?
The industrial food system solved the fragmentation issue by creating efficiencies through consolidation and standardization.
But it is also built on technological capacity to share information—stories—in real time. Re-localizing the food system requires the same kinds of tools, built not with the opacity of the industrial food system or the current silos that define the disconnected local and regional distribution system we have today, but instead with transparency and openness. We need a new technology infrastructure that connects local markets and builds a collaborative network of trading partners who share these values.
This is the challenge Local Orbit is addressing.
Instead of aggregating commodities, Local Orbit’s technology connects diverse local growers, foodmakers, aggregators, food service purchasers, transportation providers and consumers who comprise a local food system. We help people tell the right story, to the right person, at the right time, so they can make sure the right things happen, safely and openly, as food moves from field to plate. It’s a path for independence and diversity to thrive through connectivity and networks.
We enable the food service managers of large hospital systems to purchase the necessary volume without compromising on quality, while meeting their local procurement targets. We help restaurant chefs be competitive in their communities, making it as easy for them to purchase from local producers easily as it is to purchase from a large distributor—and easier to tell their customers the story of the food they serve. We help small farms collaborate with their neighbors to bring crops to market efficiently. In doing so we help them reduce costs, reduce waste and errors, save time and expand markets.
As this network grows, it will dull the competitive edge of the industrialized food system. Local will become the default, the easy and obvious choice—by tapping into that which makes us most human: our innate capacity for utilizing the power of story.
by Rob | Apr 2, 2014
We are looking forward to joining the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies (BALLE) in hosting a free Webinar about innovative models for 
relocalizing food systems later this month. On April 22, Erika Block and Noah Fulmer will lead a discussion about regional food distribution systems and a review of local models that are active throughout the country. The Webinar will focus on efficient ways to keep costs low and improve long-term viability when developing a localized distribution platform. Attendees will also be the first to gain access to Local Orbit’s new Local Food Distribution Toolkit, an online resource that is packed with information to support those who are building a healthy, localized food system. Entrepreneurs who are focused on local and regional food aggregation and distribution are encouraged to register for the wait list. BALLE received an overwhelming response to an early announcement, and this session sold out in three days! Find out more about this Webinar and sign up here to be added to the wait list.
Updated 5/1/14 – check out the recorded conversation!
by Rob | Nov 12, 2013
There are only a few days left to make your voice heard on proposed FDA regulations that will affect small farms all across the United States. These changes could ultimately, directly affect the emerging regional and local foods systems that we are working to build by placing undue regulatory burdens on small farms. The FDA is currently encouraging consumers, farmers and producers to submit feedback that they will use to help shape these policies. Now is your chance to weigh in and let the FDA know that we must protect our small, local producers to ensure the continued growth and viability of our local food systems. Here are some resources to help guide you through the proposed policies and information on how to submit feedback. The FDA is accepting comments until Nov 15, so don’t wait, make your voice heard!
According to Farmandranchfreedom.org:
“The FDA’s proposed food safety regulations pose significant problems for sustainable farmers, food producers, and food hubs across the country. Under the proposed regulations, many farmers will be forced to comply with high-cost, industrial-scale regulations, and they will be unable to use traditional, sustainable growing practices. Food hubs and local food businesses will be forced to deal with costly and burdensome paperwork. Ultimately, consumers will face increased food prices and reduced availability of locally and sustainably produced foods.”
http://sustainableagriculture.net also lists detailed information on the proposed changes and has links to take action guides for both consumers and farmers & processors.
Take action: There is still time to submit comments directly to the FDA, the deadline is Nov 15. To submit comments online, go to:
For more information on submitting comments, sample emails and information on contacting your local officials, click here.
by Rob | Aug 8, 2013
It doesn’t get much better: long summer days + talented food producers delivering fresh, quality goods to local restaurants, caterers and hospitals – within a day of harvest. The result: diners who know exactly where their food comes from, while local businesses and trading networks expand.
Local Orbit is excited that our ordering and business management tools are helping make this happen, with compelling results. We’ve seen sales through Local Orbit powered marketplaces across the country increase by 300% from the same time last year.
This growth means more buyers know where their food comes from and sellers know where their food is going. And they’re building relationships that encourage sustainability and accountability through a shorter, transparent supply chain. It also means that more money stays within communities, ultimately leading to an increase in local food economy jobs.
Tim Crosby, of Slow Money NW, has put together a compelling story on the economic impact of local food. It’s great summer reading.
by Rob | Jun 5, 2013
Introduction
By: Erika Block, Local Orbit Founder & CEO
A few years ago, Russ Parsons published an article in the LA Times, “The Facts About Food and Farming.” It addresses conflicting perspectives in the increasingly audible conversation about building a better food system. Parsons proposes a set of shared principles to anchor serious discussion about our shared problem. While I question the 20th century “agricultural miracle” to which he refers, and not everyone in either “camp” views the issues in such extremes, the article, bears re-posting here.
The Facts About Food and Farming
Let’s not join one of the armed camps deeply suspicious of one another shouting past each other.
By: Russ Parsons, Los Angeles Times
One of the more pleasing developments of the last decade has been the long-overdue beginning of a national conversation about food — not just the arcane techniques used to prepare it and the luxurious restaurants in which it is served, but, much more important, how it is grown and produced. The only problem is that so far it hasn’t been much of a conversation. Instead, what we have are two armed camps deeply suspicious of one another shouting past each other (sound familiar?).
On the one side, the hard-line aggies seem convinced that a bunch of know-nothing urbanites want to send them back to Stone Age farming techniques. On the other side, there’s a tendency by agricultural reformers to lump together all farms (or at least those that aren’t purely organic, hemp-clad mom-and-pop operations) as thoughtless ravagers of the environment.
Well, at least we’re thinking about it, so I suppose that’s a start. But the issues we’re facing are not going to go away, and they are too important to be left to the ideologues. What I’d like to see happen in the next decade is a more constructive give-and-take, the start of a true conversation.
With that goal in mind, I’d like to propose a few ground rules that might help move us into the next phase — fundamental principles that both sides should be able to agree on.
- Agriculture is a business. Farming without a financial motive is gardening. I use that line a lot when I’m giving talks, and it always gets a laugh. But it’s deadly serious. Not only do farmers have expenses to meet just like any other business, but they also need to be rewarded when they do good work. Any plan that places further demands on farmers without an offsetting profit incentive is doomed to fail.
- What’s past is past. Over the last 50 years, American farmers performed an agricultural miracle, all but eliminating hunger as a serious health issue in this country. But that battle has been won, and though those gains must be maintained, the demands of today — developing a system that delivers flavor as well as quantity and does it in an environmentally friendly way — are different.
- Food is not just a culinary abstraction. No matter how much you and I might appreciate the amazing bounty produced by talented, quality-driven farmers, we also have to acknowledge that sometimes food is . . . well, just food. So when we start dreaming about how to make our epicurean utopia, we also have to keep in mind that our first obligation is to make sure that healthful, fresh food remains plentiful and inexpensive enough that anyone can afford it.
- There’s no free pass on progress. Just because you’ve always farmed a certain way does not mean that you are owed the right to continue farming that way in the future. The days of a small or medium-sized farm making a decent profit growing one or two crops and marketing it through the traditional commodity route are long past. The world is changing, and those who can adapt are the ones who will be successful.
- The world is not black and white. The issues facing agriculture today are much more complicated than lining up behind labels such as “local” and “organic,” no matter how praiseworthy they might seem in the abstract.
- No farm is an island. That’s not literally true, of course; there are several island farms in the Sacramento Delta. But even there, farmers have to remember that they’re living in an ever-more crowded state where their actions affect others. Assuming that what happens on your land is nobody’s business but your own just doesn’t work anymore.
- Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good. Holding out for an unattainable dream may mean losing a chance at a more easily realized goal. At the same time, just because an idea may not be the perfect answer, it doesn’t mean that there aren’t benefits to it. A completely locavore diet is, well, loco, but buying as much locally grown fresh fruits and vegetables as you can is just common sense.
- Quality is more expensive than quantity. Farming fruits and vegetables that are not just healthful but also have great flavor takes a lot of time and work and usually means not growing as much as a neighbor who doesn’t focus on flavor. So when you’re shopping, don’t begrudge a good farmer a little higher price — that’s what it takes to keep him in business.
- You don’t climb a ladder starting at the top rung. In a system as complex as our food supply, change is evolutionary. Remember long-term goals, but focus on what’s immediately achievable. Any argument that begins, “All we have to do is rewrite the Farm Bill,” is probably decades, if not centuries, from reality. But there are plenty of small things we can do now to start us down that road.
- Don’t assume that those who disagree with you are evil, stupid or greedy. And even when they are, that doesn’t relieve you of the responsibility for making a constructive and convincing argument.
- What’s political is also personal. If you believe in something, you should be willing to make sacrifices to support it, even if it’s expensive or inconvenient. Wailing about farmers who use pesticides and then balking at paying extra for organic produce is hypocritical because the yields in organic farming are almost always lower. On the other hand, there’s nothing wrong with doing the best you can whenever you can — as long as you’re willing to accept compromises from the other guy too.
- Finally, and most important: Beware the law of unintended consequences. Developing tasteless fruits and vegetables was not the goal of the last Green Revolution; it was a side effect of a system designed to eliminate hunger by providing plentiful, inexpensive food, but that also ended up rewarding quantity over quality. We should always keep in mind that when we’re dreaming of a system that focuses on the reverse, we run the risk of creating something far worse than strawberries that bounce.
Image Credit: Anne Cusack / Los Angeles Times
Article Credit: Copyright © 2010,Los Angeles Times
