Farmigo - "Let's Grow Together"
THE INNOVATION:
A new type of decentralized local food system, connecting communities of farmers to communities of food consumers. For consumers -- an online space for shopping for farm sources, based on practices that you’re aligned with and the food that you want.
"We envision a community-oriented food system in which people and farmers in the same geographic region are connected, and everyone has access to fresh-from-harvest food."
Benzi Ronen
CEO and Founder
Farmigo - "Let's Grow Together"
www.farmigo.com
Introduction...
Instead of using the industrialized food system, which is incredibly efficient, but is making us all sick and making the planet sicker, we created a decentralized food system, where we can all buy food directly from the farmers…. just like we can buy at the farmer’s market, but have it in community and brought to us.
If you can create networks of small farms that are plugged into the same software, and bring groups of consumers that are plugged into the software, you are now creating direct relationships, so you collapse the food system.
We also help create the demand side, using social networking, so people can self-organize groups [in their workplace, or in their building complex]… so you can think of it like a pop-up coop.
Everyone is still making their own purchase based on their own preferences, but because we have groups forming, we can bring down prices for the consumers…. And the farm can be much more profitable…..
Using the Farmigo System...
If you are a consumer, you go to Farmigo.com, and you could help create a community, or find an existing community you could join...
If you a small farmer, you would contact us and say “this is a great channel for me, and I’m still an entrepreneur”, and we would match you up with local communities….Everything is local based… we put complementary farms together: what are they great at, what is in season?
The [sustainable] qualifications are being driven by consumers… we help farmers be transparent and consumers are voting with their dollars. We help [you as farmer] tell your story, we help to brand you, help you give descriptions about your growing practices, show pictures.
We set it up so it’s a standing order, so [you as consumer] can get what you want every week, but you can pause it, you can change it weekly…. You get charged weekly on what you get.
Matching Supply to Demand...
The farms don’t know how to get their produce to consumers, so they are going through wholesalers… a completely different dynamic. You’re apples get mixed in with everyone else’s apples, and your [sustainable] apple is not getting valued in the marketplace….
We’re helping them create sustainable businesses, for sustainable growers…. and facilitating consumers to conveniently get their fresh local produce…..
Personal Journey...
I wanted to start a company that was about truly making the world a better place, and not just about making money. Both are important.
This was a place I could marry two loves …. Being an Internet entrepreneur, I wanted to collapse the relationship between consumers and producers…. And the food system, which I saw was broken and I wanted a better way to feed my family.
Now you’re seeing a lot of activity, which is great. We need all these startups to create a new ecosystem.
Words of Wisdom...
You just don’t see this kind of change overnight. …. Entrepreneurs tend to be inpatient, and you want to see change happen very quickly. But if you are trying to re-create a system like we are that is both offline and online, there are lots of little things to get right, and lots of small iterative steps….
Try to be patient, and try to identify small milestones that represent wins. Then you can step back and see the great jumps that you’ve made.
See Benzi's bio at GreenBiz.com
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