The creators of the new eBay-style Web site locallygrownfood.com want you to think before biting into an apple.
The apple may have been picked in Holland three weeks prematurely and then packaged, transported and shipped. The aircraft carrying it would have consumed thousands of fossil-fuel miles on its way to the United States. Upon arrival, a multinational agricultural corporation may have sold the produce at wholesale prices to a national chain supermarket.
Or, the apple may have been picked yesterday in its ripened state, at a small farm struggling to stay alive in the modern agricultural market, before making the twenty-minute car trip to nearby Brown University.
The idea behind locallygrownfood.com, said creator Louella Hill '04, is that buying locally means food is not only tastier and healthier, but consumers are being more socially, economically and environmentally conscious as well.
The aim of the site is to allow for "direct connection between consumer and producer," Hill said. The Web site uses technology to overcome the problem of increasingly technology-dominated modern agriculture, she said.
Membership accounts allow farmers to sign in and then input their products. The consumer - a restaurant, for instance - signs in and browses for local food options.
The Web site, run by the nonprofit Sustainable Food Rhode Island, functions similarly to the auction site eBay, although creative technologies specialist Noah Fulmer '05 noted that it is "actually a reverse eBay" - instead of prices rising in accordance with bids, the consumer may negotiate the price down, he said.
Once the Paypal system is installed, money will be automatically transferred from the buyer's account to the seller's account, said site designer Ivaylo Piskov '04.5.
This Web site is "the next step" in finding market access for local farmers with fresh produce, Fulmer said.
Locallygrownfood.com was one of the recommendations put forth in Hill's senior thesis, "Localizing the Foodshed." Hill graduated last spring and now works as Food System Coordinator for Brown Dining. She works closely with the Center for Environmental Studies.
With the dominance of large chain supermarkets and multinational food distributors, "farmers have been crowded out of traditional markets," Hill said. While the use of farmer's markets to sell local produce locally is one approach, it leaves many problems unsolved, she said. For instance, without much advertising or market access, many local farmers' produce goes to waste and must be plowed back into the earth.
Less than 10 percent of food consumed in New England is food produced in New England, Hill said, putting many farmers on the brink of losing their farms. It is important that farms be "economically viable," because communities are more likely to preserve spaces that provide economic value, she said. Currently, we are "losing family farms with the blink of an eye," she said.
Use of the Web site is not limited to farmers and restaurants. Individuals signing onto the site can access material including recipes and news about local foods. Information and new sections are currently being added, Fulmer said.
Thanks to grants from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Rhode Island Foundation, Hill was able to hire Piskov, a computer science concentrator, to create the actual software and design the Web site during the fall semeseter. Hill praised his hard work, noting that he eagerly took the job even though it only paid a fraction of the price a Web designer earns per hour.
Piskov expressed satisfaction with the Web site, noting that the site's many components can function independently of each other. Because of this, he said, "Problems can be addressed easily and locally."
Fulmer has also been a vital part of the Web site team. In addition to spearheading the creative design of the site, Fulmer has worked on a weblog component at locallygrown.blogspot.com that is full of "musings, opinions and postings."
Another source of funding and support has been Brown Dining Services, Hill said. Peter Rossi, the purchasing assistant director, was an essential player not only for the Web site's success but also in terms of reaching out to the community through his support and purchasing of local foods.
Hill and Fulmer both said that Brown makes an important statement in buying local food. "Because Brown is a huge institutional buyer, it can be the anchor for this project," Fulmer said. Hill added that she hopes to see discussion of this issue occurring at all levels of the university, because the ramifications of these choices extend beyond food.
Hill was also able to meet with Rhode Island farmers to discuss the idea. Piskov said that the farmers provided excellent ideas and insights that have since gone into the design of the Web site.
All of the collaborators seemed optimistic about the site's future. "You'll see it in the dining hall," Fulmer said, in terms of "a lot of pride and better food." Hill said she thinks the site is a "really beautiful method of rekindling communities so people connect to people and people connect to the environment."
The site will "only prosper if there are users using it," Piskov said. "You can go to the marketplace or you can just click."
