As more Americans reject food laden with pesticides, chemicals and hormones, a startup founded by women makes buying local food more accessible. Christina McAlpin and Candace Sweigart established Direct Local Food which links small farmers with restaurants and grocers with the aim of making buying local food readily available, VentureBeat reported.
In an interview, McAlpin told VentureBeat, "I grew up on a farm in Virginia, and my family had a coffee farm in Costa Rica," McAlpin said in an interview. "Farmers would load up the back of their truck and drive around to see if anyone wanted anything on that day, but this creates potential for waste and missed opportunities. I thought we needed a database to support the existence of small farms and make it easier for restaurants and grocery stores to buy local."
Based in Boise, Idaho, the farming industry-focused company provides a platform where farmers can post their produce and buyers like grocers and restaurants can look for products and make their orders. The site is equipped with tools that allow farmers to manage their online inventory and sales and monitor the orders made. The marketplace wants to encourage long-term relationships between both parties, the report said.
So far, the startup has established a network of 1,100 farmers and 500 wholesale buyers in their quest to champion the local food movement. It is now concentrating its efforts in bringing the service nationally. The company is also developing a mobile app that literally makes it quicker and more convenient to do business in the field, the report said.
Direct Local Food's rivals in the space include AgLocal, Foodem, Farmer's Web, Food Orbit, Grow Buy Eat and Local Dirt. With farmers markets generating yearly sales of over $1 billion, McAlpin said businesses need to ride this trend in order for them to meet the demand for local food and remain competitive, the report said.
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