http://moefarms.com/
Lloyd Wallace
MOE Farms
Knox County, Texas, USA
(940) 256-4318
sevenarcllc@gmail.com

I currently benefit something like $6000-$8000 monthly from freelancing at home. So if you are prepared to work simple computer-based tasks for few hrs /a day from your sofa at home and make valuable salary for doing it… This is ideal for you… UR1.CA/pm79n

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We’re expanding from San Francisco to NYC right now and I’ll be excited to hear your thoughts about us! The unit economics for small deliveries just don’t make sense until you’ve reached an enormous volume, but for big orders, it makes tons of sense.
Although catering require way more knowledge than basic drop-off deliveries, I believe this is the way people will eat while in group and the way restaurants will survive!

Thanks for responding Jennifer, I have enjoyed reading and thinking about the items you’ve brought up in this article and following discussion. In terms of flexibility – I think there will always be a need for human decision making/interaction. Food, at all levels of the chain, is such a tangible and personal experience. It is developing tech that combines problem solving and still values the human side. As far as justifying some costs – there need to be a few examples or studies done to show the hard value add of the tech systems actually being fully implemented. I’m just not sure how to go about producing those types of documents!

The ethics match is important for tech, operations, AND funding. I’m not sure I’ve seen an ideal funding model for sustainable food companies yet, although groups like Slow Money are certainly working on it.

Thanks @sethsyberg:disqus!

Hi Chris, all really good questions. I don’t believe the actual cost of software is an issue at this point since there are good, cheap options out there; the cost of hiring someone to run the tech could be a perceived barrier but not a true economic one. Farmers *tend* to not value their time as they should (saving money by doing something themselves is preferable to paying for something, even if it’s more efficient in the long run and could free them up for other tasks). Another consideration is how much flexibility tech needs to offer the food companies–there’s so much more that goes into taking orders for perishable food than for simple widgets, that sometimes the current tech just can’t accommodate all the changes and options.

Enjoying this discussion – I’m an organic farmer and food hub researcher at the Laurier Centre for Sustainable Food systems in Waterloo, and have just come to the ‘tech’ side of things. I’ve been studying how food start-ups (mostly local ones here in Waterloo) have been approaching the food+tech space. Many have come and gone in the year I’ve been watching them. In interviewing these entrepreneurs I’ve found that few of them think about the ethics involved in building sustainable food systems. If the ‘tech ethics’ don’t match up with the operational ethics ‘on the ground’, then long term relationships and trust (with farmers, with suppliers, with eaters…) is not possible. Equity funding will come and go – but these businesses can’t get a foothold. So – I’ve been turning my attention to open source food and tech space – like Open Food Network (www.openfoodnetwork.org) – which seems to be a better ethics match with sustainable food systems. Thoughts on that?