Straight from the Farm

As fond as I am of obscure references, how many of you remember a World War I era song, How Ya Gonna Keep 'em Down on the Farm (After They've Seen Paree?  Now there’s a smartphone version for everyone under the age of 100.

A mobile app called Farmzie has literally tapped into a new segment of the food business. It not only enables small farmers with sales and marketing online, but also lets consumers and restaurants to shop online from the site’s inventory of “virtual” farmers.

The site is the brainchild of Raleigh, North Carolina developer Griffe Youngleson whose recent comment about the new app is highly pertinent for an industry drowning in competition for the consumer’s food dollar. “We’re not a system that’s obscuring the relationship between consumers, restaurants and the farm. We’re making it transparent so the farm is always in direct connection with whoever is using their product. We want you to connect and talk directly to the farms. It’s about building relationships,” he said.

The app is fairly localized to North and South Carolina at the moment. But it does have 200 farms and some 500 customers. Not a bad start and a concept to keep an eye out for in other growing areas.