New farmers tend to want to build a relationship with the people who buy and consume what they produce. This can happen through Farmers’ Markets and CSAs, but when food is sold through stores, that connection can be hard to make and maintain, even if the buyer would prefer to have it.
Here’s the up-and-coming new practice for identifying yourself to your consumer. If you’re a veteran getting into farming, consider the possibilities.
From an article in the New York Times: Forging a Hot Link to the Farmer Who Grows the Food:
The maker of Stone-Buhr flour, a popular brand in the western United States, is encouraging its customers to reconnect with their lost agrarian past, from the comfort of their computer screens. Its Find the Farmer Web site and special labels on the packages let buyers learn about and even contact the farmers who produced the wheat that went into their bag of flour.
The underlying idea, broadly called traceability, is in fashion in many food circles these days. Makers of bananas, chocolates and other foods are also using the Internet to create relationships between consumers and farmers, mimicking the once-close ties that were broken long ago by industrialized food manufacturing.
