Op-Ed: Is This a Farmer's Market?

A new start-up, Foodzie calls itself an online farmer's market but is it? It is a place where small, artisan food producers and growers can sell their products.

There is a new web start up that has a good idea. Foodzie is a marketplace to discover and buy food from small artisan producers and growers. This service means that small producers can market their products to people across the country and thereby reach a wider audience. This is good for the producers and good for consumers who are seeking items that they may not be able to purchase in their home town or regionally. It is not a farmer's market. One of the most important aspects of the farmer's market is the ability to buy locally produced goods and by doing so contribute to local business development while reducing the miles that the goods have to travel. This is absent. The combination of consumer choice, economic benefit and environmental benefit is what makes farmers markets desirable. It is not just about buying designer food. Foodzie may be a sound business idea and it may help small producers increase their sales but it is not about locally produced food,or goods. I find the following to be the most disturbing aspect: “You get a similar experience to a farmers market, when you get the opportunity to meet farmers, but it is much more scalable and you get a better selection,” said Rob LaFave, a Foodzie co-founder. Going online to buy products, even if a social networking function is added to Foodzie, is nothing like walking into a farmer's market and seeing, smelling and examining the products while chatting with the growers face-to-face with perhaps a local musician playing and a radio station doing a live broadcast. Some farmer's markets have food booths and coffee stands where you can get a cup or buy some fries and sit and enjoy the scene. LaFave adds, “Ninety-seven percent of the country does not have this kind of access to artisan foodmakers.” This is fine and a useful and possibly desirable service. but let us not confuse the virtual shopping experience with the reality of a farmers market, the two have little in common. If you have ever been to a farmers market you will know the experience is nothing like shopping at an online store, no matter what the product. Which you prefer is your choice but they are indeed different experiences.