We all want to know where our food comes from nowadays. We find this normal after all the food scandals (horse meat, Ikea balls, dioxin chickens and water meat) we had over the past months and years. Are these green asparagus from Europe? Are these beans flown in from Kenia? This information influences what we buy and what not. More and more we like our food to be regional. Preferably from a farmer that doesn’t use pesticides on our veggies and knows when you harvest what, in the right season I mean.

But it’s not enough. We become even more critical and demanding concerning what we put in our body. We want to know the farmer who grows our lettuce and talk with the guy who brings up the animals who’s meat we eat. Just like the old days, like my grandma used to do: walking to the farmer for some daily eggs and some fresh milk. We want transparency, information and honesty. Great!

That’s why I liked this station on the last Dutch Design Week so much. It’s a ‘taste station’, build to be an information booth for events and fairs, but not in the ‘boring’ way we know so well.

This was an interactive booth, with a conveyor built, presenting all kind of fresh biologically grown products, straight from some Dutch farmers. The idea was to take a small plate that passed by, pick up a corresponding phone and listen to the information given about this product. How and where it was grown, the richness of their soil and terroir, how it was harvested and transported. Sound & image information on who was each farmer, what did he like about his job, his way of working and why he started with farming. Lovely stories about young guys, following in their fathers footsteps or others just choosing 100% for a food producing job in the outdoors. Beautiful, nearly poetic films on real passion for the work, shown on flat screens while you tasted, smelled or looked at a passing by white asparagus. Interactive and entertaining experiences, as they should be. The station is an initiative of the Dutch agriculture organization ZLTO, to promote honest, healthy food, produced with care and love. Well done guys!

Another sign on what’s going on in the farmers’ market community is the fact that it adopts slowly digital technologies to reach their increasingly connected consumer. The taste station was an analog interactive way of connection but lately we see all kind of apps popping up on farmers markets and other local agricultural businesses. The Californian Farm Market Finder or the Farmstand app (Discover the best locally grown food from over 8,700 farmers’ markets around the world.) are using a smartphone’s GPS to find farm markets, cider mills, farmers’ markets and pick-your-own orchards closest to your place. Check out this video:

The guys behind Foodtree jumped on the local food movement by launching the food tree app to allow farmers to broadcast their daily harvest, along with details on where to buy their food locally. “We see that consumers and food producers share a common desire to understand one another better,” says Foodtree founder Derek Shanahan. “The farmers’ market is one of the few remaining spots for people to meet the person responsible for what they’re eating; a powerful relationship for both parties.” Users can follow other photo streams including their favorite farmers markets and other users sharing beautiful photos of food. These appear under the “news” feed menu, separate from your own photos. The app works in both Canada & North American cities.

What about Europe? Hard to find yet, but the initiatives start to pop up. Know what fruit of vegetables you eat best in what season? Download this app from the Dutch company ‘Milieu Centraal’ and avoid pushed products in the wrong time of year.

One of my students wrote his trendwatching thesis on organic local food and suggested to start a Belgian community of food loving people, helping each other sharing tips to find the best organic markets, shops and farmers. I told him to start developing it. I hope he will.

Later!

Kate

©ALL photos by Kate Stockman_THE SQUID STORIES