Food + Tech is one of my favorite meet ups with Danielle. I biked to filthy mid town for this in 100 degree heat. Natural heat I don’t mind but the heat from cars /trucks and energy hog buildings is nasty. Vents were spewing out more heat. I have a sore throat from talking so much on the street corner on the way out. There is nothing green between 5th and Park on 41sr St. No trees or planters or urban weeds. I saw a McD’s, Chipolte and 4food

Food+tech meet up: Location: 4food, 41st/ Madison, “De–junking fast food”.

I sat on the steps bc it was packed.
I had just come from the “East Village Town Hall with Scott Stringer”. It was triple capacity so I couldn’t get in but MoS had spokes ppl in there who will bring updates. (People are passionate and getting organized)

Also 7/17 at New School was a panel on urban systems: news from Rio. MoS represented there as well.

Some presenters last night:

Relayfoods.com presentation:

Suburban grocery shopping online around Richmond, VA: Creating pick up points for delivery instead of every home. The Fresh Direct model of delivering to everyone home was tried by other start-ups but failed. Over 3 million dollars was lost in trying. It works inly in dense areas.
The pick up point model has worked well so far. Major pick up points at office parking lots.
– offering foods from Wholefoods and local farms.
– Relay is promoting local farm fresh products with special prices and education. This will slowly cause a shift because people are being educated about their food choices. Someone might try an artisan product and never go back to the national or international product– moving people away from industrialized food. For example, more expensive is the local grass fed meat. On promotion, with benefits listed, people try it. It is outstanding in flavor and we learn better for the you, the animal and the long term civilization. it is worth a few dollars more in the future. Online offers the opportunity to educate. For the seller it is more affordable to offer the discounts and educational information.

– Less food waste and compost pick up to come. (I suggested to Relay they add compost pick up. They like the idea. ;)

– there will be less social interaction at the grocery store with this online buying service but it will create a new place to interact w like-needs people at the pick up point. The grocery store has been a community anchor. It is a town square, a place to have serendipitous hellos, to fall into unexpected conversations, builds economy and community. Danielle pointed out the pick-up points, compared to home delivery and grocery stores, create a new social opportunity at the point of pick up. Good point.

Farmer’s Web was there: order your farm fresh food online.
– Nice platform model for farmers to sell
– farmers set a minimum so it’s worth the effort
– downside is the learning curve for buyers. They are used to going to a farmer’s market for fresh food.
– less food waste is upside
– this offers another opportunity to pick up compost and take It to the farms to build soil.

Wholeshare: a platform that allows you to creates a group in your area to order good food in bulk. Local farms are involved. It is like having a coop without a storefront. The neat thing about this is it creates tight groups of buyers. They learn to collaborate to get quality food and save a lot of money.
– the lead organizer gets a cut of the sales. This can become a side business. The group sees what the “splitter’s” cut is. If there is a lot of splitting the work for this person increases and so can their payment,
This platform can lead people to
– actually starting a storefront space
– local farmer’s longevity
– fresher healthier food for people
– breaks down the industrialization of our food
– encourages micro enterprises
– a supportive community
– groups splitting cases of something even cows.
Downside: if the bulk order quota is not reached the food won’t be worth delivering — option : Oder more.

Apptiude is online restaurant ordering platform to also share recommendations “Yums”. Share photos of the dishes.
It is for pick up and delivery service right now only.
They have discounts and promotions which make it worth at least checking out. If you are going to order in or take out you can save money. Also be more sure you’re dinner will be delicious!

Some people I Met;
a blogger named Shoko. She is originally Japanese. I told her about EM-1. She said the shopping stores are huge but the food labeling is very good because people want to know about the food they are buying. The fresh food will have signs that say what farm they are from.
Her bog is called “ampleen”

I met a Harry, a local baking company sales person who also runs a food film event.
I let him know he could bake delicious bread with the Em-1.

Gil, marketing developer for Israeli tech companies.

Hearty Films, he was documenting the event. He also does Sports documentation. Facebook.com/heartyfilms

Many others !

The end.

DD – not a blogger

dD’s LSD
Living Systems Design
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