At present, the ability of consumers to shop for locally grown agricultural products is highly limited. Farmer’s markets, farmstands, and Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) projects offer consumer a variety of ways to access local food, but they all have difficulty scaling to attract a larger cross section of consumers demand. To grow the market for local food, California needs to move beyond the constraints of the present models.
Croparazzi will provide consumers and farmers with a platform to conduct a virtual Farmer’s Market. Growers will be able to continually market their crops, and consumers will have actionable information to spur sales immediately No longer will the Farmer’s Market be a once-a-week activity, limited to the small number of growers and consumers who accept the limitations of the current model. Consumers and farmers will also be able to access social network content, such as blogs from local farmers, chefs and foodies, which will add to the richness of the user experience and provide a vehicle for growers and consumers to interact without geographical or time limitations as well as serve as an educational tool for consumers regarding California produce.
What makes local food a logical choice for the online world? The local food movement has a strong sense of community, but information on pricing and availability is highly fragmented. Many growers find themselves to be just a bit too large or too small to effectively capitalize on the existing models, but online market scales up or down effortlessly. Local food products themselves are highly differentiated, valuable, and perishable, making them ideally suited to real-time sales. Strong community, differentiated products, and fragmented information are characteristics of other niches that have been successfully served over the internet. Local food will be next.
About the Croparazzi project. Project leadership is provided by Chris Sayer, a fifth generation Ventura County citrus and avocado farmer. As a member of Ventura County’s Ag Futures Alliance, a Roots of Change Planning Fellow, University of California Hansen Trust Advisory Boardmember , and Director for several agricultural organizations and businesses, Chris has done considerable work in the field of sustaining local agriculture. But perhaps more relevant to this project was experience from his “previous life”, as a Executive Search Consultant in Silicon Valley, where he worked with the management teams of several early eCommerce leaders, such as Mercata and OnSale.
Technology Strategy: The tools for an effective eCommerce site are readily available from a variety of vendors, including at least one tailored precisely for this application. Local web design talent will provide a unique face to the commercially available transaction platform. A very simple, “Croparazzi 0.1” beta site will soon be operating in Ventura County, which will allow basic bulletin board postings, along with simple blog and forum capabilities. “Croparazzi 1.0” is targeted for April of 2009, which will introduce online sales and credit card processing capability, 100,000 item inventory, and a more robust social networking aspect. It is anticipated that the platform will be capable of scaling to multiple California markets at this stage. There is a tentative 2010 timeline for “Croparazzi 2.0”, which will introduce greater database capability and better data management tools. “2.0” is a site capable of scaling to a statewide and national network of local Croparazzi nodes.
Marketing Strategy: The Ventura County local food movement is highly interconnected, and personal relationships, word of mouth, and good connections with local media will allow for a strong local launch. The buzz from a strong start in Ventura, when combined with the statewide Roots of Change Changemaker’s Network and Ag Futures Alliance will be the entre to other California markets.
Business Model: Croparazzi will not be an online grocery, buyer or distributor. Our product is the platform; we exist for our farmers and consumers. Croparazzi will remain a privately held venture, but it will directly support the local food movement both in its impacts and business strategy. A “Giveback” component is not only part of our strategy, it is also part of our commitment to the local food movement. While it is not yet clear whether it will take the form of a percentage of profits, advertising or merchandising sales, or “pennies per click”, some portion of Croparazzi’s revenues will return to non-profits in this arena.
Open Source Philosophy: While we will be bound by the licensing requirements of third party technology providers, development of the site and business model will be chronicled at the Croparazzi site as well as a dedicated blog at www.croparazzi.wordpress.com. The participation of stakeholders is not only expected to help refine the vision, but be an integral part of the marketing and social networking strategy.
While it is expected that the site content will have a education and outreach benefit, Croparazzi will advance the Trade Enhancement/Innovation goal of the California Department of Food Agriculture Block Grant program. Croparazzi’s goal is to release local food from the constraints of unscalable distribution models, and allow local food to become a major pillar of tomorrow’s California food system.
Tags: cdfa, croparazzi, food systems, grant, local food, sustainability
