As we enter into project mode at the Flatiron School I am increasingly excited about applying everything we have learned to build interesting web applications. My passion and background is in sustainable agriculture and food access. Food is one of the biggest issues of our time, affecting our health, our environment, and our economy. I am passionate about improving our food system and helping people have better access to healthy food. I believe that supporting local farmers is an essential component of ensuring the health of our food system and our bodies.
Entering the world of tech has been a scary journey. While I am excited about my new skills I am was also worried that they may take me away from my passion for food. I was initially worried that if I wasn’t building gardens or doing fresh-food tastings in low-income communities that I wouldn’t be making a difference. However, after being immersed in the tech industry I have realized that the power of tech can, in many ways, affect the food movement and possibly much more so than planting urban gardens. After all, Uber has changed the taxi industry while owning no vehicles and Airbnb has changed the hotel industry while owning no real estate.
I think there is so much potential to change the way we grow, distribute, consume and dispose of food if we combine our food systems with improved technology. Imagine if we Uberfied food distribution, creating infrastructure for local farmers to distribute their food or if we created an app to help restaurants lower their food waste.
Amazing apps already exist to help consumers learn what they should eat and where they can find clean sustainable produce. Checkout some apps here.
I am not the only one who is interested in how food and tech can come together. According to Fortune Magazine, “Between 2013 and 2014 Silicon Valley’s interest in backing agriculture and food-related startups soared, doubling in terms of deal size, according to data from the Cleantech Group.”
It will be exciting to see where this takes us meanwhile I am excited to enter the tech industry while there is this excitement around food!!
Articles
Farming data continues to be hot in Silicon Valley
Silicon Valley’s clean tech investors eyeing sustainable food, experts say
Some Good Resources
Food + Tech - This is my favorite Website right now. Food and Tech is a platform for good food innovation. They help people launch, grow and transform good food businesses through news and analysis, online business courses and hackathons.
Food and Ag APIs -
USDA National Farmers Market Directory API - This web API provides information about U.S. farmers market locations, directions, operating times, product offerings, and accepted forms of payment.
Food and Ag Gems -
FoodInfo - FoodInfo is a ruby gem that retrieves food nutritional information from various online data sources.
Garden - Allows you to organize your seeds in different formats. Typical seeds.rb, yaml fixtures, and a variety of spreadsheet formats.