Autonomous Transportation and “Crowd Sourced Agriculture”

Now that we have the Internet letting me choose, and the Autonomous Transportation System delivering my food, let’s explore what else might change with these new tools.

It takes time and money and energy to run a CSA, in addition to growing the food. What if you like to grow things, but don’t want to do all the other things needed to operate a CSA? Or a farm stand? 

My cousin Bobby started growing tomatoes in his back yard. He gave the surplus away to friends and neighbors. Then people wanted more and were willing to pay for them. Gradually Bobby started a stand in his front yard, now it has turned into quite a business.

In addition to sharing with friends and family, what if you could easily sell your surplus? The Internet makes that easy for lots of other items, witness the success of eBay. I predict similar Internet markets will develop for food. Today this works especially well in a community where you know people, and distances are short, so the food stays fresh.

43 million, or 37%, US households had food gardens in 2009. Their investment of $2.5 billion yielded a $21 billion return.

86% of food gardeners grow tomatoes, and in a good year you either preserve them like crazy or share them with friends because you are overflowing with tomatoes.

The mother of one of my daughter’s friends in school started sending surplus tomatoes with her husband to colleagues at his undertaker establishment in Brooklyn. That gradually transformed to people paying for more produce – New Jersey is the “Garden State” for a reason (and you thought it was just the oil refineries near Newark's Liberty Airport). This grew into taking a van full of produce to sell in the markets in New York City. Then she rented a small field and grew her own vegetables to sell. Finally the whole family moved to a farm and grows food full-time.

You might think this only works in rural areas, but suburban farmers can do it too. My wife used to grow almost all our vegetables and the freezer kept us eating until the next crop came in. If you have ever had a cantaloupe fresh from the vine, you know how luscious it is, and it bears almost no relationship to the things called cantaloup in the grocery store J.

Perhaps even more surprising, it is happening in cities too. Here’s an exciting view of students growing gardens in the South Bronx. If you want to read more, here is a NY Times collection on Urban Agriculture.

So people who like to garden can help feed everyone using a combination of the Internet and Autonomous Transportation.