Local Food and Social Networking

I attended a Virginia Ag Extension conference last December at Graves Mountain Resort in Syria, Virginia. The topic of the conference was helping farmers connect with buyers: grocers, restaurants, families, etc. One of the panelists was a guy named Tom Davenport, who launched a website called FarmFoody.org that, much like Facebook, allows you to create a profile and connect with growers and sellers nearby. The guy clearly was accustomed to pitching concepts and was pretty entertaining, so I went home, registered, then promptly forgot about it.

Lo and behold, FarmFoody and Tom Davenport showed up in the Washington Post this past weekend, "And On This Farm There Was a Web Site." The best part? He's old skool enough to point out that even better than driving all over the countryside to find artisanal cheese and baby salad greens is starting your own garden. It doesn't get any more local than that, folks.