New food shopping app connects farmers with buyers

Run by a farmer’s co-operative, the platform simplifies sales and marketing

Spotted: Run by the Farm Generations Co-operative, the GrownBy website and app are created by farmers — for farmers. Designed explicitly to remove the need for venture capital and to grow a sustainable, profitable food business, the platform helps growers to sell in a number of different ways. Farmers can pre-sell food for pick-up at local markets, sell to other local businesses, manage their community supported agricultural (CSA) shares and any number of other options, depending on what they produce.  

Each grower has the option to buy an equity share in the co-operative. Shares provide membership in the co-operative, and the opportunity to earn more through profit-sharing and contributing to the running of the business. 

For consumers, the platform provides an easily searchable list of local farmers and allows people to invite farmers they know to join. Being listed on the platform also removes some of the administrative burden of marketing, leaving them with more time to work with their land and animals. Local pick-up is the current method of buying and selling, and the co-operative is developing the platform’s capability to support home delivery and additional shipping options.  

Bringing health back to the land, and thus the people living and working on it, is a major focus of many projects around the world. An Indian coffee brand created a biodynamic plantation and grower’s co-operative to help reduce the disparity between what farmer’s earn and what consumers pay. And an Indonesian village focused on ecotechnology solutions to improve its land and water use. 

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