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Humanity has eaten more than 80,000 plant species through its evolution. ... we now rely on just eight crops to provide 75 percent of the worlds food. Vandana Shiva The best and tastiest way to preserve the diversity of food is to eat it.
- Kyra Pincheira
Imagine browsing a massive seed catalog filled with more fruits, vegetables, herbs,
Farmers and Eaters work together to create lists of the diverse varieties of crops that might be grown the following year. Making these lists is easy because pollin8r provides compelling crop photos and descriptions. Eaters vote for crops they want to eat, creating a comprehensive ranked list of their collective food interests. Farmers review their lists, select the new crops they are willing to try, and designate the minimum number of shares they would need to pre-sell in order to plant each crop. Everyone who voted for these crops is notified and the countdown begins: 14 days to attract enough pollin8rs to a crop to guarantee it will be planted. Viral tools help a crops pollin8rs recruit new friends and family to join them in patronizing a specific crop grown by a specific farmer. If the minimum is reached, authorized financial transactions are completed, and the farmer receives payment. Microblogs about a crops progress keep its pollin8rs engaged and give them insight into what it actually takes to bring food from seed to market. Pollin8r.com makes it easy for farmers to use a single post to share this information with their pollin8rs where and how each chooses to receive it. In addition, this open channel of communication becomes a way to publicize spontaneous events such as gleanings. The initial transaction and even the ongoing connection to a crop may happen online, but pick-up is in-person. Pollin8rs collect the fruits of their farmer-partners labors at the very markets, stands, and on-farm locations from which the farmer is already selling. For some pollin8rs, this will be their first time at a farmers market. Even as crops grown on-request are being harvested, Eaters can begin to work with Farmers to build lists of varieties that might be enjoyed the following year.
Hopi Red Corn; Photo by Anne Nester; Grown by Seed Dreams Tierra Madre Farms; cc foodfotobank,com 2011
Big shifts
Engaging consumers to pollin8 crops instead of just purchasing them has some pretty big implications. A few of our favorites include:
transforming the role and value of the farmer from a producer of a product to the provider of a service and experience
Participating Farmers are offering a new service: growing foods on-request, especially varieties that are otherwise commercially unavailable. They are also giving Eaters an opportunity to be connected to their food in a new way. The Farmers time and expertise are highly valuable here.
Amaranth; Photo by McKenzie Stevens; Grown by Oak Hill Farm; cc foodfotobank,com 2011
Users
Who will use pollin8r? Lots of people. Heres a quick snapshot some of our users: EATERS...are accustomed to having extensive consumer choice. They are either currently patrons of local farms and farmers markets or know someone who is, and they have just been recruited. FARMERS...are interested in diversifying their crop plans and/or deepening relationships with their customers. They are either comfortable using a computer to go online or are ready to learn.
Thai Purple Egg Eggplant; Photo by Anne Nester; Source- Baker Creek; cc foodfotobank,com 2011
RESTAURANTS & LOCAL FOOD RETAILERS...want to engage their customers in a deeper dialog about the foods they offer and the farms they buy from, and are looking for affordable and effective ways to communicate their commitment to local/regional agriculture. SEED BANKS/COMPANIES...benefit from having their stories told throughout pollin8r.com by the farmers who source their seed from them, and gain insight into the latent demand for heirloom varieties for which seed isnt currently commercially available. MEDIA professionals (and amateurs) will join the pollin8r ranks as users of the free images of heirloom and rare varieties available at pollin8r.coms sister site foodfotobank.com, a crowdsourced free photo library of heirloom and rare fruits and vegetables.
Foodfotobank.com is a crowdsourced free photo library of heirloom and uncommon fruits, vegetables, herbs, grains and mushrooms. As bloggers, farmers, heirloom enthusiasts and others use these images in their digital communications, the attribution of each photo links users back to the foodfotobank.com site where they will discover that they too can download amazing images for free, building public interest in lesser-known varieties.
self-recruiting model
Pollin8r may be described as self-recruiting. Farmer-users invite their existing customers to vote for next years crops, recruiting new Eater-users. As pollin8ing a crop requires a minimum level of community participation, each sale within the pollin8r system is inherently tied to the viral attraction of new pollin8rs for a crop by its existing pollin8rs, also recruiting new Eater-users. Any Restaurant or Retailer using the system to better tell the story of their commitment to local food and farms will recruit the Farms with which they do business. And Farms already using pollin8r.com to engage with their customers will recruit Restaurants and Retailers they supply to better share information about one another. Finally, interested Eaters that cannot find their favorite farms and local-food businesses on pollin8r.com will be given the tools to recruit them. Pollin8r will provide all users with tools and materials that make it easy to communicate with and excite others about Pollin8r.
Value streams
Yes, it could catalyze a lot of change, but how will Pollin8r earn money and ensure its own sustainability? Pollin8r will earn income for itself and generate additional value for local food communities and independent business owners in the following ways:
transaction fees
Every time a crop purchase is made within pollin8r.com, a small percentage of that transaction will be retained by Pollin8r. In this manner, Farmers and Eaters will have no upfront costs for using the platform. Pollin8r will only derive income when a sale is generated for a Farm.
api fees
Third-party developers will be able to access the pollin8r platform through application programming interfaces (APIs) available via monthly subscriptions.
products
Additional income will be derived from the sale of complementary products, such as mobile apps, and lifestyle brand items such as t-shirts and jewelry. In such instances, pollin8r will continue to profit-share, again driving value and investment back to organizations and independent businesses that support strong local agriculture and economies: The sale of apps will benefit values-aligned non-profit organizations. Pollin8rs entire lifestyle brand inventory is being built around a network of independent artists and businesses and their ability to provide unique products that bear Pollin8rs images and ideas on-request to local consumers.
Red Meat Watermelon Radish; Photo by Anne Nester; Grown by Heirloom Organic Gardens; cc foodfotobank,com 2011
Collaboration
No other system currently exists to encourage and support the micro-cropcontracting of foods grown on-request for individual consumers. Pollin8r will be the first to market with a tool that does this. Pollin8rs competitive strategy is to embrace other businesses and organizations as collaborators in nurturing the resilient, localized economies we believe are required to weather the many global challenges we now face. What starts as a single application serving farmers and consumers interested in a more diverse, local food supply, will quickly evolve to a marketplace built on collaborative, cooperative relationships between pollin8r and its third-party partners.
The food-tech landscape has seen a lot of vigorous activity recently. Many early entrants have focused on the critical tasks of connecting farmers and buyers in new relationships or helping farmers manage their CSAs. A new crop of websites, apps and SaaS (software as a service) products is introducing ever more creative approaches to connecting the dots in a healthy food ecosystem. By working collaboratively with emerging and established technology providers whose services and tools complement our own, we can all accelerate our rates of adoption and impact. Collectively, we are developing business, legal, technical and values frameworks to guide our own collaborations, and look forward to sharing these with others.
CO-FOUNDERS
JEFF ALDRICH grew up on a farm and has been designing and building web software for a wide range of clients using a variety of languages and technologies since 1993 when the first Mozilla Browser was released. He has spent more than fifteen years developing internet-based software solutions in a variety of vertical markets. AND MANY OTHERS Just a list of the names of the accomplished individuals who are contributing their considerable knowledge and talents to Pollin8rs success is too long to include here. Some of their more relevant experiences and fascinating accomplishments include: Launching Discovery Communications Planet Green multiplatform media brand Managing technology transfer (technology-for-equity) deals for Intel's Software Architecture Labs as part of Intel Capital team Founding a 43-acre permaculture research, training and education center for regenerative agriculture and land management, dedicated to creating organic cooperatives and establishing fair trade markets Developing a hub-and-spoke model for expanding regional access to fresh, healthy foods starting with an innovative farm-to-plate retail outlet Contributing to the seminal Pew Commission on Industrial Farm Animal Production final report on the state of intensive animal agriculture Developing a community-scale tool for the assessment of biodiversity, land management sustainability, and producer subjective well-being (happiness) Launching a widely-studied and replicated local currency Consulting in key policy areas including healthy food access, obesity and security Blogging about food issues in prominent outlets such as Grist, Civil Eats, Huffington Post and Food Safety News
White Gold Pebble Tepary Bean; Photo by Mary Sue Stevens; Grown by Tierra Vegetables; cc foodfotobank,com 2011
KYRA PINCHEIRA is passionate about food and farms, an enthusiastic early adapter of technology, and a big thinker. Her professional experiences in environmental education, community revitalization, new enterprise development and art have all collided in Pollin8r.
Pollin8ing change
At Pollin8r, were fond of big, bold vision. Developing a social-commerce platform that supports a new business model in local food transactions is a satisfying start, but weve already begun to look ahead to what the future could hold. Heres a preview of a few things in incubation:
Artichoke; Photo by Mary Sue Stevens; Grown by Elizabeths Finest; cc foodfotobank,com 2011
p.2 Image: Mixed Beans; Photo by Sarah Kelsen, This Image: Chinese Five Color Pepper; Photo by Anne Nester; Source- Baker Creek; cc foodfotobank,com 2011