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V O L . X X V I N O. X X V I I I N OV E M B E R 3 0 , 2 0 2 0 16 Aside from efficiency — no more paper records, plus smoother tracking of inventory, prices and who has what in stock — it also makes finding producers easier than the old method of cold calls and word of mouth. Now, "If we want to buy romaine lettuce, for example, we can see everyone on the platform who sells romaine lettuce," he says. Paring down the process Stone has been involved in at least 20 startups by his estimation, but Forager is his first impact venture. On a trip around the world several years ago, he saw how food distribu- tion worked in other places, and it was dramatically different from how it works here. "It just started to dawn on me: Why is America such an industrialized system and why isn't there more local food?" he says. Stone sensed an oppor- tunity, as well as a challenge. e $12 trillion global agriculture industry is the largest contributor of car- bon in the world. Part of that is gener- ated by huge industrial farms, with more coming from the multitude of links in the supply chain, Stone says. "e journey from California for lettuce, it'll be handled by four to five S O U R C E : Forager's October survey of 1,000 U.S. consumers WHAT CONSUMERS SAY ABOUT LOCAL FOOD 96% 91% 76% 85% 55% Say it's important/ very important to feed their family fresh healthy food Say locally grown and produced food is the freshest, healthiest and most nutritious Would switch grocers to one that provided more local fresh food if possible Prefer that their grocer buy food directly from local farms over third- party distributors Are more worried about going to the grocery store, with the recent surge in COVID-19 cases and winter coming believe local food is healthy, and they're willing to find a store that sells it. [See sidebar for more results.] A New York Times story from May underlines that, saying many small farms have had sharp increases in business this year by selling directly to consumers, generating revenues to take some of the sting out of losing restaurant customers. Stone says that as grocery stores adjusted to the pandemic, consum- ers found they could buy "center of the store" items like Pepsi and mac-and- cheese mixes online. "One of the ways to get people back into stores is to have fresh, local products," Stone says. "People tend to want to touch and see their produce, their fish. ey want to have more of a relationship with their food and see it. "In the last few months, a lot of grocers are realizing they have to up their local game to be competitive against online sellers," he says. 'Exactly what we needed' Crane says the co-op, at 290 Congress St., near the foot of Munjoy Hill, has attracted a lot of new customers this year. "ere are people shopping here who I just don't recognize," he says. He chalks it up to the store's early and strict COVID-19 measures, but also the "health awareness" message that he hears from customers. "People are cooking at home, they're seeking different foods, but fresh, good and healthy food," he says. e co-op was Forager's first customer. Crane says it made connecting with local producers more efficient and produc- tive from the start, and that became vital after the pandemic started. Despite the fact it was a startup, he was never skeptical. "is is exactly the type of thing we needed," he says. » C O N T I N U E D F RO M P R E V I O U S PA G E

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