LOCAL FOOD / COMMUNITY
Farm Run
What could you cook with what the farm has this week?
A local farm may have wonderful produce that a nearby household does not know how to use. The farm stand, Food Hub, or grocer is already there. The missing piece may be as simple as knowing what is available and having an idea for dinner.
Farm Run explores whether AI could help with that. I want to make it easier for people to buy local food through the people and places that already sell it.
“The fennel is especially good this week.”
A small farm’s update may sound like this: the fennel is especially good, the tomatoes are nearly ready, and there is more chard than expected. That is useful information, even though it does not look like a tidy inventory database.
Traditional software tends to ask for categories, quantities, and structured data. I am interested in starting with what the farmer can readily tell us. A language model could work with an ordinary description, without asking the farmer to maintain another elaborate system.
Give someone a reason to try it.
A short farm update could become a seasonal recipe, a few meal ideas, an editable shopping plan, or a message to customers. Someone who has never cooked fennel could see something they would like to make and find out where to buy it.
The suggestions would begin with food that a particular farm actually has to offer. The customer could then go to the farm stand, Food Hub, or grocer and buy it in the usual way.
Keep the buying relationship where it is.
I do not see a reason for Farm Run to take over the sale. Farms and their customers already have places to meet and ways to buy.
The app can help a producer explain what is available and help a customer make a plan. Inventory, ordering, payment, and fulfillment can stay with the existing sellers. I would rather help those relationships work than ask everyone to move into a new marketplace.
Can one farm make this part of its week?
The proposed routine is simple. Once a week, a producer describes what has changed. AI develops suggestions from that information. A person reviews anything that will reach customers. Shoppers receive useful ideas and return to existing sellers to buy.
The prototype demonstrates the steps: supply updates, customer planning, human review, and the handoff to sellers. It does not yet use a live model or live partner data. Development paused for the farming season, while we began bringing farmers, nonprofits, and local leaders into the conversation.
The next test is whether a farm or Food Hub can do this with little enough effort that it is worth repeating, and whether the suggestions change what customers buy.
I think there are many opportunities like this outside the industries we usually associate with AI. People have useful knowledge, but making it available to someone else can take more effort than they can spare. Farm Run is one way to explore what AI could do about that.
Work with me
Tell me what you have in mind.
I build websites and apps, provide AI training, and consult with businesses and organizations getting AI into their work. Tell me what you want to do and what has been getting in the way.