Purchasing Local Food Is Now Easier Than Making a Trip to the Supermarket

It goes without saying that you can buy just about anything on the internet — electronics, antiques, even the opportunity to find the love of your life. And now, as one Seattle company brings the organic farmer online, you can even purchase local produce.
It’s called Farmstr and it’s run by Janelle Maiocco — farmer, chef and the blogger behind “Talk of Tomatoes.” The website connects customers not just with local farmers, but ranchers and fishers, too.
For Maiocco, the idea sprouted from her concern about the food industry. Over the years, she noticed how many chemicals are ingested through our food, and she wanted to make organic food a viable option. So she started Farmstr, a simple solution with a simple process.
In order to be a seller on the site, the farmer must use all organic processes, which are vetted and checked. Once approved, the vendor can set up a seller profile and post the items for sale. For each transaction, Farmstr keeps 6.5 percent.
When an order is placed, vendors place the goods in one of the designated drop boxes around Washington State to be picked up by the customer. Currently, there are three drop boxes in Seattle and one each in Bellingham, Everett, Issaquah, Redmond and Tacoma.
So why do vendors and customers use the site? For customers, it’s a way to access fresh, high-quality, local food — often for better prices than what are available elsewhere. And for producers, it’s a way to expand the reach of their small farm operations.
Although Farmstr has yet to make a profit, the future is looking bright. As of May 2014, the website has raised $1.3 million in capital funding, and employs four full-time employees, two interns and is looking for two more for full-time workers.
More employees aren’t the only thing this startup is looking to add, though, as Maiocco hopes to expand the company into other areas outside the Pacific Northwest.
“I’m passionate about connecting local produce and consumers,” she told Sustainable Cities Collective. “I’m passionate about making good food accessible…The little guys, urban farmers, hobby farmers ― they need customers.”
And thanks to Farmstr, they have them. From the depths of cyberspace, Maiocco is making organic food a reality for producers and customers, one chemically-free vegetable at a time.
MORE: How Salvaging the Food in Your Own Backyard Can Help Your Community and the Environment

This Service Dog Has a Mission Beyond Helping Just One Vet

For the past several years, we’ve heard a lot about veterans suffering from PTSD after returning home from Iraq and Afghanistan. And we’ve heard the stories about the various (sometimes interesting) methods to help them — from biofeedback to gardening to nudity. But one approach that’s helping thousands of soldiers is a basic one: Pairing them with man’s best friend.
Jake Fish of Port Angeles, Washington, was medically discharged from the Marine Corps in 1997. But in recent years, he continued to struggle with PTSD. Coming to his rescue was the service dog Megan, a two-year-old golden retriever, who was trained by the local nonprofit New Leash on Life.
New Leash on Life trains dogs and puppies left at the Clallam Humane Society to become service animals — ultimately providing them to veterans and people with disabilities.
Fish told the Peninsula Daily News, “The biggest thing about having Megan is that I’m not lonely. She gives me a feeling of companionship. I also know for a fact that she lowers my stress levels. She puts me in a good mood when I don’t want to be in one.”
As soon as Fish was paired with Megan, he began bringing her to the Northwest Veterans Resource Center, where he volunteers to help other vets access their benefits from the VA. Megan decided to volunteer for duty, too.
“Vets will come into the office, and we’ll start going over the paperwork, which means talking about all the vets’ pain and issues they have. It can get kind of tense,” Fish said. “Megan will get up from behind my desk and go to the person, and they just relax. She’s so happy and soft, they forget what they’re talking about that happened to them when they’re petting her. She lessens their anxiety of talking about stuff.”
“I feel like helping others as a service officer is a continuation of my duty,” Fish said. Megan clearly has figured out that helping more than just her veteran owner is a continuation of her duty, too.
MORE: This Organization Knows How to Simultaneously Save Veterans and Dogs