Portland-based nonprofit Ecotrust recognized that local food advocates were searching for methods to help local food systems scale up. They saw that in some cases, producers were forming cooperatives and purchasers were signing exclusive deals with them. But these ventures were aimed at stabilizing the producers’ bottom lines rather than scaling up the entire system. To address this systemic gap Ecotrust launched a social venture called FoodHub 
to help bring transparency to and ease connections for both sides of the transaction.
FoodHub is an online destination for regional buyers and sellers of food products to seek each other out, make connections and, eventually, transact business, regardless of size, says Deborah Kane, FoodHub’s project director and Ecotrust’s vice president of food and farms. Designed to work like a cross between Facebook and Craigslist, FoodHub is meant to be comfortable for urban, tech-savvy buyers as well as for rural farmers who might be intimidated by new technology.
It aims to create transparency so buyers and sellers have the same information and the same opportunities to connect. “Rural producers typically have a hard time figuring out who is buying and selling what in any urban market,” says Kane. “It takes time and labor to do research on things like slow food. It is a barrier to entry.”
The site’s current features include the ability to search for specific products and types of buyers, find local items available through large-scale distributors, and request them specifically. It also eases the distribution of fresh sheets and helps farmers to professionalize their invoices. New features in 2010 may include one-to-one transactions, inventory management, product aggregation, the ability to advertise and to register multiple locations or multiple users under one master profile,
The project team recognizes that vibrant food marketplaces are dependent on deep, personal relationships and trust between those who buy and those who sell food. The FoodHub project seeks to support and increase real human connections, not to replace them.
Right now FoodHub is exclusively for the wholesale market in Alaska, Washington, Oregon and the states that border them. Membership costs $100 per year. Launched in Beta at the beginning of November, Ecotrust wants to have 2,000 users registered by the end of 2010 and to launch the ability to buy and sell on the site by 2Q 2010, Kane says.
To Learn More About FoodHub
To learn more about FoodHub’s current membership and investment opportunities, contact Deborah Kane at deborah@food-hub.org or 503.467.0763.
You can also visit one of these upcoming events in the area to meet a FoodHub representative.
- January 29 – Washington State Farmers Market Association annual conference, Renton, WA
- February 24 – Wild Seafood Exchange, Seattle, WA
- March 1 – Farmer Chef Connection, Seattle, WA
About Ecotrust’s Food & Farms Program
Ecotrust’s Food & Farms Program aims to improve public understanding of agriculture and the challenges it faces and increase the market share of locally grown, processed and manufactured foods. Whether by introducing a farmer to a chef or a food processor to an institutional buyer, Ecotrust is a trusted “benevolent broker” that has been making connections between food producers and food buyers in the Pacific Northwest for a decade. And while Ecotrust’s efforts to promote regional food have extended across all product categories and types of buyers, they are nationally known for their ability to develop the school food cafeteria as a viable market for local foods.
Their vision is for a time in the not too distant future when all children know that milk comes from cows before it reaches the grocery store. Through publication of the award-winning quarterly magazine Edible Portland, they tell the often overlooked stories of the regional food system and instill in local eaters a sense of place and a taste of home. For more information, visit www.ecotrust.org.
