With the upcoming political response to Bitcoin we really need to showcase how it's used for more than illicit activity. I think Farmigo.com could be a perfect example. We need to start getting people to actually spend coins and buying food is a basic building block.
http://www.farmigo.com/about/about
Imagine a world where more of our food was made in America. Perhaps even better, if most of what we ate came from within a few miles from where we live... This aspiration, is very far from what we have today in our communities.
The industrialized food system brought us cheap food that is produced far away by factories and people we don't know. This food, loaded with pesticides is put into wasteful packaging as it prepares to travel long distances consuming significant amounts of fuel. America imports most of its fresh produce from Mexico, Chile, India, China and Thailand - these imports are foods that can and should be produced locally.
...
We need a better food system
- Only 9 cents of each dollar actually goes to the farmer while 91 cents of each dollar goes to suppliers, processors, middlemen, and marketers.
- A typical carrot will travel 1,838 miles to become part of a meal.
- In 1866, 1,186 varieties of fruits and vegetables were produced in California. Today, California's farms produce only 350 commercial crops.
Farmigo.com basically links local farmers together with local buyers, where buyers can shop for the items they want between all the farmers (since any one wouldn't have everything) and have the goods delivered bundled together to a local pick up place. Thoughts?
EDIT: here is a link to Farmigo's video presentation at Techcrunch Disrupt where you can get a better idea how it works.
http://techcrunch.com/2011/09/12/farmigo-tapping-into-the-power-of-the-web-to-bring-you-fresh-veggies/
