FoodHub: A Facebook for Foodies

Match.com plays cupid to singletons across the U.S. Twitter acts as a 24/7 log of what's happening in the world. And Facebook allows folks to reconnect with middle school classmates they haven't seen since, well, middle school. But what about us foodies? Where's our social networking site?

That's where FoodHub comes in. Launched back in February by EcoTrust, the Web site acts as a matchmaking site for food service professionals and local food purveyors in the Pacific Northwest, according to a story in The Oregonian. The site's consistently growing in popularity, and its online model is poised to revolutionize the locavore movement.

How it works is this: Buyers and sellers sign up for the service through a $100 membership fee. Buyers can be anyone from restaurants to hospitals to schools, while sellers range from large-scale packers and processors to small farmers and homemade food producers. Buyers can search for what they need, whether it's corn, wines from local vineyards, pickles, jams, you name it. Sellers respond with what they've got and how soon they can get it there and then broker a deal.

Sellers can also list their goods in the site's "Marketplace" section. For example, if a small, organic farmer has 10 pounds of arugula to unload, he or she can post it in the Marketplace. A chef may see the ad and think "Fresh arugula would be perfect for our seasonal salads this week!" And, as Emeril would say, Bam! Another connection, another local food-deal brokered.

The Marketplace can also be used to make the Pacific Northwest's local food system more efficient. For example, five farmers may realize they're driving the same routes to make deliveries. Once these producers become aware of their similar shipment routes, they could work out a deal to combine those five trucks' worth of produce into one or two trucks. By connecting on the social networking site, area farmers can figure out ways to save money and cut back on carbon emissions created by trucking their wares all over tarnation.

FoodHub is a hugely innovative model for the locavore movement because it addresses one of the greatest limitations to a wider-adoption of locally produced goods — time. Pretty much everyone in the food industry puts their blood, sweat, and tears into their businesses. Running a successful restaurant or catering company requires a huge time commitment, leaving not much time leftover for doing anything else. It's not that business owners don't want to source local, seasonal ingredients. It's that they lack the time to research local farmers and what types of produce, meats, and dairy they have available at different times of the year. FoodHub makes it easy on everyone by slashing the time it takes to form those connections and business deals.

FoodHub certainly isn't a perfect model. I'd love to see more emphasis on ecologically minded producers than big processors, and the site could help out small farmers or new businesses by offering reduced membership rates. But this type of online site is a huge boon for the sustainable food movement in that it turns isolated, local food producers and sellers into a connected community. Now that's a type of social networking site that benefits everyone.

Photo credit: Robert Couse-Bake via Flickr