“I wouldn’t have guessed that someday my interests in local food and my experience in payment systems and the Internet would converge,” Julie says. “But I couldn’t be more pleased to have the dots connect with a team like Local Orbit, and a platform that helps streamline and scale how local food is bought and sold.”

Food and farms are the roots of Julie’s memories of growing up in Iowa. Summer meals came straight from her mother’s enormous garden, cattle socialized and corn grew out the giant window of the hayloft on her grandfather’s farm, and her aunts canned every summer’s harvest in her grandmother’s kitchen. She loved every minute of it – the sweetness of peas straight off the vine, driving tractors at an early age, the sweltering heat and camaraderie of a kitchen canning – and hoped to someday show her own kids the same treasures.

Julie and her boys

Before settling into a farmstead, however, Julie migrated from Iowa to Silicon Valley where she met Elon Musk, who was starting a new venture called X.com – which eventually became known as PayPal, the online payment service. Julie joined as employee number five and the company’s first female, and over time held three different titles as vice president – of product, operations & customer service, and public relations & communications.

In addition to serving as company spokesperson to top-tier publications like Forbes, Fortune, and The New York Times, Julie built a customer service center from scratch in Omaha, Nebraska, from 0 to 100 people in exactly six weeks. Today that center employs nearly 2,000 people, making PayPal the second largest employer in the city.

“Being part of PayPal in the early days was extremely fun and drama-filled,” Julie says. “We created something completely new but never knew for sure if the credit card companies, the government, or the banking regulators would shut us down on any given day.”

Prior to PayPal, Julie managed public relations and marketing for Frank Quattrone’s technology-focused investment banking group at DMG Technology Group (then Deutsche Bank Tech Group) during the high-tech and early dot-com booms.

Today Julie lives in Colorado on a small farmstead with her two boys, four Jersey cows, fifty chickens, and a cat with the inaccurate name of Pumpkin. “As a kid I knew there was something magical in eating straight from the garden,” Julie says. “I’m thrilled to provide that experience to my own kids, and to work with Local Orbit, who is making it easier for everyone to get food from farm to table.”

Dan Carmody, president of Eastern Market

We’ve excerpted a few of our favorite quotes from the article, especially the piece that shares how we are aiding in Eastern Market’s efforts, but please make sure to read the full story here.

{The food hub helps small farmers grow the size and yield of their farms and create other viable sales outlets that aren’t community supportive agriculture (CSA), a farmer’s market, or direct sales to restaurants because “farmers have to balance their time between selling food and growing it,” Carmody says. “It’s the next step in the devolution of a food system into a stronger regional system, encouraging smaller growers.”}

{Carmody and his staff have increased the profile of local and regional growers supplying the market, says Debbie Tropp, branch chief of the Agricultural Marketing Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which is conducting a two-year study of Eastern Market. “They’re doing their level best to try to revitalize the regional food system in a way that may not have happened prior.”

Eastern Market is considered a “hybrid market,” where wholesale and retail activities occur, one of about 50 in the nation, according to James Barham, agricultural economist and head of a USDA interagency task force on regional food hubs. “Hardly any of these would be classified regional food hubs. Mainly, it’s a property manager who’s leasing space…. What Dan is doing is pretty remarkable. He could have set up as a property manager and leased space. Eastern Market would have continued to exist.”

Food hubs are a fairly new designation for comprehensive agricultural centers that provide a catalytic impact on the regional food system, says Barham. “Because of the strong relationship regional food hubs have with producers, and because of the demand for locally grown product, producers are scaling up their operations, they’re hiring more staff, they’re planting more crops, they’re switching practices from more conventional to more sustainably produced because there’s higher customer demand for that type of product.”

Eastern Market has established a virtual food hub to connect the region’s growers and buyers in an unprecedented way using Local Orb.it. “The buyer can go online and pick Eastern Market as their hub, see a variety of our growers, our specialty product vendors, and be able to order from these different types of growers on one purchase order,” says Christine Quane, wholesale market coordinator for Eastern Market. “That allows growers to tell their story, inventory their items and put their wholesale pricing [on display]. They pick their products, make their orders, and the two meet on a set day — saving time for both. By knowing the story behind the grower, they know where their food is coming from. They’ll know who the growers are and how they grow.”}

Read the full story here.

Mike Thorn believes in change.  He believes that small farmers can build sustainable businesses. He believes that restaurants and institutions will one day be able to source local food with ease.  And he believes it’s time for high-tech solutions to support the vibrant, local businesses that are bringing good food to our tables.

Mike joined Local Orbit as the lead programmer in May, and he hasn’t come up for air since.  From developing new features for our pilot hub sites to figuring out how to solve problems created by rural satellite internet connections, he’s been busy.  Mike’s work on our upcoming release will allow us to tailor Local Orbit’s tools to each region’s unique needs and support a variety of food distribution business models.  It will also provide rich production and distribution information to help everyone involved in the value chain with future planning.

Mike’s food values come from his deep family roots.  His father, a professor and doctor, cooked dinner for his family every night, inspired by the foods of his Thai and Chinese upbringing.  Local produce was always on the menu and still is today; he purchases at least 50% of his food from Farmer’s Markets and blows away dinner guests with his unbelievable lamb curry that takes 10 hours of hands on cooking to perfect.

Mike was majoring in Chemistry at Eastern Michigan University, but chose to jump into the fast and furious world of internet startups instead. Soon after, his first startup consulting company was awarded a major project for The Dow Chemical Company, lasting 9 years.  Mike’s role in this project was the primary software architect for their laboratory information management system.  His software was used to outsource millions of dollars of routine testing, enabling shorter hold times on inventory and freeing expensive internal resources to focus on product development and refinement.  Later, he helped implement a web-based data mining processor that used natural language processing to calculate performance metrics for Fortune 500 companies such as Disney and RCI.  Most recently, he designed a HIPPA-compliant architecture for an electronic medical record system start-up, Therapy Charts

Mike is excited to see his work help farmers grow stronger businesses.  In the long run, he sees himself making an even greater contribution by helping our users run their businesses more effectively with the robust, easy-to-use planning and marketing tools Local Orbit is developing.   His goal is to bring the resources and tools that create advantages for big agriculture and huge retail chains to 10-acre farms and 10-table restaurants alike.

Julie Mills brings over three decades of computer science and technology experience to the Local Orbit Team as our Chief Technology Officer.  At just six years old, her tech interest was sparked when she began learning to program computer games in a pilot program at Oakbrook Elementary School in Sterling Heights, MI. The sense of drive and knack for technological problem-solving that started at such a young age carried Julie to the CIA, where she developed web protocols and search systems, on to Kmart, where she led the massive transition from mainframes to PCs, and then onward to Sega and Catapult, where she developed game systems.

She also developed web sites for kids before moving to AOL. In her fourteen years with AOL, she managed international product launches in Mexico City, Buenos Aires, Madrid, and Beijing, led oversight of broadband operations, and eventually became Director of IT Governance, Risk, and Compliance.

Julie with her two children, Kennedy and Parker

Julie was living in the D.C. area when a friend introduced her to the MichAGAIN campaign created by the Michigan Economic Development Corporation to promote the state’s technology and start-up opportunities to former Michiganders.  Local Orbit’s CTO job posting was the first thing she saw when she joined the MichAGAIN group on LinkedIn.

Julie and her two young children now reside in her hometown near Detroit, MI.  “It’s funny,” she says. “Michigan isn’t Silicon Valley but there is a combination of technological know-how and a willingness to innovate here. Coupled with a wealth of family-run farms and entrepreneurial spirit, it’s an exciting place to be.”

Julie has a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Detroit and an MBA from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School. We’re excited to welcome her to Local Orbit, where she’ll play a major role in developing the first online software service to solve the problems of easy access to locally produced food.

In this spirit of innovation, Poptech fellows and other interested folks convene, talk and get down to work. During the annual Poptech conference in Maine, each fellow has the opportunity to articulate just why they find their chosen problem and solution so compelling.

Watch, listen and learn as Erika walks through how Local Orbit can leverage technology to change our food system, solving problems for farmers, chefs and food service purchasers — ultimately leading us to a system where more food is sourced locally. Local Orbit’s platform offers tools for people to source a greater percentage of their food through local and regional producers – and the impact that ripples outward, well beyond the food chain. It promotes healthier communities — physically, environmentally, and economically.

Get a glimpse of all of PopTech’s social innovation fellows in this quick clip.

Grab a cup of joe and sit back for four minutes and forty-nine seconds as Erika and Brian walk through how Local Orbit’s technology “amplifies the impact and efficiency of old-school local food relationships and networks,” enabling farmers and food producers to scale up and organizations to source food locally easily.

Ragan and her youngest daughter, Brooke

Mariah and her dog, Sparky

Meet Ragan

As a mother of two young children, nutrition has found its way to the forefront of Ragan’s lifestyle.  “About 5 years ago, when our daughter began indulging in solid foods my husband and I woke up out of our processed food coma and made a pact to not allow junk on our kitchen table. Similar to the new parent realization of the gigantic consumer market devoted strictly to baby gear, we soon realized that local and sustainable food was a long-standing movement — but it was in need of some serious momentum.  As newcomers to the effort, it seemed to us that sustainable, local food was the sleeping giant we had been waiting for.”

You can imagine how Ragan felt when Local Orbit popped onto her radar screen.  Working with a company that is solving social problems by simply increasing access to locally produced food was like taking a sip of “You’ve got to be kidding me, is this really true?” tea for her.  She eagerly accepted the position as Community Manager to help us make headway both online and off.  “Change the food system?  Sign me up!” she says.

Located in Southern California, Ragan draws on her experience growing up with her restauranteur father and her decade of work in the wine and hospitality industry.  She obtained her Bachelors of Arts in Communications from California State University in San Marcos, CA and has found her true passion in a combination of both the slow food movement and the new media world.  Ragan resides in San Diego, California with her husband and two girls, ages one and five.

Meet Mariah

Mariah is a life-long Michigander, residing in Ann Arbor with her husband.  She grew up in a rural area, with plenty of local family farms. From an early age, she was known to love fruit and yogurt while her brother was nicknamed “junk food junky.” Being a somewhat picky….er,selective eater, she’s always preferred when tomatoes actually taste like tomatoes and the texture of her greens are more fresh than wilted.

In her early 20s, she started having recurring dreams of meat each and every night, and decided it was time to convert back to being an omnivore after 12 years of staunch vegetarianism. She was determined, however, not to consume thoughtlessly and embarked on some reading and research about how she might still eat meat now and then, but do so in a more responsible, sustainable way. It seemed clear that, like with local produce, sourcing her occasional meat closer to home from farmers with respectful practices was the way to proceed.

Mariah has spent the last ten years supporting organizations through marketing, event planning and communications. Throughout her career, she has relished roles that let her reach out to others, listen, learn and build community — both online and off. Most recently, she served as Yelp’s inaugural Community Manager in Greater Metro Detroit, building engagement, community and brand awareness from the ground up. In her travels in this position, she noticed the emergence of attention to local sourcing on menus from Denver to St, Louis. Now, working with Local Orbit, she’s able to put her unique skill set into a larger effort to hack the food system, connecting dedicated farmers and the chefs, restauranteurs and institutions who so eagerly want to source locally for myriad health, environmental and economic reasons.

Mariah holds a BA from the University of Michigan’s Residential College, and an MA in Art Administration from Eastern Michigan University. She is currently enrolled in UM’s School of Information MSI program, studying community informatics and how technologies can serve the public good. Local Orbit is the perfect example of such a tech-driven social venture.

From the PopTech Announcement:
This year’s Fellows are spearheading a compelling set of solutions to global challenges. They are reconnecting refugee families, helping people become “makers” of their own technology, improving local food production and distribution, and getting to the heart of measuring true impact. They are helping girls access education and healthcare, building community through music and architecture, and using a combination of high-tech and good business to get clean water, sustainable energy and appropriate medical devices to those who most need them.

(via Mark Bittman’s weekly New York Times food roundup.)

Besides, at what other job is grocery shopping considered an acceptable use of your time?

But now that I’ve been using it for a few months, I’ve noticed how it’s changed the way I buy food.

Guaranteed Availability
There are a few items at the farmers market that have become favorites, things that are often sold out or missed when I’m not the very first one there (which would be never). By ordering online the sellers reserve it for me and, voila, no disappointments or surprises.

Saves Money
Since I shop at the grocery store midweek, I can shop from my local farmer’s market at the same time that I’m making my grocery list. The extra planning helps me stick to a budget while keeping our pantry filled for our family of five with as much local product as possible. No impulse spending!

More Variety
But what really surprised me is the variety that our vendors list online. Let’s face it: some vendors have better displays than others. Or meat and other perishables are packed in coolers and it’s hard to tell what’s available. But with Local Orbit, it’s all out there to see. And some vendors list online but don’t attend the market, so ordering online is the only way to get it in our area. That’s the way it is with my lettuce, and now I’m such a fan of his stuff that it’s painful to run out and buy anything else.

I still enjoy shopping at our farmer’s market and visiting with the vendors that have become friends over the last few months. I usually find one or two things that I didn’t buy online. And my kids love to spend a couple of their dollars getting snacks. I get to enjoy the farmers market and feel good about supporting my local economy, but collecting my food is much simpler – especially with three kids in tow.