High-Tech Connection Rutherford produce speeds to Charlotte

By SCOTT BAUGHMAN
Daily Courier Staff Writer

RUTHERFORDTON - County farmers have found a new ally in the Internet, and have set up a system to take advantage of it with Foothills Connect Business and Technology Center. But the real beneficiaries might just be fine dining customers in Charlotte.
' We started talking and planning for this program in October of last year and we started making regular deliveries by doing things over the phone," said Tim Will, execu­tive director for Foothills Connect. " The website is up at www.farmersfreshmarket.org, but we do have some issues with the checkout counter."
Technical issues aside, the top chefs in Charlotte's finest restaurants have taken a lik­ing to Rutherford County produce. And they're specifi­cally excited about how quickly they can get it farm fresh.
"This is the kind of thing that Foothills Connect was really started to do - it is an applied use of technology to make the Internet work for small business entrepreneurs," Will said.
"And there is no better entrepreneur than a farmer.
What the Internet has done is devolve business down to its basic components. Anything that can be automated, will be, and that is what happened to textiles. What we discovered in this food market is that it is really a transporta­tion model - they had to redefine what "fresh food" means, based on how it can be transported. This produce is on the vine or the bush in the morning and ready to fix in the afternoon. The chefs were having to throw out the top layer of produce they got from the back of the truck because of spoilage during transit. We've eliminated that because of our proximity to Charlotte."
The program already has connected seven farmers with four restaurants in Charlotte, with dozens more interested every day. And the growth is expected to be exponential once the web site is fully online.