Using the internet to link consumers to farmers

The phenomenon is called Find Your Food, and you can read about it in this story by Brad Stone and Matt Richtel in today's New York Times. Here's an excerpt:

The underlying idea, broadly called traceability, is in fashion in many food circles these days. Makers of bananas, chocolates and other foods are also using the Internet to create relationships between consumers and farmers, mimicking the once-close ties that were broken long ago by industrialized food manufacturing.

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Beginning this month, customers who buy [Stone-Buhr's] all-purpose whole wheat flour in some Wal-Mart, Safeway and other grocery chains can go to findthefarmer .com, enter the lot code printed on the side of the bag, and visit with the company’s farmers and even ask them questions.

This seems to be another example of how our nation's new-found interest in food and in our agrarian past might also garner interest in rural people and places.