Distribution is a key to every product's success, but for some it requires a little more creative thinking than others. Take locally grown produce. Rather than expect consumers to seek it out at farm stands and other select venues, we've already seen one effort that brings it to commuters with specially priced USD 5 bags, for example. Delivery by bicycle is another approach, as we've seen in Florida, and recently one of our spotters alerted us to a similar initiative in Minnesota.

Minneapolis-based Valveless aims to make it easier for consumers to put farm-fresh fruits and vegetables on the table. Toward that end, it delivers produce and specially assorted boxes of veggies to consumers' door. Community-supported agriculture (CSA) participants can have their shares of produce delivered by VeloVeggies, which will also pick up consumers' compostable waste for delivery to its partner community gardens and vermiculture processor; as with Compost Cab, participants are also entitled to a portion of the resulting soil and worm castings in return. Perhaps most interesting of all, though, is VeloVeggies' VegBox, which features a selection of fresh, locally grown vegetables and fruits from the Twin Cities farmers’ markets. During the growing season, VeloVeggies packs its VegBoxes fresh every morning and delivers them by bicycle the same day. This past season, pricing per VegBox began at USD 18, including delivery.

The delivery of fresh food has always been fraught with challenges, of course, but it seems to be dovetailing beautifully with the current urban bicycle revolution. Time to start “pedaling” some produce for delivery through the city streets near you.
www.veloveggies.com