byHeather Callaghan

Places like Wal-mart brag that they eliminate the middle man; but they haven’t seen the likes of The Farmery.

What if your food was grown at your store – and it’s not even picked yet until you come by to cut the plants. You’re not a shopper, you’re a harvester. Better yet, what if Farmeries come to urban neighborhoods – both high and low end?

Meet the Willy Wonka of agriculture…

Farmery VimeofromGary BreeceonVimeo.

Founder Ben Greene (for real?) wanted to “tighten the gap” more than any retailer and farmer with an all-in-one ‘stop, shop and grow.’ A greenhouse shop made from shipping containers where shoppers can talk to the people who grew and learn like they never have before. Be assured of the absolute highest quality and fresh factor available. The plants are grown with 50/50 aquaponics/hydroponics technology.

Ben has the needed life’s experience, even with unsuccessful past farming, and the vision and innovation to manifest this plan – still in action already for 5 years. It just didn’t make sense to he and his team to have all these different stops – farm, distribution, retailer.

Imagine the ambiance of greens, strawberries, dwarf chili peppers, and herbs, and mushrooms when you walk in. As well as fare from local growers. Ben said:

The wonderful thing about agriculture is you don’t have to try very hard to make function look pretty. I just concentrate on making the growing system as efficient as the space will allow.