Big data, small farms and a tale of two tomatoes

The path to better food is paved with data, says entrepreneur Erin Baumgartner. Drawing from her experience running a farm-to-table business, she outlines her plan to help create a healthier, zero-waste food system that values the quality and taste of small, local farm harvests over factory-farmed produce.

So data and analytics are dramatically
changing our everyday lives.

Not just online,

not just in some distant future,

but in the physical world,

and in very real and tangible ways.

I spent the past 11 years
of my life as a geek at MIT,

working in big data labs

that seek to use data science
to study the physical world

and try to solve society's great problems.

The field of big data seeks to analyze
massive pools of data

using computational tools
to find patterns and trends.

Data can be a really
extraordinary storyteller,

unveiling the hidden narratives
of things in our everyday lives

that we never would have seen.

I find the personal stories of inanimate
things brought to life

to be extraordinarily compelling.

I want to highlight, first,
two projects from my time at MIT

that I think highlight
this phenomenon really well.

The first is called Trash Track,

and in this project, we sought to better
understand the waste-management system,

to answer the question

"Where does your trash go
when you throw it away?"

Your old coffee cup or that flip phone

that you carried around
in the early 2000s,

or a bagel or this morning's paper --

where do these things go?

This data didn't exist,
so we had to create it.

We answered and then
visualized this question

by installing small sensors
into pieces of trash

and then throwing them
into the waste system.

And what you're seeing here is the data.

Every line, every node that you see

is a single piece of trash
moving through the city of Seattle,

and then across the state,

and then across the country,

as weeks and months go by.

And it's important to visualize this data,

because none of you
are, probably, sitting here thinking,

"Yeah, that looks right."

(Laughter)

"That's working like it should, right?"

Because, no --

(Laughter)

What the data shows us
is a highly inefficient system

whose inherent brokenness
I don't think we really would have seen

had the sensors not done
the journalism for us.

A second project
that I'd have to highlight

has to do with creating robots
that dive into sewers

and sample wastewater.

I know that sewage kind of gets a bad rap,

but it's actually kind of awesome,

because it can tell us
an incredible amount

about the health of our communities.

This technology was spun out
by a group call Biobot Analytics,

who's creating a cutting-edge technology

to turn our sewers into modern-day
health observatories.

Their goal is to study opioids
within the sewage

to better understand
consumption in cities.

And this data is key,

because it really helps cities understand
where people are using,

how to allocate resources

and the effectiveness
of programming over time.

Once again, the technology
that's built into this machine

is pulling back the curtain

and showing us something about our cities
that we never would have seen without it.

So it turns out, as we see,

that big data is really everywhere --

even in your toilet.

And so now that we've talked
about trash and sewage,

let's move on ...

to food.

(Laughter)

A year ago, I left MIT
to pursue a passion in food,

and in 2017,

started a company with my husband,
called Family Dinner.

The goal of our company
is to create community around local food

and the people who grow it.

To make this happen,
we're using data analytics,

automation and technology

to build a distributed
network of local farms

and to make improvements
on the food system.

So what we see here

is that the broad techniques
and the mission of what we're trying to do

is really not dissimilar
from the work at the MIT labs.

Which brings us to a critical question:

Why exactly would someone
leave a very promising career

at one of the top
urban science labs in the world

to drive carrots around
in her mom's Acura?

(Laughter)

It's a great car.

Because I believe
that the story of local food

needs to be understood, told and elevated,

and in many ways,

I think that nerds like us
are really uniquely poised to tell it.

So where are we starting?

What's our starting point?

The current national food system
is optimized for one thing only,

and that's corporate profit, right?

And think about that.

The most compelling reason
for food companies to exist

is not to feed hungry people,

it's not to make delicious-tasting food.

It's profit.

And that has detrimental effects
at all levels of our food system.

The antibiotics and pesticides
that are being put into our food

are detrimental to our health.

Price pressure is forcing
small farms out of business.

In fact, a lot of the things
that you think about farms

no longer exist.

Farms don't look like farms,
they look like factories.

And at the end of the day,

the quality of the food
that we're eating really suffers, too.

A factory-farm tomato
may kind of look like a regular tomato:

bright red exterior ...

But when you bite into it,

the taste and texture
just leave you wanting.

And we know that perhaps
the greatest tragedy in all of this

is that between 30 and 40 percent
of this food is just wasted ...

thrown away.

That is 1.6 billion tons.

I can't even wrap my head
around that number.

1.6 billion tons.

That's 1.2 trillion dollars a year

in wasted food.

That is the cost of on-demand eating

and convenience

and the broken food system.

Now, where's this waste happening?

Where's all this waste coming from?

Well, we know that it happens in the field

when you don't pick
the sexiest-looking potatoes.

We know that it happens in transit,

at the warehouses,

in the grocery stores.

And finally, on our own kitchen counters,

when we determine that that spotty,
brown banana no longer looks so yummy.

All that waste, all that effort.

Food is planted,

grown, harvested, shipped,

and then just thrown away.

We think that there has to be
a better way.

And so how to we improve upon this?

How do we make a better system?

In order to do this,

we understand that we need
to eliminate waste

in the food supply chain.

We need to get data
in the hands of farmers,

so that they can make better predictions.

So they can, you know,
kind of compete with the big guy.

And then finally,

we need to prize, as a company,

quality and taste above everything,

so that people really value
the delicious food on their plates.

This, we believe, is the better system.

This is the better way.

And the path to that better way
is paved with data.

To highlight all of this,
I want to tell the tale of two tomatoes.

We'll talk about them one by one.

A tomato in itself contains
a beautiful snapshot

of everything you might want to know
about the life cycle of that fruit:

where it was grown,
what it was treated with,

nutritional value,

miles traveled to get to your plate,

CO2 emissions along the way.

All of that information,

all those little chapters
in one small fruit.

It's very exciting.

This is tomato number one.

This is the guy that you'll find
in sub shops, supermarkets

and fast-food joints around the world.

It's got a really long
and complicated backstory.

It's been treated with a cocktail
of, like, a dozen pesticides

and it has traveled at least
1,600 miles to get to your house.

And the image here is green,

because these tomatoes are picked
when green and hard as a rock,

and then they are gassed along the way

so that when they arrive
at the destination,

they look bright and shiny
and red and ripe.

All of that effort,

all of that agricultural
innovation and technology

to create a product
that is entirely without taste.

And onto the second tomato in our tale.

This is the local version of the fruit.

Its story is much, much shorter.

This guy was grown by Luke Mahoney
and his family at Brookford Farm

in Canterbury, New Hampshire.

It's got a pretty boring backstory.

It was planted,

sat in the sun

and then it was picked.

(Laughter)

That's it.

Like, you wouldn't want to --

yeah, there's not much more to that.

And it traveled maybe 70 miles
to get your plate.

But the difference is dramatic.

I want you think about the last time
you ate a fresh, summer tomato.

And I know we're all
covered in our jackets,

but think about it.

The last time you ate
a tomato from the garden.

It's warm from the sun,

it's richly red,

maybe it smells like dirt.

There's something nostalgic
and almost magical in that experience.

The taste and the flavor are incomparable.

And we really don't have to travel
super far to get it.

Now this story extends up the food chain,

from the fruits and the vegetables
that are on our plate

to the animals and the animal
products that we consume.

What goes into raising them,

and more importantly,
what doesn't go into raising them,

is critically important.

Luke and his family have 60 cows.

They use traditional methods.

They do it the old way:

pasture-raised,

no hormones, no antibiotics,

hay for days.

And what they're doing here
is just treating cows like they're cows,

not like they're in a science experiment.

He's raising animals the way
that his grandfather

and his grandfather would have.

And at the end, it's just better.

It's better for the animals;

it's better for the environment.

Luke is not optimizing
for profit or price,

but for taste and for humanity.

And what you're thinking is,
"There's already a solution to this.

It's the farmer's markets."

The ones that many of you visit

and the ones that I really enjoy.

They are a wonderful, but,
in many ways, suboptimal solution.

For us as the consumers,
it's kind of great, right?

You go,

there's this beautiful bounty of food,

you get the warm and fuzzies
for supporting a local farm

and you get the experience of trying
something new and trying diverse products.

And inevitably, there's some guy
playing the ukulele

somewhere in the background.

(Laughter)

But for the farmers,
this presents a lot of risk, right?

You wake up at four.

You pack your truck, you hire a team,

you get to your stall,

but you have no guarantees

that you're going to move
your product that day.

There's too many variables in New England.

For example, the weather,

which is just, like,
a little bit unpredictable here.

The weather is one of the many X factors

that determine whether or not
a market will be worth it for the farmers.

Every time, they roll the dice.

And there's another option.

Here, we're talking about CSAs:

community-supported agriculture.

In this model, customers pay up front,

bearing the financial risk for the farms.

Farmers grow what they can

and the customers enjoy that bounty.

This also has a couple issues.

It's great for the farmer,

because they're ensuring
that they'll sell what they buy,

but for us,

we still have to go
and pick up that share,

and we know that a lot of farms
can't grow a huge diversity of products,

so sometimes, you're stuck with a mountain
of any one particular thing.

Maybe this has happened to some of you.

And what do you do with 25 pounds
of rutabaga in the dead of winter?

I still don't know.

So back to the question.

How do we fix this?

What we're hoping to do
and what we're hoping to build

is just a better way to CSA.

And there are three core innovations
that make this thing hum.

The first of which

is a subscription-based
e-commerce platform,

which helps us create
a consistent demand for our farmers

throughout the year.

The subscription part here is key.

Orders process weekly,

customers opt out instead of opt in --

that means we've got kind of the same
number of orders week to week.

Second, this means
that if farmers can sell online,

they're no longer limited to the geography
directly around their farm

or to the number of markets
that they can sell.

We've blown the doors
off of that for them.

Second: demand forecasting.

We're using analytics to allow
ourselves to look into the future

and forecast demand.

This lets farmers know
how much to harvest in the near-term,

but also what to plant going forward.

If 200 orders process on Monday,

then we buy to meet that exact demand.

200 heads of broccoli,

200 pieces of salmon,
et cetera, et cetera.

This automation in ordering

means that here, we are eliminating
the waste in the food system

that bothers us all so much,

because we are ensuring that the supply
meets the exact demand.

It also allows us to look
into the future with the farmers

and do crop planning.

So if we can say to them,
in June of this year,

"I'm going to need 400 pounds of asparagus

and 500 pounds of berries every week,"

they can plant that accordingly,

knowing with confidence
that they will sell

everything that they have grown.

And finally, we use
a route-optimization software

to help us solve the problem
of the traveling salesman.

We get a fleet of workers to come in
and help us go the last mile,

bringing all these goodies
directly to your door.

Without data science

and a super-capable, wonderful team,

none of this would be possible.

So maybe you've seen

that we've got some sort of fiery,
passionate core beliefs.

Yes, we're trying to build
a sustainable business,

but our eye is not only on profit,

it's on building a better,
holistic system of food.

And here's what we value.

People first.

We're trying to build
community around food,

the people who love it
and the people who grow it.

We built this company
to support small farms.

Zero waste.

We all hate wasting food,
it just feels wrong --

even that weirdo banana

that's been sitting around
on your coffee table for too long.

And lastly, taste.

If it doesn't taste good,

if it's not that, like,
perfect summer tomato,

why bother?

So what we've done
is worked with all these local farms

to bring their things in

and then to drop them
directly at your door,

so that we're connecting you right to them

and making, again, a more holistic system.

This is our vision of the future.

To extend this model beyond Boston,
beyond New England

and across the country.

To create a nationwide
distributed network of local farms

and to connect all these farmers

with the people like you
who will love their food.

We believe, at the end of the day,

that really insisting on eating local food
is a revolutionary act.

And we invite you to join us.

And who knows?

You may even make
some friends along the way.

Thank you very much.

(Applause)