Success Story: Missouri
With timely advice and guidance from the Missouri SBTDC and other University of Missouri Extension Business Development Program (BDP) services and personnel, mother and daughter Kim Harrison and Olivia Vann invented an online service linking food buyers and sellers, called 2BuyAg. 2BuyAg is free for producers, with buyers paying a nominal percentage-based convenience fee.
2BuyAg firmly believes they are in the right spot at the right time to offer an online marketplace for food buyers to connect with local farmers. 2BuyAg, like many revolutionary ideas, was born of necessity. Harrison and her husband operate Harrison Valley Farms near Fulton, which has been producing and marketing pasture-raised and grass-fed beef and lamb since 2007. They sold to farmers’ markets, restaurants, food hubs, even individual buyers, endlessly driving across the state to make deliveries.
“The wear and tear on our family was just too much,” says the energetic Harrison. “We met ourselves coming and going. And it’s hard to do all the marketing and maintain the sheep and cattle, too.”
She began to think about how the farm could streamline marketing. She also realized her problems were by no means unique; all producers face the same issues. (more…)