The Signal: Searches for "food supply" are at unprecedented highs as people around the world confront uncertainty caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Now more than ever, creative entrepreneurs are needed to help move food, equipment, knowledge, and other resources in order to ensure the stability of global food supplies. Opportunities are varied, and include:
DTC Meat: COVID-19 outbreaks have forced several large US meat processors to close indefinitely, making it difficult to keep supermarket shelves stocked.
While ranchers have plenty of livestock, and searches for "local meat" are high, there’s currently no easy way for these two groups to connect. Safety laws prohibit ranchers from processing the meat themselves, and prevent them from using smaller meat processors (which don’t undergo the required safety inspections).
One option -- "Locker Meat" -- allows a farmer to transfer ownership of an animal directly to the consumer. The animal can then legally be processed at a small custom-exempt meat processor, and shipped to the new owner for consumption.
Entrepreneurs can help facilitate this, either by building platforms that connect ranchers and consumers, or by building individual websites for local farmers and helping with marketing.
The Food Safety and Inspection Service keeps a listing of meat processors along with their contact info, and the Niche Meat Processor Assistance Network maintains a listing of key contacts by state. The ATTRA Sustainable Agriculture Program also manages databases of poultry processing plants, food banks, and farm stands all of which may be key to platform solutions.
"Teach a man to… Farm?": Distribution alone won’t be enough. A recent study found that less than one-third of the world’s population could subsist off of locally sourced crops. To build true resilience, citizens around the globe will need to once again learn how to produce at least some of their own food.
And they seem to be taking to the task apace. Searches for "growing potatoes" are now way more popular than "Gucci bag" on Pinterest, and the r/vegetablegardening and r/permaculture subreddits are seeing exponential growth with 36k and 97k subscribers, respectively.
While many guides already exist, there are still plenty of opportunities to unearth. A brief look at starred reviews of top-selling gardening books on Amazon reveals many unanswered questions, including:
All of these could make for good books, online courses, or free lead magnets used to build email lists for further marketing.
Reviewers in the western US also asked for geographically specific advice, since things like the length of the season, and the intensity of the sun, vary dramatically. Aggregating this data, similar to the way NomadList collects location data, could be useful for greenhorn gardeners.
Once they’ve grown the food, people need to know how to process and store it. Many people are searching for information related to canning, pickling, fermentation, and dehydration. Canning green beans, in particular, seems to offer lots of opportunity. While there are currently no courses dedicated exclusively to this, the CPC suggests this could be a valuable audience.
Tools of the Trade: Amazon searches for "seeds for planting vegetables" are up 22,500% in the last 90 days (280k searches), according to Jungle Scout, and searches for "raised garden bed" are up 779% with 232k searches. People are looking for everything from soil to grow-lights to gardening kits and more.
While some searches -- like those for "garden beds" -- typically see lift as the northern hemisphere prepares for spring, volume this year is way higher than usual, as the chart below clearly shows.
One surprisingly profitable niche seems to be seed-starter trays. One seller, AIFUSI, moved $36k worth of generic plastic seed-starter trays last month, generating about $20k in profit, according to Jungle Scout. Another, Window Garden, sold $495k worth of their unique Veg Ledge Seed Starting Kits.
"Look at what the competition is selling, and see if you can make it better," Frank Catalano of Window Garden told us, "I literally woke up one morning looking out the window, and started wondering if you could grow microgreens there. I started experimenting with cardboard cut-outs and that’s how we invented the Veg Ledge."
Frank and his wife, Lisa, are on a mission to promote plant-based lifestyles, and encourage other entrepreneurs to get involved in teaching people to grow food. "Look at the opportunity in this space," Catalano said, "No pun intended… It’s growing."