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Upstate distributor to use farming app to connect with food producers

Jenna Flanagan/Innovation Trail
Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) with Field Goods owner Donna Williams, her son and Hudson Valley farmer Ken Migliorelli.

Want to know what crops local farmers are producing? There’s an app for that, or at least there will be one soon.

Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) announced federal funding for Greene County food distributor Field Goods, to integrate that technology into their business model.

Donna Williams’ company Field Goods connects many Capital Region and Hudson Valley farms with a larger, diverse consumer base, but it can be tricky.

“Getting produce from local farmers, particularly in the northeast, their inventory can change radically overnight," Williams said. "So this app will help us get that information in a more consolidated way.”

The yet unnamed app would allow farmers to give real time information on the produce they’ll be sending to Field Goods for distributing.

Credit Jenna Flanagan / Innovation Trail
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Innovation Trail
Field Goods owner Donna Williams and Sen. Charles Schumer.

Schumer says supporting a company like Field Goods benefits upstate agriculture.

“Field Goods has found the sweet spot," Schumer said. "It’s the perfect match between consumers who want locally grown, healthy fruits and vegetables each week and farmers who want to sell products that are in abundance without a lot of middle men.”

The $50,000 grant is through the USDA and should help streamline communications between the 70 local farms Field Goods works with and their more than 2,000 customers.

Jenna first knew she was destined for a career in journalism after following the weekly reports of the Muppet News Flash as a child. In high school she wrote for her student newspaper and attended a journalism camp at SUNY New Paltz, her Hudson Valley hometown. Jenna then went on to study communications and journalism at Seton Hall University in South Orange, NJ where she earned her Bachelor of Arts.