Talk to the farmer

Florida's tomato growers are a shy bunch.

It's understandable. After all, the industry has long been a favorite whipping boy of the labor movement and radical environmentalists.

But at least one grower is emerging from the tomato patch. Lipman, which bills itself as North America's largest field-tomato grower, has launched a website for consumers (LipmanKitchen.com) that lets people talk directly to the farmer, among other features.

It's part of the Immokalee-based grower's “access to the acre” strategy to educate consumers who want to know where and how their produce is grown.

Traditionally, Florida's large growers such as Lipman have mostly focused on their immediate customers: Grocery and restaurant chains that buy tomatoes by the truckload. Lipman doesn't sell produce directly to consumers.

But new technology that allows growers to track individual shipments as well as consumer demand for more information about their food means growers like Lipman must be more sensitive to the needs of the consumers even if it doesn't sell to them directly.

Combined with social media such as Facebook and Twitter, Lipman strategy opens the fields that have been out of sight to most of us. It's a smart strategy that recognizes the end consumer matters.