A few words from Steve Knoblock

My connection to agriculture comes through my grandfather, Frank S. Knoblock, a photographer for the Deptarment of Agriculture in the 1920s, but my interest in fresh, local food was inspired by childhood experience. I grew up with a love of fresh vegetables learned from visits to roadside farm stands we stopped at on the way home from the beach and through the bounty from my grandmother's back yard garden. The gradual decline of the tomato exerted an powerful influence on me.

The original vision for Farmfoody.org came together in a moment when Tom described to me how much time answering customer's questions took away from farming. Although my vision for farmfoody.org began with a way to ease the burden farmers have relating to their customers, I began to realize farm food is about more than finding fresh vegetables. We don't just visit a farmer's market or roadside stand because of the fresh vegetables. We go there to experience a sense of community and to participate in the choices we make about food. As I learned more, I understood that to fix the problems of food and agriculture, a conversation connecting eaters to growers was necessary to work things out. With Tom's insight into the world of farming and my vision of a social network for farms and eaters, we were all set to build the farmfoody.org you see today.

Steve is an Arlington, Virginia web developer and programmer, who has founded and built websites since 1995 and a member of the Folkstreams advisory board.

A few words from Tom Davenport

I'm no spring chicken; I was born in 1939. But I always used computers as soon as they came out, and my wife did, too. When I moved back to the farm in the 1970s, I used [the farm] as a base for my film career. My father was handling the farm into the mid-1990s, and I had to take it over. I had to give up filmmaking for a while and try to save the farm. It was very important to us as a family. We began planting peach trees and direct-marketing beef and using the Internet extensively to do this. We would update the Web site almost every day, and it became a tremendous tool for us. But it was outside the realm of possibility for a normal farmer.

Tom is a farmer and internationally recognized filmmaker, founder and project director of the Folkstreams.net project, operating a multi-generational family farm (Hollin Farms) in Delaplane, Virginia.