OREGON (October 13, 2010)—Phil Greif and Scot Laney realized they were spending too much money trucking their products to Portland farmers markets, so they formed Eat Oregon First.
The company cuts costs for Oregon farmers marketing their goods in Metro Portland.
The company has been around for about 16 months, and is filling a critical need for Oregon farmers as well as buyers wanting to purchase artisan-quality goods, says Deborah Kane, Ecotrust’s vice president of food and farms and creator of the food networking site FoodHub. Laney and Greif were first introduced via FoodHub.
The operation is blending the line between farmer and distributor—incorporating some of the positive practices of industrial, macro-food giants like Sysco and US Foodservice, while only selling small-production Oregon items within days of harvest, Laney says.
“Not everything about corporate food is bad—just at that giant level,” he says. Laney explains that he offers farmers healthy prices for volume while competing in the Portland restaurant and retail market. So far, he’s supplying around 20 chefs and specialty retail customers.
Read more at Willamette Week.
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