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Video Helps Farm Connect With Customers
Here’s a new idea for anyone who sells livestock or produce direct to consumers: set up on-farm cameras so they can actually watch their food grow.
  The idea has caught on in Japan, where landowners mount cameras overlooking garden plots they rent to weekend gardeners. During the week renters can briefly escape city life by checking the progress of their garden plants via cell phone or computer.
  We couldn’t find any similar use of web cams in the U.S., but we did come across Terry and Steve Golson who set up 4 eye-level cameras aimed at their chickens and goats.
  They set up the webcams (www.hencam.com) to promote a book Terry wrote called The Farmstead Egg Cookbook. It caught on, even drawing enough media attention to earn them an appearance on the Martha Stewart program in 2010. On its own, a live stream webcam may not add to the bottom line, but it helps connect with people.
  Golson says it’s important to remember that the camera catches everything. She has people who know her schedule and wait to see her do chores and gather eggs from her 19 hens.


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2014 - Volume #38, Issue #2