Coming to Costa Rica in June 2013: Barefoot Gourmet, Organic Food Company
May 04, 2013 in Food and beverage, You Think So
A recent report in the English language Costa Rican online news site, The Tico Times, tells us Barefoot Gourmet founder Andreas Schmidt and his team will launch the company’s new Local Food Network, an online service with its goal to change the way Costa Rican residents eat by connecting consumers directly to organic farmers across the country.
Despite Costa Rica’s worldwide image as leader in sustainability and green practices the World Resources Institute, WRI, provides data that sharply contradicts this image. According WRI to Costa Rica uses more pesticides in agriculture than any other country in the world.
“Barefoot Gourmet founder Andreas Schmidt and his team will launch the company’s new Local Food Network, an online service with its goal to improve the quality of foods available to Costa Rican residents.”
Schmidt, former CEO for AOL Europe, was also a co-founder of Napster the online music service. He says after the loss of its legal battles thus causing its demise, he decided to take a break from twenty-five years of working to sail around the world. That was five years ago when he first visited Costa Rica. Two years later he and his wife, who he met when she was the manager of an eco-resort in the jungle, decided to settle in Costa Rica.
The Schmidts found it difficult to find any fresh or organic food in the Nicoya Peninsula; as a result they developed the Barefoot Gourmet concept. It’s a system designed to help bring change to one of the biggest problems faced by the inhabitants of the country: healthy food, nutritious food that doesn’t destroy the earth.
Stay tuned folks…this looks like a very promising enterprise!