A company based in British Columbia is aiming to rethink the food system by building intelligent infrastructure that connects farmers, shippers, buyers, and communities on a single platform.
Planet Food is the creation of Vancouver entrepreneur Aaron Veale.
His company’s journey began in a barn earlier this year during a meeting with farmers; that’s when Veale recognized serious challenges within local food supply chains, including fragmented systems and inefficiencies that hinder both producers and consumers.
In 2024, farmers in B.C. experienced a record net loss of $457 million, according to government statistics, with the sector operating at a net loss for nearly a decade now.
“Recognizing these issues, we set out to create a solution that not only addresses these pain points but also leverages cutting-edge technology to revolutionize the way local food moves from seed to plate,” says Veale.
By integrating artificial intelligence, automation, and advanced logistics, Planet Food hopes to empower farmers to sell smarter, move faster, and maintain independence, while offering consumer access to real, locally grown food without excessive markups.
Utilizing machine learning, Planet Food’s platform will optimize touch-points along the food supply chain, from demand forecasting to route planning. The tech is designed to unify commerce, cold storage, transportation, traceability, and nutrition into a single system.
Veale built Planet Food’s full-stack system over several weeks using Figma Make, a platform which accelerates app development through AI-powered assistance.
“Figma Make unlocks the ability to go to market really quickly,” he explained to freelance writer Matt Alagiah for Figma’s blog. “You can build something and show that people are using it. That’s a huge signal for investors.”
When developing the app, Veale garnered feedback from farmers battle-testing the software, and the entrepreneur continues to add more capabilities to Planet Food.
“In the past, you needed capital, a team of engineers, and a lot of time just to drum up initial support,” Veale explained to Alagiah.
But so far, with just Veale and his AI toolkit, more than 1,200 farms have expressed interest in Planet Food.
It’s enough demand that Veale is considering hiring a human or two.
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