06/15/2026
Last year, I got the opportunity to sell microgreens through a large food distributor. I was thrilled. Optimistic.
I had spreadsheets, production plans, revenue projections. I possessed the kind of confidence that can only come from not knowing what's about to happen.
My product cost about $16 per unit to produce. I priced it at $20 per unit. A nice, safe margin. Twenty-five percent seemed reasonable.
I wasn't planning to buy a yacht or anything, but I was pretty excited about finally seeing some scale.
Then the first fee showed up.
Okay. Fair enough.
Then another.
Then another... on and on.
At some point, I felt like a homeowner discovering raccoons in the attic. Every time I moved a box, another pair of eyes stared back at me.
There were marketing fees. Software fees. Fees to receive orders. Fees to get paid. Bank fees. Processing fees. Dock fees. Subscription fees...These weren't little nuisance fees. They added up to thousands of dollars a month.
Everybody seemed to be making money.
Except the farmer.
By the time all the dust settled, my $20 product was effectively earning me about $10.
Remember, it cost me about $16 to grow.
Meanwhile, customers who I sent to the distributor, were paying roughly $40 for that same product and still weren't getting my greens.
That was the moment my rose-colored glasses slipped off.
Not because anyone was doing anything unusual. In fact, that's the strange part.
Everyone was doing exactly what the system was designed to do. Every hand that touched the transaction took a little piece.
And the more I looked, the more I wondered if we've accidentally built a system that's better at moving money than moving food.
Somewhere in the between the farmer and the customer, an entire economic ecosystem has emerged whose primary crop seems to be fees.
Now don't get me wrong. Distribution matters. Banking matters. Software matters. Logistics matter.
But if farmers are struggling, customers are struggling, and food keeps getting more expensive, maybe it's worth asking where is the money going?
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Tagged some great farms too!
