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Using technology to break open the trillion-dollar food industry could usher in the next era of agriculture.

The growing interest in local food and food safety has spurred a small community of technologically minded entrepreneurs to create a range of food-oriented social applications. Their goal? To open up the food chain from the farm to our mouths and make it possible for consumers, through social media and web-based tools, to know more about where their food comes from, how it's grown and the provenance of ingredients. The good news is that open-sourcing the trillion-dollar food market may take less time than we would expect.