Full Stack Food

Markets and data transparency may sound like dry subjects, until you hear Kellee James talk about her life’s work. Kellee is the CEO and founder of Mercaris, a market data service, and trading platform for organic agricultural products. Over the course of her life, Kellee saw the power of exchanges in addressing social or climate issues. One example is, how cap and trade programs solved the problem of acid rain. And now, Mercaris is bringing more transparency to organic markets by providing farmers, processors, and consumers packaged goods companies with pricing data for organic foods. Mercaris is also a trading platform for organic commodities. In providing that transparency, Mercaris helps remove the hidden costs of those foods, and could help incentivize more farmers to switch over to organic crops. While it’s hard to imagine Kellee working on anything but market economics…that subject was pretty far flung from her childhood dream of riding horses for a living….