Several former and current Indiana University athletes are using their business, Farmogic, to make farm-fresh food more accessible to students and provide delivery directly to customers’ front door.
Farmogic allows customers to order food from their website and get it delivered to their door based on their scheduled delivery dates.
“When you’re a college student, you have a lot of stuff going on — you have class and a hectic schedule — and one thing that we want to take off of their plate is how to know what the product is and how to spot a product in the grocery store,” Nico Bolivar, Farmogic team member and IU senior wrestler, said.
Farmogic specializes in meat and dairy products. On their website, one pound of 100% grass-fed ground beef from Hayes Grass-Fed Beef costs $6.99. Thirty-two ounces of organic vanilla yogurt from Twilight Farms costs $5.00. Farmogic’s most expensive product, a whole beef brisket from Hayes Grass-Fed Beef, is $108.68.
Jonathan Frazier, Farmogic team member and former Little 500 biker for Chi Alpha, said that the delivery schedule is based on the days the farms provide Farmogic the product. Frazier said customers will receive products made one or two days prior to their delivery.
“When we got into the competition season, we realized it was really hard to get this stuff,” Frazier said. “If we didn’t make it to a market Saturday, we couldn’t get this stuff unless we drove an hour to the farms, which are miles away from Bloomington.”
Members of the Farmogic team deliver the products to customers. There are currently five members of the team, yet not all of the members work delivery as they no longer live in Bloomington.
Delivery days are Monday, Wednesday and Friday and customers can expect a call about an hour before their product is delivered. Dairy products are only delivered on Mondays.
If the customer will not be available to accept the delivery on a specific day, Farmogic founder and IU senior wrestler Nick Willham said that the delivery driver will accommodate the customer and rearrange the delivery schedule.
Farmogic is also able to ship products anywhere across Indiana using dry ice. Frazier said that delivery usually takes one to two days depending on the time of the shipment. All delivery prices are based on zip codes.
“Honestly, the prices that we have may be a little more expensive than what you find in a grocery store. But when you are purchasing a quality good from Farmogic, the benefit that you receive from the food that you get is going to be a long-term investment,” Willham said.
Prior to partnering with any farms, Frazier said the team researched and visited farms and their farmers. Frazier said when looking for partners, they are looking for farms they describe as “special.”
Frazier said that it was important for the team to make sure that their business plan would also support the farmers economically, rather than taking their profits.
Currently, Farmogic partners with MKONO Farm, Twilight Dairy and Hayes Grass-Fed Beef.
MKONO Farm has been in Bloomington for two years and has partnered with Farmogic since May 2023.
“I just believe good animal husbandry is about knowing your animals. It’s not about throwing feed to them twice a day or rotating them to new land once a week. It’s about taking the time to get to know each animal so that you know when they are not feeling well or in pain or discomfort,” MKONO Farm operator and owner Amanda Hand said.
Hand said she watches all of their animals eat during every mealtime to make sure their eating patterns are still normal.
“If I only was a growing and finishing farm, I would not have survived for several reasons. But the biggest reason is emotionally, and I would not have been able to name any of them,” Hand said.
According to recent study done by MKONO farms, their KuneKune pigs offer 30% more Omega-3, 60% more Omega-6, 90% more Omega-9, 90% more Vitamin E and 2.8 times more Vitamin D than the average pig.
Frazier said that every product Farmogic offers has no added hormones, no antibiotics, no additives and is grass fed and grass finished. Grass finished means that the cattle are fed nothing but grass for the entirety of their life.
“If you go to Kroger or Fresh Thyme and it says grass-fed but not grass finished, it’s like a loophole people jump through to say ‘Hey, at some points in the cow’s life or when it’s convenient to use we feed them grass, but when it’s not, we aren’t going to,’” Frazier said.
According to Frazier, this process makes the meat leaner and tougher.
A study done by South Dakota State University Extension said “a grass-fed animals would be primarily or exclusively fed non-grain feedstuff during its lifetime, with an emphasis on free-range grazing.” This study states that the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s standard for a ‘grassfed’ beef animal is that it be 50% grass-fed.
South Dakota State University Extension describes a grass finished animal to be raised to a certain weight and yield grade via a non-grain, forage based-diet.
“I think people forget that in the same way the cow’s muscles are going to look different based on what they’re eating, so is ours,” Frazier said.
