Exploring an Opportunity to Support Local Food Systems through Online Food Delivery Services with Live-Streaming Farms in China

The use of online food delivery (OFD) services has skyrocketed despite lingering concerns about food safety during the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic has impacted most business sectors, including local farms and ranches whose channels to sell through local food markets have shut down. With the demand for food delivery is increasing while the local food market at risk, we saw an opportunity to connect these two complementary businesses through “live-streaming farms.” We conducted interviews to investigate the current challenges of using OFD services, designed and evaluated the concept of live-streaming farms in OFD services to promote sustainable local food systems. Our findings indicate that offering extra food-related information through live streaming could potentially reduce primary concerns about food safety for OFD users and build local food networks. We conclude by discussing the design considerations of live-streaming farms that can improve user experience with OFD and support the local food systems.