Local farmers struggle to reach consumers and compete with industrial food suppliers

Small-scale farmers in Sussex and similar regions lack direct access to consumers, forcing them to rely on intermediaries who take significant margins, making their products uncompetitive against mass-produced alternatives. Consumers want to buy local but can't easily find or access nearby farmers, and farmers can't efficiently distribute or market their products. Current solutions (farmers markets, word-of-mouth) don't scale and leave most farmers economically vulnerable.