Foodie consumer? Food provider? If you’re in Alaska, California, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, or Washington, and you’ve got $100, you might want to check out Food Hub, which is a business to business network designed to connect regional food growers with food buyers. It’s available at http://food-hub.org/ and it’s in beta.

There’s currently a special on the $100 a year subscription fee — if you sign up before the end of the year you can get a subscription for $80 a year. You can also get a “guest pass” if you want to try the service before paying for it. Using a guest pass I logged in to check it out.

As noted in the first paragraph there’s a limited number of places Food Hub is currently operating. Further, Food Hub currently only covers the following items: meat, seafood, fruits, vegetables, and herbs & spices. (Additional products, like drinks and processed foods, are coming soon.) If you go to the browse area of Food Hub once logged in, you’ll see 69 available companies. You have the option to filter the viewed companies by buyer or seller (there are slightly more buyers) or by type (farmers, fishermen, ranchers, grocery, etc.)

I did a search for apples and got about a dozen results. One of them, Sun Gold Farm, is a seller and has a page on Food Hub at http://food-hub.org/users/view/360. The page shows what the farm grows, when the produce is available, and terms of purchase like minimum order. There’s also contact information for the farm including phone number and Web site. Another result, Portland Public Schools, is a buyer and has a page at http://food-hub.org/users/view/699. This page contains information on what the buyer wants to buy, contact information, and payment information (Net 30, etc.)

If you can’t find what you’re looking for, you can set up a want list with deadline, which other members can view.

You can get more information about Food Hub at http://food-hub.org/pages/faq. There’s also information on the parent company, Ecotrust, at http://www.ecotrust.org/foodfarms/.