With growing concerns regarding antibiotics and pesticides in our food, there has been a big push among health enthusiasts to go organic and buy local. Sometimes, even if you do purchase organic food, it’s still hard to track exactly where it came from. Well, now there’s an app for that.

The Living Goods Program is a conceptual app that was on of the 18 Greener Gadgets finalists. Basically, the app allows users to scan the barcodes on products and instantly provides details on the producer, how far the food has come, if the product is in season, historical pricing, detailed consumer ratings and even your own purchasing history.

By using the Living Goods Program, eating local becomes promoted and consumers soon realize the impact they make with each and every purchase, in real-time. Buying local food reduces your carbon footprint, helps the local economy, and can even mean higher nutritional values. The intentions of the app are also to help out farmers, allowing them to better market their products to distributors and customers. Providing information about the farm, how far the food traveled, nutritional value and average pricing allows consumers to make much more informed decisions about what they are putting in their body.

The new Starbucks Mobile Card App offers consumers convenience by making use of QR codes. In select Starbucks stores throughout the US, consumers can now pay with their iPhone. The 2D barcode, or QR code, is created by consumers and can then be scanned by the barista in order to pay. As of now, this capability is only available in select locations because each store must be upgraded to new barcode scanners capable of scanning 2D barcodes on lcd screens.

In addition to implementing QR codes, the new iPhone app takes advantage of Starbucks gift cards. Users of the app will now be able to constantly keep track of how much money is left on their giftcards. In addition, users can easily reload money onto their gift cards right from their iPhone. As an incentive to use the app, Starbucks is offering a $5 credit to anyone who adds $25 or more to their gift cards from their phone.

If one of the biggest businesses in the US begins to implement QR codes in more of their stores, other retailers will soon follow suite. QR codes are a great way to pay, in addition to use for customer loyalty cards and coupons, straight from your phone! Only time will tell if the success of QR codes in select Starbucks locations will lead to a roll-out of new barcode scanners in all locations, which would finally make QR codes very popular in the States.

CardStar is a unique iPhone application that allows users to leave all of their rewards and membership cards at home and store the barcodes on their iPhone or iPod touch, where most common merchants can then scan the barcodes directly from the screen.

To the average consumer, this technology will definitely come in handy, but to us at barcode.com, this technology is revolutionary. Previously, 1D barcodes, which are used at most stores, could not be scanned directly from the LCD screen. This is because while the human eye will see black and white barcodes, the screen is really made up of red, green, and blue lines, which interfere with a laser scanner. The folks at CardStar were able to get around this by re-configuring the way the barcode/image is rendered on the LCD in portrait mode.

In a controlled environment using a Symbol/Motorola M2008-1400-0100 ZNR barcode scanner, CardStar was able to achieve a 100% success rate in scanning various reward cards fromm different merchants. They decided to test their new technology in common chain stores in Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Washington, DC and achieved an 80% success rate. However, there were many uncontrolled variables such as user error, lighting, and antiquated equipment, but CardStar continues to experiment in order to achieve the highest scan success rates possible.

In order to maximize scan rates, CardStar suggests that merchants use handheld scanners, and hold approximately 5-7 inches away, just shy of being perpendicular. Consumers can achieve successful scans by using high-quality screen protectors and making sure the phone is free of excessive fingerprints and dust.

Currently, CardStar offers a list of over 130 companies across 6 categories where you can start adding your card information for use on the application. Future plans for CardStar include implementing custom coupons based on buying habits that would be sent straight to your phone, appeasing both consumers and manufacturers. As Andy Miller, the brains behind CardStar says, it’s all about having “the right offer, at the right time, at the right place.” For a demonstration of how Cardstar works, you can view the video. If you’re interested in learning more about CardStar’s iPhone application, check out their website.