Economic Networks

This is a guest post from Matt Noyes, a social movement educator and organizer based in Colorado Springs, Colorado who writes on horizontal education, union democracy and reform, workers cooperatives, and solidarity economy. In the fediverse, he is @Matt_Noyes@social.coop

1. What is OFN?

• The slogan now on their website:

  • “Food, unincorporated. Sometimes the best way to fix the system is to start a new one.”

• My favorite and the one I will use to introduce OFN today:

  • – “Food sovereignty that comes with software”

• OFN defines itself as a social enterprise that develops and manages
  a decentralized, open source, online platform on which:

  • farmers and producers worldwide can sell produce and
    products through local supply networks;
  • food hubs, buyers clubs, and cooperatives can manage
    collaborative purchasing and distribution;
  • consumers can find and buy local food, organic,
    regenerative, etc. individually and/or collaboratively.

2. What does it look like?

• If you go to https://openfoodnetwork.net/ you’ll see this.
  (openfoodnetwork.org is the global site)
• A typical farm in our region, New Roots Farm in Cañon City, looks
  like this: https://openfoodnetwork.net/new-roots/shop#/home
• There are differences, but basically it looks like a lot of other
  online local food distribution platforms, e.g. LocalLine.ca, and, as
  an e-commerce platform, it functions like them.

3. What makes OFN different?

• Its mission: “food sovereignty” and “starting a new system”

  • What is food sovereignty?

    • Think about the food system, borrowing from the materials economy diagram used by the Story of Stuff project

    • Four main steps or sites:

      • production (clearing, cultivation, irrigation,
        harvesting, etc.)
      • distribution (sorting, packing, shipping, storage,
        selling, etc.)
      • consumption (preparing, cooking, eating, storing,
        sharing, etc.)
      • disposal/recycling (gathering, collecting, sorting,
        composting, producing mulch, tea, etc.)

  • “Sovereignty” is an interesting term, makes you think of
    Kings/Queens, dictators, or Gods, or humans being granted
    dominion over all things… but there are other concepts:

    • “power over” vs. “power with”
    • individual and collective

  • we can say sovereignty is the power, authority, and capacity to:

    • know
    • choose
    • decide
    • control
    • govern
    • violate the rules
    • CHANGE the rules

  • So food sovereignty is ultimately the power to transform the
    food system

    • at all points in the cycle (not just deciding which product
      to buy)
    • can involve various forms of ownership: private, collective, commoning...

  • The opposite of sovereignty? servitude, subordination

    • in our context this means subordination to capital (usually
      in the form of large corporations, investment funds, banks,
      land developers, etc.)
    • collective, democratic ownership – cooperatives, land
      trusts, commons – is an important tool for blocking capital
      sovereignty and protecting our food sovereignty

  • Most important

    • sovereignty (like subordination) is a process, something
      we do together, implying organization and action

  • Finally, food sovereignty extends into logistics, too.

    • Data
    • Communications
    • Protocols

• Its structure: OFN’s focus is on helping people (farmers,
  truckers, makers, consumers, composters, etc.) collaborate to build
  food sovereignty networks. How? In part, through shared use of a
  software platform that we can use to organize in various ways.

  • How are we organized?
    
    – Five Patterns of Community Food Enterprise (based on New Economic Model for African Farming Networks)
    
    • direct producer-consumer exchange (New Roots Farm)
    • farmer hub or co-op to consumer via CSA or other subscription (TapRoot Cooperative, Excelsior Food Hub)
    • producer cooperative direct to consumer (Colorado Farm and Art Market)
    • buyer’s club – consumer to producers (Hunt or Gather)
    • multi-stakeholder producer & consumer food cooperative (just an idea at this point in our local area)
  • these patterns already exist and can be networked on OFN in
    the form of a local food sovereignty group or network that is
    part of a larger network of such groups

• Its business model(s): OFN is a type of platform cooperative.
  (See Internet of Ownership ioo.coop)

  • In this case a decentralized network of collectives, cooperatives, and non-profits with a shared admin/developer staff
  • Funded through donations

• **Its software model: **Free Libre Open Source (FLOSS) – more or
  less like Linux OS

  • beer and freedom
  • anyone can access, copy, contribute to, fork... the code
  • why? To make the software a shared resource on which to build newer and better platforms
  • akin to a commons in agriculture, part of a shared set of
    resources