#063 Food Unincorporated
How a grass-roots system went global, with Open Food Network co-founder Kirsten Larsen
Kirsten Larsen is co-founder with partner Serenity Hill of the Open Food Network. It’s a not-for-profit, global collaboration building food distribution systems that are fair, local and transparent. The Network’s flagship open source platform had been successfully enabling ethical food distribution in multiple countries. Now, in the wake of COVID-19, it has gone to a whole new level, as producers look for alternative ways to sell quality produce, and eaters look for alternative ways to access it.
Kirsten Larsen (right) with partner Serenity Hill (left), co-founders of the Open Food Network, at their farm in Violet Town, Victoria, Australia. Pic: Megan Fisher.
“We don’t believe that anyone should have control over our food systems. So we’ve designed it so that it’s impossible for anyone to control it.”
The Network reports a tenfold increase in people signing up to the platform, and a tenfold increase in turnover. This grass roots initiative now spans 13 countries, and continues to grow. As the greeting on the Open Food Network website puts it: Food Unincorporated - sometimes the best way to fix the system is to start a new one.
Kirsten is a farmer herself, and an Honorary Fellow at the Melbourne Sustainable Society Institute, at the University of Melbourne. She sees her work as focused on the complex challenges of sustainability and resilient food systems, and on the design and implementation of responses that also support healthy communities and regional economic development.
Kirsten was kind enough to join me online from her home in Violet Town, Victoria, Australia.
Title slide pic: from the Shepparton News. Credit: Megan Fisher.
Recorded on Friday 12 June 2020.
Music:
The System, by the Public Opinion Afro Orchestra.