There is more to Ooooby than just a food distribution network
WHEN Pete Russell was growing up in Australia, dinner at his grandmother’s was often prefaced by her comments about where the meal’s ingredients came from. “This is OOTG,” she would say, “and those eggs came from OOTCB”.
To translate: “Out of the garden”, and “out of the chook’s bum”. Pete’s grandmother was proud of her ability to live quite sustainably from out of her own back yard.
These childhood memories, in part, influenced Peter’s decision to name his own flourishing New Zealand-based food produce network, `OOOOBY’ - out of our own back yard.
This network was begun as a social network four years ago and a distribution network one year ago - it now boasts more than 4,500 members.
An independent partner network has been established in Ireland, and moves are afoot to expand the network into Australia.
In short, the network connects local growers on the north island of New Zealand with local customers who either collect or have delivered to their door a box of fresh produce every week.
Ooooby has three main criteria when sourcing produce - as local, natural and familyscale as possible.
But there is more to Ooooby than just a food distribution network and farmers’ information network.
Ooooby promotes and is facilitating a `new’ food revolution - the resurgence of the cottage food industry and the rejection of food monocultures and monopolies as engineered by the big supermarket chains.
Pete Russell had a taste of the `bartering, networking’ type of economy as a child when his mother, Karen Russell, created the National Barter Directory of Goods and Services (Australia) more than 20 years ago.
The Barter Directory, formed at a time of economic downturn, flourished as thousands of people began to barter as a way to stretch their spending power.
“This period taught me that if we help people to help themselves by providing the right tools, they will spontaneously improve their circumstances rather than complain about or wait for help from a higher authority,” Pete said.
“That lesson has proven itself again with the successful development of the Ooooby concept. Whereas the Barter Directory was a print solution featuring any and all goods and services, Ooooby is primarily an online solution focusing initially on local food.”
‘Wake-up call’
But in his early years as a businessman and entrepreneur, Pete was to take an entirely different path to that of his family’s `backyard’ philosophy - in fact, his enterprise was the exact antithesis of buying locally.
He was very successfully involved in the food import and export business until what he describes as his “wake-up call” came when he learned about the forecast global food crisis.
“The shift happened shortly after moving from Australia to New Zealand in 2008. I had made the move with the intention of importing food to Australia and Asia,” Pete said.
“At the time I was in the industrial food business, importing frozen breads such as croissants, Danish breads and sweet breads for distribution through Australian supermarkets, and making a decent profit for my part.
“It was only when I was confronted with information showing that I was participating in a system which was responsible for many of our social and environmental problems that I began to take a new path.”
Pete explains that it was a presentation in Auckland by then New Zealand MP Sue Kedgley which changed his entire way of thinking.
Ms Kedgley had just returned from the 2008 World Food Forum in Rome and presented credible evidence that the world was entering a global food crisis and that the globalised food system was doing a great deal of damage in the social, economic and environmental arenas.
Pete had attended the event to learn more about New Zealand’s national strategy to develop food export opportunities so that he could build his business - but he left with a startling new understanding of the global food situation.
“As I sat in the community hall listening to Sue’s talk, it occurred to me that the chronic ills of our current food situation were caused by models and systems that had been built by people, like me, in pursuit of an ever- more efficient and lucrative way of providing food to the people of the world,” Pete said.
“Here I was importing large quantities of highly-processed food from Europe, storing the breads in freezers and warehouses for distribution to places like Woolworths.
“As you can imagine, Sue’s presentation was not the sort of information that I was looking for. In fact, if I chose to acknowledge her information, it posed a dilemma for me.
“So, after a few months of investigating the current global food situation, I became convinced that local food systems are the way of the future,” he said.
Ooooby is a lifestyle philosophy embodied in its
acronym.
“Ooooby began as an idea in response to the overwhelming evidence that our modern industrial food systems are causing more damage than they are worth.
“Failing to persuade my existing business partners to change course toward local food, I chose to take a leap of faith and embark on a new venture by starting Ooooby,” Pete said.
“Over the course of working on Ooooby and its associated projects, I have come to understand a little more about the nature and state of our global food situation. In a nutshell, here is what I have discovered.
• Our many diverse local food systems around the world are rapidly being displaced by a globalised and centralised food system.
• Locally owned, polycultural farming has been diminishing at an accelerating rate over the last 30 years in place of large corporate-owned monocrops. Locally owned food producers and retailers are also being displaced by the same system.
• The globalised food system sees the world through a ‘one big farm’ paradigm. We grow all the oranges in Brazil, all the bananas in Ecuador, and so on. The ecological problem with this paradigm is that our eco- system is built to a certain scale. For example, bees can only fly so far and companion plants can only give benefit within a local proximity. So it doesn’t work long term (or at least not until bees develop the wingspan of a 747).
• The counteraction to the problems caused by this ecological imbalance is the use of petrochemical pesticides and fertilisers which are, in turn, causing untold environmental damage.
• Local food systems are an integral part of the social and economic fabric of a region. So not only does a community lose its ability to feed itself, it also puts its economic welfare at risk. More and more countries are now finding themselves in the position where they can no longer turn back and they can’t afford to keep going.
‘Long-term provision of nutritious foods to every human is a vision that cannot be achieved by our current
means’
“For all these reasons and more, I believe that we are at a point in time when we need to rethink and rebuild our food systems.
“Long-term provision of nutritious foods to every human is a vision that cannot be achieved by our current means,” Pete said.
“To achieve this we need to relocalise our food systems by addressing our staple food provision at a community and regional level and to also support communities from all around the world to do the same.
“The good news is that a global unified drive to rebuild our local food systems has been slowly gaining momentum over the last few years and is now expanding rapidly throughout the world.
“Millions are returning to their own back yards and embracing the oncedeclining skill of food growing.
“World leaders including the Obamas and the Queen of England are heralding the need for us to get
our hands back into the soil to provide the nutritious foods that have been so sorely lacking from our processed and packaged supermarket diets.
“Ooooby is one of the many initiatives working arm-in-arm toward local food independence globally. Ooooby is a lifestyle philosophy embodied in its acronym. It is a wholesome food lifestyle with family, neighbours and friends,” Pete said.
“Ooooby is a lifestyle choice with the goal of eating the bulk of our basic foods fresh from our own local area.
“We are not talking about giving up chocolate or coffee because they’re not produced locally. We are simply suggesting that it is possible for our basic staple to be provided from local sources if we work together with local farmers and backyard food growers.”
The New Zealand network enables farmers and backyard growers to connect with local consumers.
Suppliers generally bring their produce to a central distribution shed in Auckland where staff and volunteers pack emailed weekly orders into recycled boxes.
The Ooooby box of locally-sourced produce is delivered to the customer’s door each week. And every box comes complete with at least three new recipes relevant to using the fresh produce in the box that week.
“About 95 per cent of our produce comes from backyard gardens where people are growing for themselves and the cottage industry. And we have a network of supply-base farmers.
“The beauty of this is that we can also have add-ons to our weekly product list.
“For example, if, say, Mary has a big crop of walnuts on her tree in the back yard, or Bill has a good bean crop, they can contact us and we can put a notice on the website that these walnuts or beans are available week - first in, first served.
“We look after our suppliers. The farmer gets $1 and we sell for $2.
“We pay all our staff but I am yet to draw an income, as a director of the company, but that will come. I’m lucky that I have a financial base from my previous business - and this has given me the luxury of time to grow the Ooooby concept,” Pete said.
The Ooooby network is also a thriving information forum for members where growers share trial-anderror reports in organic or permaculture growing methods (although some produce is grown using conventional farming methods), share seasonal recipes, gardening tips, information on keeping chooks and bees, preserving surplus food and more.
Members also organise local food bartering days and get-togethers.
“It’s like going to a food growers’ festival online,” Pete said.
“The Ooooby model is working, we kind-of-move like water. We’re working on education and moving into the mainstream market, educating mainstream consumers.
“They have to fight back and demand local produce. If we can make local sustainable food easy to access, they will fight back. This is where the difference will be made.”
Pete visited Queensland last year to ‘plant the seeds’ for growing a number of independent Ooooby networks in Australia. “If you would like to see Ooooby happening in your local area then it is simply a matter of starting with one local farmer and a place to pack boxes.
“From there it’s a matter of finding other local suppliers to ensure decent variety in the Ooooby boxes and to put the word out to your local community that they can start receiving local food on their doorstep. Ooooby will provide you with your local Ooooby website and the online software to manage the sales and logistics in an easy and low-cost way”.
this
THE Organic Federation of Australia (OFA) has been very active over the past year on behalf of the entire organic sector.
The AGM on December 13, 2012 saw some changes with two directors retiring and the new constitution approved by members attending the meeting. Retiring directors were Alexandra Mitchell and Bernie Von Pein. Directors Andre Leu, Adam Willson, Brittany Laidlaw, Jan Denham, Kim Norton and Simone Tully will continue for 2013. Keith Morris was elected to the Certifier Member Council and Greg Paynter was re-elected to the Alliance Member Council.
Farmer support
The OFA continues to support WA organic farmer, Steve Marsh, in his legal action against economic losses caused by GMO canola contamination and has been actively assisting his legal team by providing technical and legal information needed for the court case.
GMOs
The Release of GM Canola and the ending of GMO moratoriums means that the OFA has been making GMO’s a priority due to the significant risk of genetic contamination. The OFA joined with Greenpeace and other Australian and international organisations to oppose the push for GM wheat. The joint statement generated a lot of media around the world.
National Food Plan
The National Food Plan is a significant undertaking by the Australian Government. OFA directors participated in several high level round table workshops and made a detailed submission to the most recent draft version of National Food Plan.
The OFA rebutted on the Plan’s justification for the introduction on GMO’s and the continued use of pesticides in food production. These rebuttals are based on peer reviewed published science showing the negative health effects of both pesticides and GMOs.
Consumer research
A new consumer research initiative led by the University of Canberra and University of Queensland and supported by NASAA and the OFA aims to provide important research insights for domestic suppliers and producers of organic foods.
This research has been carried out at a national level and aims to help determine the practical and strategic implications for sustainable growth of the organic food sector in Australia.
Integral to the research will be investigating what the existing perceptions are and how the industry can best position itself to serve the longterm needs of the organic consumer.
NASAA is providing the seed funding for this project.
NSW Pioneer Awards
The NSW Department of Primary Industries along with the OFA, NASAA, OFC, BFA and SCPA have sponsored an award for NSW residents who have had a significant role in pioneering the organic sector in that state. Sam Statham from Rosnay Organic Wines won the main award.
Market access
Australia has very few equivalency agreements. The most important is with the European Union (EU).
The OFA has been active in facilitating market access for Australian organic producers, AQIS has been trying to get an equivalency agreement with the USA for over ten years. The Chair of the OFA has had a range of discussions with US officials and industry leaders and due to these negotiations Australia has now been placed on the list of priority countries. Currently Australian producers need to pay the extra costs of a specific certification for the US market.
Synthetic methionine
supplements
One of the divisive standards issues has been over supplementing organic chicken feed with a synthetic version of the essential amino acid called Methionine. Many commercial organic chicken and egg producers state that they cannot get enough natural methionine from organic feeds and have to add synthetic supplements to get the correct level to avoid deficiencies.
Most international standards prohibit this and most certifiers oppose this practice. The standards committee that developed AS 6000 came up with a compromise to allow it on a temporary basis with a sunset clause to phase it out by 2014. This was designed to give the current poultry producers time to develop alternatives. A sub-committee of the AS 6000 standards committee, chaired by the OFA, was set up to develop the alternatives to synthetic methionine.
The Organic Trust
The OFA Environmental Research and Education Trust achieved full tax deductibility from the Australian Government.
The aim is to attract investment into sound scientific research and education relevant to organic and bio-dynamic management systems and marketing. Money provided by industry will be tax free if done through the Trust.