Initiative to assist small-scale farmers

A NEW concept, the Open Food Network, was launched in South End, Port Elizabeth, last night.

It is directed at improving the country’s food security while assisting small-scale farmers to access markets, among many other benefits.

Essentially a digital platform to enable small and micro-scale organic farmers to market their goods at no cost and without the expenses of branding and packaging, the Open Food Network was developed by Lawrence Strydom of KwaZulu-Natal.

He spent years living off the land and “off the grid” before developing the foodsupply model.

Speaking at the launch, Strydom highlighted the risks he believes are associated with the control large corporates exercise over food production and geneti- cally modified seeds and foods. He also cited other problems associated with modern food production and the food retail chain.

With a heavy focus on the well-documented issue of food wastage and surplus, Strydom’s model rallies small farmers into collectives. These are then able to make their products available, at no marketing or other costs through the Open Food Network, directly to consumers or retailers.

This, according to Strydom, would allow smallscale farmers to sell their collective surplus into markets dominated by large “industrial-scale” farmers.

He said the Open Food Network, which was run as a non-profit organisation, would be launched nationally with the aim of establishing links between small-scale farmers in each geographical area in which such farmers were situated.