THIS MONTH: Localising food production: A proposal for a Community Owned Farming Enterprise Co-op
A proposal for a Community Owned, Farming Enterprise Co-op
The proposal is designed around the principles of:
Access for all to good, healthy food
Providing a stable, secure living for farmers
Connecting people with the sources of their food
Food sovereignty - Community ownership of food producing land
Localism - Food production and ownership in local ownership and control
Healing the Earth / Care for the land / Regenerative farming
Education - Regen farming techniques, normalising the need for change, demonstrating feasibility, maintaining interest and engagement, and helping it replicate elsewhere - Reframing farming
The main components of the design are:
Customers and workers will both own the co-op, and will aim to achieve the most beneficial balance of both their interests.
Community Supported Agriculture: Customers and farmers joining forces http://www.csanetworkausnz.org/
Cote Jardins volunteering system in France: Little info available in English. Their CSA customers must dedicate 4 Sundays each year to volunteering on the farm. This means that nearly every weekend has a big group descend on one job or another with a large workforce. The Sunday afternoon / evening is a meal / party for everyone.
Enterprise stacking: Joel Salatins talks "Stacking Fiefdoms" and "Successional Success - Fields of Farmers" give a good background.
Internal Capital Accounts: The ICA Group explains these fairly well - This example unfortunately includes lots of references to the USA's tax laws. It will still give a good idea of the intent of the system.
Holacracy: Official Holacracy Site and their Actual software example which provides a clear, well organised way to operate a complicated organisation. Decentralised decision making and responsibility. Click on the different circles and tabs in the software example to explore the actual Holacracy organisation.
The Pre Power method of funding for land purchases.
We are also taking a final round of feedback from the community about what a regional farming co-op could do to help you or your existing enterprise, as a customer, co-ordinator, or workplace (or anything else).
Updates (if time allows):
CoCanberras current projects include:
The PrePower renewable energy co-op system
The Community Owned Farming Enterprise Co-op
Beginning steps of a Union Combined Trades Co-op
The New Economy Network of Australia's Canberra regional Hub
Working with Behind the Lines on Community Radio 2XX and NENA Radio as the Align in the Sound podcast
Our website is a work in progress too!
Feel free to volunteer for any of these projects, or help coordinate our monthly talks!
CoCanberra talks are recorded through our collaboration with Radio Behind the Lines and the NENA Radio podcast. Once they have been edited, you can find them on the Align in the Sound soundcloud site. We need volunteers for audio editing too!
CoCanberra meetups are held on the last Monday of each month at the Food Co-op and Cafe.
Find them with this link or use the attached map to find the best after-hours parking.
You can bring your own meals to the meetups, and tea will be available there. If you get there early, the shop is also packed with top notch food!
We will have a talk at 7pm followed by QnA with the guest speakers, then a discussion on a related topic.