Mar 4, 2021Technical infrastructure for an agroecological transitionOnline food retail has exploded in response to COVID-19. This shift to online represents a huge opportunity to transform sales and logistics so that agroecological farming can regenerate our world. …Sustainability5 min read
Mar 3, 2021Designing Technology for an Agroecological TransitionTake a moment, if you will, and imagine the healthiest landscape that you possibly can. What does it look like? Are there trees? Is it teaming with life? A garden of Eden? I’m going to hazard a guess that you were able to do this without too much difficulty. Perhaps…Design Thinking6 min read
Mar 1, 2021Building food equality means investing in communitiesHigh quality food is often seen as a luxury product. Fresh fruit and vegetables are expensive to those feeding families on low incomes. Food that is grown without fertilisers and pesticides or that is produced to high animal welfare standards can be seen as unaffordable. Fresh, home cooked food with…Food6 min read
Feb 21, 2021Reflections on perception by the LeaAm I co-creating exactly the problems that I wish to mend? Having been an environmental activist for most of my adult life I find myself carrying some pretty bleak images in my head. The overarching narrative is one of unstoppable planetary destruction. In my mind I carry around an idealised…Nature4 min read
Feb 11, 2021Taking a long-term view in food & farmingOur culture seems to be obsessed with short-termism. Somehow we’ve found ourselves filling every moment, taking pride in how much we can maximise an instant and focusing our attention on how to maximise the next. …Food6 min read
Jan 29, 2021Trialling a non-hierarchical Team Review ProcessOver December and January the Open Food Network UK team have been exploring a team review process in line with our values. In this post I describe the process we trialled and offer some reflections and learnings from the experience. We aim to structure our team and work in a…5 min read
Jan 25, 2021The wolf is calling…Last night I went for a walk at about 11pm. Walking in the dark I noticed a wild, four legged friend playing with me. It ran circles around me a few times, sat, looked, sat up, ran a circle closer to me. I joined in playing. I sat, looked, sat…4 min read
Nov 14, 2020Lessons from COVID — Building resilience into our food systemsIt might not have been as bad as some predicted, but COVID-19 certainly showed us that our food systems are vulnerable in times of crisis. In this blog Lynne Davis explores the lessons we can learn from the pandemic shock to build resilient future food systems. The stories of empty…Food5 min read
Nov 22, 2018Grieving the Planet - Reflections on the Extinction Rebellion MovementKübler-Ross famously described grief as a process of five stages: denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. As a society, we are grieving a dying planet and slowly but surely going through the five stages of this process. First comes denial. People have been talking about ecological collapse at least since…Climate Change5 min read
