In CODECS, Cultivate’s Living Lab explores how digital tools can strengthen short food supply chains and climate resilience. A core focus is the Open Food Network (OFN), the user-owned online farmers market and food distribution platform that enables local producers to sell directly to communities. We are investigating how platforms like OFN and initiatives like the North Tipperary Online Farmers Market can support and empower cooperative models of food distribution. Our work includes collaborating with Cloughjordan Community Farm and other local food producers and food hub advocates to unlock the full potential of digitalisation for local food economies.
This Living Lab is facilitated through the Feeding Ourselves CoP
The Living Lab is situated within the Cloughjordan Ecovillage, nestled in a rural region in the midlands of Ireland. Notably, the Ecovillage boasts Ireland’s first and largest Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) initiative, known as the Cloughjordan Community Farm. Through a subscription model, this CSA provides local, organic, and seasonal vegetables to 100 individuals. The surrounding area primarily consists of dairy farms and has a relatively low population.
The Living Lab aims to test a user-owned, Open Source digital platform that functions as an online marketplace for local food producers. Although the technology has been in operation on a small scale for approximately a year, its uptake has been limited thus far. Therefore, expanding its reach is necessary to comprehensively assess its impacts. Producers upload their produce to the online marketplace, and shoppers can select items, add them to their baskets, and securely make payments online. On the agreed-upon delivery day, producers drop off their goods at a designated collection hub, where customers later collect their produce. The hub then ensures payments are appropriately distributed to the producers.
While the expectation is for this system to operate alongside existing market channels in the near future, it is envisioned that as shopping becomes increasingly digitized over time (such as the potential replacement of supermarkets with warehouses and online food shopping becoming the social norm), digitally-driven local initiatives like this one may assume a more significant role in our food systems. They have the potential to facilitate a thriving local economy, particularly as other food distribution systems may become centralized and operate on a larger scale.
CODECS has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation Programme under Grant Agreement n. 101060179. Views and opinions expressed are those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Research Executive Agency (REA). Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.
