ABOUT OPEN FOOD NETWORK

Software designed for food

The Open Food Network software platform allows farmers to sell produce online, at a price that works for them. It can be embedded in your own website, or hosted on ours. It has been built specifically for selling food so it can handle tricky measures or stock levels that only food has – a dozen eggs, a bunch of parsley, and a whole chicken that varies in weight, anyone?

It’s a great shopfront to sell food through as an individual enterprise, but where it really gets exciting is when there’s a community of farmers working together.

Collaboration made easy

Food producers can create an online shop, collect payments, and sell through other shops on the platform. Wholesalers can integrate with existing systems, manage buying groups and supply your produce through national or regional networks of food hubs and shops. Communities can bring together producers in your area to create a virtual farmers’ market, building a resilient local food economy.

People have used the power of this platform to create food collectives, manage food hub stock, or to take their farmers’ market online with pre-purchases to give stallholders more secure sales.

Open source for a better food system

And what’s just as important as the software itself, are the values that underpin it. If you’re trying to build a new food system – as a farmer, farmers’ market, or food hub – then why would you choose software that isn’t also contributing to a fairer food system? By working collectively rather than competitively, we share the costs of developing new software, and we ensure that our project is more resilient than the many other proprietary models that have fallen over since we started!

 

WHO ARE YOU?

 

Hubs, Producers, Groups

If you are a producer or part of a hub/ group, and Open Food Network sounds a great idea that could help your initiative…

The Open Food Network is powerful software that helps people sell online, and collaborate to build regional food systems.

An online shopfront

At its most simple, the Open Food Network gives you an e-commerce solution designed specifically for food. It can handle multiple order cycles per week with different delivery or pricing options, subscriptions, and more.

Your business, your branding

You can choose to host your shop on our site, or you can embed it in your own external site. You can share your story, social media links, and upload photos of your own products.     

Build your customers

Where Open Food Network gets exciting is when you work with others. We can help you aggregate from multiple producers through one online shopfront, or enable you to sell to multiple shopfronts.                            

Integrate and automate

Open Food Network can integrate with other systems such as Xero and Mailchimp, and we can set up automations that make your life easier.                                   

Monitor and understand

Monitoring your sales data can help you evaluate products, marketing, and more.         

Reduce your admin

Open Food Network allows you to easily update your stock based on what you’ve produced. It can generate reports, packing slips, and help you avoid a tangle of spreadsheets!

Eaters

Are you looking for a sustainable way of getting your food and you think Open Food Network could help…

As a consumer we would like to know where our food comes from and who made money from our purchase. The OFN gives us the opportunity to have transparency in the food system. As a consumer you can help support the local food system.                       

These are the things we care about:                                

Global Commons

Everyone in the community co-creates and shares responsibility for our global commons (the OFN platform, but more generally, the air, water, soils, etc.).                                   

Relationships

We realise that the nature of our relationship with our food is at the foundation of our relationship with life itself, and that this relationship reflects the spirit of our existence.                                   

Ecosystems

We support farmers and producers moving towards regenerative forms of agriculture, that (re)build resilient natural systems, taking into account the soil, air, water and biodiversity of our planet.                                   

Transparency

We believe in transparency, both in the platform we build and the organisation that supports it.                           

Empowerment

Our project empowers people to create the life they want for themselves; and gives people a real say in their food system. 

Subsidiarity

Problems are best solved at the lowest appropriate level of subsidiarity.

People First

We build a people system. Care and empathy for each other lie at its heart, celebrating solidarity, diversity, inclusivity and tolerance.     

Constant Evolution

We live in a perpetually evolving world, which requires constant adaptation and agility.

Volunteers

Would you like to support our project and have some spare time or resources? 

We need more people to help grow the OFN Community in Switzerland. 

Who we still need?

Networks

Are you part of a network that would like to grow their community and create a transparent food system in your area?

The Open Food Network (OFN) can just help you with that. 

Why could the OFN be just right for your community?

  • The OFN is a tool to help bring transparency in your regional food system. 
  • Small scale producers and vendors gain visibility 
  • Everyone who is part of the regional food system becomes visible and can connect themselves more easily
  • You become part of an international community with years of experience in creating an alternative food system 
  • We offer guidance and support in how to work together in a more connected food system
  • Everything that is created is part of the Commons –  doesn’t belong to a single entity, but instead to a community

PRICING

Start-up

< 1000 CHF sales/month excl. tax

 

FREE

Growing

< 6000 CHF sales/month excl. tax

 

50 CHF/Month + 3.5% commission per sale excl. tax

Consolidated

> 6000 CHF sales/month excl. tax

 

100 CHF/Month + 1% commission per sale excl. tax

THE TEAM BEHIND OFN SWITZERLAND

Martina Brun

Martina Brun

Agricultural Economist, she supports initiatives that help transform our food system for a more sustainable future. She works at the CDE of the university of Berne as a reserach associate.

Luisa Quarta Kubioka

Luisa Quarta Kubioka

She focuses on enhancing sustainability and equity within food systems. Thereby, she is committed to alternative marketing strategies and community – based initiatives to support smallholder structures and their resilience.

Mikel Cordovilla Mesonero

Mikel Cordovilla Mesonero

Working on alternative food supply chains from a technical expertice and a community focus. Mikel has being active in multiple Community Supported Agriculture projects linking communities with technology and it is currently involved at : OpenOlitor ; Sunu

Bettina Scharrer

Bettina Scharrer

Bettina is a researcher at the Centre for Development and Environment at the University of Bern and works on agriculture, agricultural policy and sustainable food systems. She is also involved outside of research in the development of alternative and sustainable food systems and is co-founder of Circuit Court Switzerland.

PARTNERS

seedling foundation