Bio-Regional and Digital – An Eco-market with Future

State of affairs:

• The “Farm to Fork” strategy of the European Green Deal stipulates that at least 25% of agricultural land should be converted to organic farming al least until 2030. The use of pesticides has to be be reduced by at least 50% until 2030, too.

• The EU Biodiversity Strategy stipulates, on the one hand, that until 2030 at least 10% of agricultural land should be devoted primarily to protect biodiversity ; on the other hand, that until 2030 30% of land and marine areas should be devoted to nature conservation.

• In almost all regions of the EU, the survival of small and medium-sized family farms is under serious threat. They are at a clear competitive disadvantage compared to large farms.

• In most regions of the EU, the demand for organically grown food has increased considerably in recent years; at the same time, smaller farms in particular find it difficult to sell their products at a price rentable for them, depending frequently from dumping prices offered by supermarket chains.

• Ecological agriculture is beneficial for climate protection because of several reasons: (energy-wasteful and partly climate-polluting fertilisers, pesticides and herbicides are avoided; more C02 is fixed in the soil by gradually increasing humus; the use of energy-intensive machinery can be reduced). 

• A local and regional market for agriculture avoids greenhouse gases and environmental burden with less transport.

Proposal:

A “marketing network” is created within a local region by means of digital techniques. 

On the one hand, this network is composed of 

• small and medium-sized farms, which already offer organic products or are which in the transition to bio-agriculture.

On the other hand, it consists of

• households or neighbourhoods that regularly buy organically grown food, 
• restaurants, canteens, cafeterias etc., who are interested in sourcing organic food.

Depending on the needs, the transport of the goods to the customers of the marketing network can be done directly, at collection points or in organic shops set up within the framework of the project.

Rentability:

Experiences from different countries suggest that organic marketing networks are profitable after their start-up phase, provided they are set up as a non-profit cooperative enterprise and gradually expand step by step from small beginnings. However, initial funding from public funds, foundations or crowd funding seems to be necessary.

In the province of Cadiz, such a start-up is being set up in the framework of the GreeenTecLab project. The start-up enterprise seeks to exchange experiences with similar projects in other European regions.

GreenTecLab La Janda