OFN SA Update

Hi there Open Foodies.

I know OFN SA has been very quiet lately and I thought I would drop a quick update here.

We have been through a rather turbulent time. OFN SA was hacked last year after we launched and through resulting in us losing all our subscriptions. Coupled with a currency devaluation and personal burnout on my part, everything was put on the back burner for a while but we are back and ready to launch a new subscription drive.

SAOSO - the South African Organic Sector Organisation has pledged to help us find funding to integrate the Kandu system with OFN which will immediately bring several thousand small scale and subsistence farmers on board. SAOSO also works closely with government in establishing an organic food industry based on a cooperative small farmer model and the want to use the Kandu/OFN system to manage cooperatives and market produce.

I also had a great meeting with a reformed agricultural scientist turned permaculturalist called Hugh Goble who is thinking about joining the OFN SA team to drive subscriptions among commercial food producers. I will introduce him here soon.

This comes at a great time as both Francois from African Conservation Trust and myself are deeply involved in resisting a fracking threat in the KWaZulu Natal Midlands where we live and it has become sort of all consuming.

Wishing you all a wonderful 2016 and looking forward to chatting here again soon.

Lawrence

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Hi all…

I would like to introduce @Hugh who will be joining OFN SA to help drive subscriptions among existing commercial food producers which leaves me free to focus on the subsistence farmers.

Hugh is an agricultural scientist and farmer himself who recognised the need for a platform such as OFN and found us while looking around at what is out there. We are very happy to have him on board and look froward to a long and fruitfull relationship.

Welcome Hugh

@edushima @Kirsten @serenity @Selmo @MyriamBoure

Thanks, @Lawrence. I look forward to working with all at OFN and hope that I’ll be able to contribute to growth in the network here in South Africa.

Hi Lawrence,

It is great to hear from you (!) although sounds like it has been a very rough time. Sorry for my tardy reply…only just getting back into work after the arrival of Charlie! Sounds like you are back on track and some very promising developments :slight_smile: If OFN Aust is any measure, thing always take longer than you anticipate anyway. Better to be plodding in the right direction than running fast on the wrong one :wink:

As I think you know, Kirsten and I also took some time off last year to focus on some resistance efforts around coal mining in Australia. Part of building a resilient food system has to be resistance to immanent threats to water and ecosystems on which we all depend. Can’t build a local food system on poisoned ground.

Can you come along to HO next week? Would be great to hook you back in. Look fwd to speaking!

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Welcome @Hugh, looking fwd to working with you :wink: