Farm to fork is something we've discussed already here on the podcast. If you are interested in local, even ultra local food systems then please do check out episode 20- where I discovered one of the most successful local food infrastructures. In the interview I asked Janie from OxfarmtoFork whether their system was scalable. She said, I think rightly, that it couldn't be scaled up, but it could be replicated. But that was here in the UK. In Germany there is a scalable local food platform, in fact it is already working at scale, serving supermakrets and consumers across the country. LOQL, spelled LOQL is an online platform that enjoys the kind of heavyweight support that we can only dream of in this country. In this interview I talk to , the Chief Operating Officer of LOQL, Clemens Tsalikis about how this platform works, but of equal importance, why it works
One of my carefully considered hobby horses is scalabilty. However inspiring an initiative is, unless we effect widespred implimentation, it is functionally meaningless. Another hobby horse of mine is food system complexity. However effective LOql is as a platform, it succeeds because there is a large co-operative of independent supermarkets in Germany, who can make their own prchasing decisions, and of equal import, they commitment is to the logevity of the comany and their local community, not short term profits. In turn their is a cultural, poilical and financial commitment to medium size enterprises in germany that means even a multi billion euro business can be created by small business operators.
How and if we can acheive the same or similar in this county remains to be seen. But if we do do it, it will have to be on our own terms
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