DeFood is short for the Decentralized Food Security Network (DFSN), which explores ways to decentralize food security both in the physical realm, by expanding localized food production, processing and distribution, and also in the virtual realm, using Blockchain technology as the basis for improved revenue streams to farmers, dMRV of of carbon sequestration from regenerative agriculture, and support for localized trade and digital currencies.

Happy to report huge progress since the previous climate round! For those who are new to DeFood, our approach is based on complex systems, which are only changed by relationships -- this means that achieving meaningful and lasting food security must be based on a foundation of community-building, specifically by busting silos and bringing a wide variety of people together. That was the principle behind the Food Summit we put on in Nov 2023, which brought together 80 representatives from very different sectors: 6 from two different First Nations (including our keynote speaker), plus local and regional representatives not only in food production, processing and distribution, but also in food-related areas like housing, water, energy, transportation and governance. The result has been a growing network of new relationships, as well as 9 project groups taking on a number of different food-related topics. 2 of these projects are of particular importance: 1) the 50 Farms project, which has obtained funding in collaboration with our local emergency preparedness office (part of the Capital Regional District), and 2) new relationships between farmers, restaurateurs and grocery store owners that have led to discussion of a better pipeline for the purchase of local food, through local food aggregation.

After the Summit, the 50 Farms project applied (through the Salt Spring Island Farmland Trust) for a $149,000 CAD grant from the Investment Agriculture Foundation (IAF), which it received in February/March of 2024. This funding was used to hire 2 food security coordinators, whose purview is to boost food production for our entire community. The idea of 50 Farms is to physically decentralize local agriculture, with a geographically distributed network of 50 farms doing CSA programs for healthy food supply and community engagement. But by taking a systemic approach it solves multiple problems at once, including improving long-term emergency preparedness, and providing both new farmer support and mentoring as well as monetary support of mid-size farms that are struggling. To make this project self-sustaining, we need to make farming more profitable, so that farmers and other food producers will increase production and improve our food security. That’s why we’re thrilled to have received a new 20,000 ARB grant from ThankARB/Thrive, via Charmverse, that lets us start the process of building an app that will use Blockchain to create a transparent, easily-updated, interoperable database of food production on the island. This database will, in turn, be part of a food aggregation system that will solve a long-standing trust problem between producers and buyers of local food. Currently, farmers often get inadequate prices for food sold to local businesses, and don’t trust that the market will be there if they increase food production. Buyers have felt unable to offer higher prices because they can’t be sure that promised food will be ready when it’s needed. The app – supported by local staff – will be able to aggregate locally-produced food and thus be a buffer against variations in local supply and demand, but also (because it boosts production) make our island more resilient in the face of supply chain shocks, at a time when crops are failing around the world. The Charmverse funding is only a beginning, of course; the beta version of the system will be a website to pilot several farms and solve problems of participation and incentivization. But with other funding – including your donation! – we’ll proceed to an app that will be easily used by food producers and buyers alike. The beta version – which will likely use existing code from Astral Protocol and possibly UBC’s LiteFarm app – will be structured to integrate dMRV of carbon sequestration, which we can then correlate with different types of food production to guide greater sequestration through increased adoption of regenerative agriculture practices. Future iterations will incorporate food from wild-harvesting and marine-based food production (including kelp farming), which has the potential to sequester more carbon than steady-state forests. And in the long run we want to use the app to support a localized digital currency that will keep value circulating in the community, and free up food producers from the debt cycle that is driving many of them out of business. And the larger goal, of course, is taking it out to the world. No man is an island, but no island is an island either, and climate change is global. That’s why the app will become an open-source model for other small communities around the world, all of which are facing similar challenges, so they can both increase their food security in unstable times -- their local motivation -- and draw down a lot more carbon in the process, benefiting all living things on Earth!