Background
Food is intimately connected to each of the apex challenges of our time: climate, energy, water, poverty, hunger, population displacement, ecosystem degradation, health, the economy. Because food is so central, transforming the sustainability of the food system can contribute substantially to addressing each of these challenges. For example, making the food system carbon neutral would reduce global carbon dioxide emissions by 30 to 40 percent contributing significantly to solving climate change.
EOS stands for Earth Open Source. We apply networked, open source collaborative approaches to achieve break-through improvements in the sustainability of the food system.
Open Source–the roots of our food system—From the beginning, food has been a collective, cooperative, “open source” endeavour identical in its open source character to the volunteer collaboration that has generated some of the most powerful—and free--operating systems and information technologies available today, like Linux and Wikipedia.
The crops that feed humanity today are all the product of open source, cooperation: Over millennia, thousands of generations of farmers have spontaneously shared seeds, knowledge and know-how with their neighbours. Farmer to farmer collaboration has generated every one of the crops that feed humanity today. Rice, wheat, maize, potatoes are just a few examples. These crops are humanity’s collective heritage and legacy, a biological and genetic “commons,” that is the fountainhead of our food supply and that is an exact parallel to the “intellectual commons” of the free software movement.
Food production processes and systems have also traditionally been open source, from production, through processing, through delivery to the eater. Traditionally, farmers—or more accurately whole agrarian communities—cooperate to plant, harvest and market their crops, and to rise barns, dig wells and canals, build roads and create other essential infrastructure.
Closed source revolution – Beginning in the early 20th century, a “closed source” revolution swept the food system. From early experiments with chemical agriculture, to the Green Revolution to the Biotech Revolution, an industrial approach to agriculture has taken hold in some countries, based on patented chemicals, patented seeds, and proprietary machinery.
Self-regenerative displaced by dissipative agriculture—This revolution has transformed agriculture from a living, self-regenerating biological system into a dissipative industrial machine. In place of the perpetually self-regenerating cycle propelled by the sun, seed and seasons, agriculture has become an extractive industry driven by and totally dependent on non-renewable resources, primarily petroleum-derived pesticides, fertilizers, and fuel. Today, for every calorie of food produced, 10 calories of petroleum are dissipated.
Transparency in the food system—Traditionally, the food system has been “open source” in another way, as well; it has been transparent; people knew where their food came from, who produced it, and had confidence in its integrity and authenticity. The closed source revolution in the food system has created opaque supply chains in which privileged access to certain kinds of information creates opportunities for certain classes of players to profit at the expense of others in the supply chain and where there is little or no traceability or accountability regarding quality and authenticity. EOS advocates “open sourcing.” We are confident that creating transparency will transform the performance of the supply chain. Bringing in the light of day will make knowledge of our food supply chains open to all, and will trigger spontaneous improvement in standards without need for additional regulations, as was witnessed recently when UK documentaries exposed practices in chicken production leading 75% of the population to insist on better welfare for chickens, according to a RSPCS poll.
Food security, environmental damage and health impacts – Not only does industrial agriculture lack the resilience of the self-regenerative, open source agricultural system, and is, therefore, much more vulnerable to challenges from weather, pests, and other contingencies, but, this system also damages the environment and human health. It depletes non-renewable natural resources, exploits and degrades our water, soil and air quality, and has turned our food into a health hazard.
Economic well-being – Despite the good intentions of its developers, when one subtracts the ecological, health and social costs, closed source agriculture has lessened the economic wellbeing of the farmer, reduced food security, delivered less rather than greater efficiency, and in many cases survives only on the basis of immense public subsidies.
Illusion of choice – “Our choices are not entirely our own because, even in a supermarket, the menu is crafted not by our choices, nor by the seasons, nor where we find ourselves, nor by the full range of apples available, nor by the full spectrum of available nutrition and tastes, but by the power of food corporations…. Unless you are a food executive, the food industry is not working for you.” (Raj Patel, author of ‘”Stuffed and Starved”)
EOS addresses the current challenge – Open source, community-wide cooperation built humanity’s food system and is the key to restoring its sustainability. Through this approach, we can build on the millennia of open-sourced “R&D” that farmers have already completed, recreating a self-regenerative food system that will not only feed us all abundantly and sustainably, but will bring us within reach of solving the apex problems of our times.
EOS – Vision
A world-sustaining food system
EOS – Mission
To use open source collaboration to engage individuals, farmers, corporations, universities, communities and governments in collaborative programmes to achieve breakthrough advances that help feed humanity, increase equity, support self-reliance and preserve the Earth.
EOS – Aims
1. Engage people in understanding food and enable them individually and collectively to take positive action to improve the social and environmental impact of the food system.
2. Implement collaborative, multi-stakeholder, open source projects and programs that achieve significant advances towards a world-sustaining food system. Including individual, corporate, community and national programs for:
a. Research and knowledge creation and dissemination,
b. Food policy and best practices development,
c. Implementation of self-regenerative practices at every level of the food chain from farmer’s field to consumer’s table.
EOS – Concept
· A global open source knowledge hub that develops and pioneers original research, that uses open source, social media, Web 2.0 and other networked strategies for gathering, processing, integrating and providing digitised information, and that enables comprehensive, holistic, in-depth evaluation and understanding of the way producers, manufacturers, retailers, and consumers produce, sell and consume food.
· An enabler of positive change that uses open source, social media, Web 2.0, and other participative strategies to enable global citizens to undertake vibrant debate, and create moving events and transformational initiatives that (a) are informed by EOS’ comprehensive and holistic open source sustainability knowledge-base, and (b) effectively mobilize the collective will to support best practices and innovations that transform the sustainability of food producers, manufacturers, retailers, and consumers.
· A leader and community maker that listens to stakeholders, connects key players, matches needs and enabling solutions, and co-develops innovations contributing to a world-sustaining food system.
EOS – Programmes
These programmes are currently in operation or in the process of being implemented.
· Global Citizens Alliance for Learning and Action—this global online hub and suite of tools and facilities uses social media strategies, and open source, Web 2.0, and other online-collaborative modalities to enable the following two key activities:
1. Community Learning—Self-directed learning opportunities enabling people to comprehensively understand the full range of social, environmental, and health impacts of their food habits, as well as of the practices employed throughout the global food system.
a. Example: Tweehive—Twitter-based social media learning campaign that aimed to raise awareness, and interest in bees, and mobilized participation in a local London event—Pestival—that, itself, used hands–on and multi-platform events to celebrate insects and their importance in our lives. (completed)
b. Example: Year of the Carrit Learning and Doing Campaign—Year-long social media focused campaign to inspire local food demand, production and consumption in and around London. (early implementation stage)
2. Citizen Action—On-line, social media and other collaborative tools that enable Global Citizens to translate their personal understanding of food sustainability issues into grass roots food sustainability projects, and into initiatives that influence public awareness, and government and industry policy.
a. Example: Joy-cotting and Carrot-mobbing—instead of boycotting bad products, joy-cotting and carrot-mobbing are social media based initiatives that inspire and organize large numbers of citizens to reward brand-owners that create products or take on practices which are sustainable and healthy, and benefit society and the environment.
b. Example: EOS Ethical Exchange—See detailed description, below under “EOS Guild Marketing Program.”
c. Example: Issue-specific, citizen-initiated social media campaigns—Global Citizen originated initiatives that use social media, open source, and Web 2.0 approaches to inform consumers and motivate action that changes government or industry policy.
d. Example: Translating political campaign tools into issue-oriented campaign tools—Obama won the last US presidential election because of the success of his social media-based campaign work. The same tools that he used can easily be “remodelled” to serve as issue-based campaign tools, capable of mobilizing virally expanding engagement of Global Citizens in restoring the sustainability of our food system. (seeking funding)
e. Example: Social media-based campaign design and organization platform—The website www.localmotors.com is a platform for crowd-sourcing the design of custom automobiles and campaigning to recruit support for actually building a particular design. The content of this site is not of interest, but the design and functionality represent the best example yet of a platform for crowd-sourced creation of anything. This model (but not the aesthetics of the site!) will be applied by EOS to build a platform for designing learning and action campaigns and recruiting the nucleus of an on-line community to put campaigns into action.
· EOS Academy (Knowledge Community)—The EOS Academy provides an online platform enabling multi-disciplinary open source collaboration among experts located anywhere around the globe. The Academy transcends organizational boundaries to provide support for education programs, policy development, research programs and practical implementation projects. Online volunteer collaboration among a diversity of food and agricultural experts will create, consolidate, and evaluate knowledge and technologies, establish best-practices, and create new tools and resources. These collaborations will also apply this knowledge for transformational improvements in sustainability of the food system. The Academy platform includes online wiki’s, topic-specific working groups, discussion forums, webinars for knowledge exchange and discussion of research results, and networked cooperative research and demonstration programs creating and applying new knowledge relevant to a world-sustaining food system. Examples: (1) EOS Guild and (2) the EOS biosafety and DNA fingerprint analysis lab, both described below. (funding being sought)
· EOS Guild—A membership association for food companies with the vision to recognize (a) that industry alone has the resources and expertise required to secure sustainability of our food system and (b) that working toward this goal not only makes business sense in the medium term, but is literally essential to the long-term survival and success of their companies. The EOS Guild aims to provide leadership through example, demonstrating that world-sustaining corporate performance is possible and delivers concrete and reliable corporate benefits. (funding being sought)
Membership includes:
§ Full access to the EOS Online Sustainability Workspace,
§ Full participation in the EOS Open Source Collaborative Platforms, and
§ Regular, high-profile exposure through the EOS Guild Marketing Program.
· EOS Online Sustainability Workspace
This online facility provides participating companies with the tools to understand their current level of social and environmental performance, identify key sustainability targets for their company, and create and implement a plan for achieving those targets. It offers the following:
§ Twelve workshops, each focusing on one of the 12 Vital Signs of sustainability;
§ Training program that equips the corporate management and the sustainability team for all stages of the corporate sustainability journey;
§ Convenient and integrated access to a comprehensive database of online sustainability knowledge, technology, and data;
§ Integrated on-line database system and set of analytical tools for evaluating and monitoring corporate and product-specific sustainability;
§ Suite of online tools for the design, planning, and management of corporate and product sustainability programs;
§ One-on-one access to world-class specialists with expertise in all areas relevant to sustainability.
· EOS Open Source Collaborative Platform
The collaborative platform supports cooperation among Guild member-companies to tackle specific sustainability targets that can most effectively be addressed in a coordinated way. It includes the following:
§ Membership in collaborative industry working groups to address specific technical challenges and undertake collective sourcing, negotiation and lobbying;
§ Membership in the EOS Knowledge Community, providing global-scale access to informal, open source consultation with leading sustainability experts around the world.
· EOS Guild Marketing Program
Companies that join the Guild program are engaging in a courageous initiative that demonstrates a strong commitment to assuring the welfare of future generations. Action of this sort inspires strong loyalty and enthusiasm from the rapidly growing polulation of consumers who understand the challenges that humanity is facing today and the consequences of failing to successfully address those challenges. The purpose of the Guild Marketing program is to amplify and reinforce this effect. It will include the following:
§ A multidimensional marketing and communication program using social media, Web 2.0 and a host of other on-line marketing modalities, as well as traditional marketing channels;
§ Focus of the marketing is the sustainability advances that Guild companies are achieving and the sustainability-related characteristics and benefits of their products.
§ Example: See Joy-cotting and Carrot-mobbing, above.
§ Example: EOS Ethical Exchange—This program is a Web 2.0-based, open source re-invention of the ethical certification model. It not only employs an on-product seal, but also promotes consumer participation by using on-line, social media-facilitated, interactive mechanisms to engage consumers in assessing the sustainability of specific products, based on digitized sustainability data collected by volunteers and supplemented by manufacturers’ own disclosures. The consumer-facing digitized sustainability reporting and evaluation framework not only creates transparency in the food system, but also enables consumers to interact directly with brand-owners to influence the quality and specific characteristics of the food products they offer. This program not only provides consumers with the information they need to choose products based on their sustainability values, but it also motivates brand-owners to compete on the basis of social and environmental performance.
· Open Source Food and Seeds
These projects aim to restore the seed commons and the self-regenerative functionality that have been the foundation and engine for progress in humanity’s food production system since farming began.
§ Biosafety Assessment Laboratory—Laboratory now being set up as a collaboration between the Indian government and the government of a European-region country. Objective is to provide comprehensive capacity for assessing the impacts of GMOs on health, the environment and society. (in progress)
§ Biosafety Research on Bt Cotton—Program to assess the allergenicity of Bt cotton to humans and livestock. Conducted in two states of India. (in progress)
§ Biosafety Research on GM Soy—Program to understand the allergenicity of GM soy to humans who report emergent allergies to soy. Conducted in the US. (in progress)
§ Biosafety Research on GM Animal Feed—Research to understand the impacts of GM feed use on the efficiency of livestock production and on the health of livestock. Conducted in multiple states. (in progress)
· Food Security/Self-Sufficiency/Local food
Co-creating national and regional level programs for food self-sufficiency, local food production.
§ Sustainable Welsh Food System—Creating and implementing a plan to achieve a self-sufficient and carbon neutral food system for Wales by 2030. (in progress)
§ Year of the Carrit Learning and Doing Campaign—Year-long campaign to inspire local food demand, production and consumption in and around London. (see above)
Future EOS Programmes
A number of projects are in the concept development stage. These include:
· World-sustaining food finance—micro-credit for smallholder farmers through “The Seed Bank.” Micro-credit has been profoundly beneficial as a development tool, helping small enterprises get off the ground around the world. However, micro-credit has not been applied widely as it could be applied to directly support farmers. This is the case, primarily because the risk associated with small-holder agriculture is much higher than the risk associated with setting up small enterprises of other kinds. EOS will address this by coupling micro-finance with strong technical support and agricultural development expertise to provide on-the-ground guidance that will support the small-holder in achieving more consistent success.
· Sustainability loyalty card—a system linked to the loyalty card system of the food retailers that automatically calculates a sustainability score for each purchase and for each shopping trip, records this data on the retailer’s web site where the consumer can follow their performance over time. This scoring system can be linked to competitions that reward those whose sustainability scores are best or who improve the most, and to other public awareness initiatives.
· EOS Board of Trade—The EOS board of trade will offer only those products/commodities that meet specified standards of sustainability. There will be different categories of products offered: organic, fair trade, Non-GMO, compliant with EOS performance criteria, etc. All products will carry a comprehensive EOS sustainability score enabling side-by-side comparisons.
