Supurbfood - Taking a look at similar projects in Zurich

Over the past two and a half years we have been taking part in the Supurbfood project.

This has enabled us to explore and share information with similar community-focused farming, food and drink businesses around Europe.

Alison Belshaw (former Project Manager of The Community Farm) has been involved with the project since the start.

Here, she tells of her recent visit to Zurich…>

Supurbfood

“The Supurbfood Project is an EU funded research project involving researchers and SMEs from a number of European countries including the UK, Italy, Switzerland, Holland, Belgium and Spain. Other partners are from universities and organisations similar to the Soil Association. Our UK partner is the Countryside and Community Research Institute.

The Project has three main elements:

• Short food-supply chains
  Multi-functional land use
  Waste management

The Community Farm has been involved in the 'multi-functional land use’ element due to its volunteering, training and education remit; although, throughout, has been inputting into the 'short food supply chains’ work as well.

A project meeting was recently held in Zurich. As part of this meeting a number of visits were organised to interesting projects in Switzerland, including:

• Stadmilch Project  - a vending machine supplying milk direct from a local farm
• Quartierbauernhof - an 18-year-old community project along the lines of a city farm, with many volunteers.

 

The two most notable projects of direct interest to The Community Farm were Pico Bio and Ortoloco.

Pico Bio

Pico Bio is, essentially, a wholesaler of organic food working with 30 farmers to supply restaurants and shops within Zurich and the surrounding area. The farmer who set up the business was finding it difficult to find outlets for his produce, so he decided to become part of the solution.

We also had the opportunity to visit a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) project called Ortoloco, a few miles outside of Zurich in Dietikon. The project is about production of vegetables, encouraging biodiversity and being a place for social activities.

Ortoloco

Ortoloco was set up in 2010 by a grass-fed beef farmer who wanted to offer some of his land for community use, having no family to pass his farm on to. The farm is a total of 20 hectares with the project growing on 1.4 hectares (about 3.5 acres).

The project team grows 60 different types of vegetables and each week supplies over 200 bags for local families. For some vegetables, potatoes and carrots for instance, they work with neighbouring farms on supply.

Every member pays a 250 Swiss Franc membership share – that’s a little under £200 and if they leave the project they receive this money back. In addition, each member pays an annual fee – 1,100 Swiss Francs for two people or 2,200 Swiss Francs for four people. This fee, which can be paid in instalments, not only covers the cost of the vegetables for the year but also contributes towards the running costs of the farm and events held there.

There are three paid employees working part-time on the fields and volunteers carry out the remainder of the work. The seven members of the Steering Group volunteer a lot of time and, for them, the annual fee is waived. If a member is on holiday they are responsible for finding someone else to have their vegetables that week. Bags are delivered to 17 pick-up points in Zurich each week – these are in shops, community centres and community meeting places.

As part of the membership, all members are required to volunteer five times during the year. If a member has only volunteered a couple of times they are called and asked to come in a little more. If someone has not volunteered at all over the course of the year they are asked to leave. This is really important for the project and its ethos - it has been set up to be inclusive and ensure participation from all.

If a member comes up with an idea for development they are asked to take a lead, develop it into a proposal for the steering group and, if approved, they are responsible for implementing it.

It was a fascinating visit and great to see the energy and enthusiasm of the people behind the project.

Supurbfood concludes later this year. The results of the research will be available towards the end of the year.”


Click here to watch a video of Supurbfood's visit to our farm last summer