rc3 Vorspannmusik: jast another time in paradise, haecksen
Herald: Hallo zu dem nächsten stream, der
diesmal über unsere Versorgung geht. Und
zwar geht es genau um Reko. Das ist eine
Graswurzelbewegung aus Finland, die
Konsumenten und Produzenten zusammenbringt
auf kleiner Ebene um dort einen Einfluß auf dem
Markt zu gewähren. Julia wird diesem talk
in englisch halten. Anschließend gibt es
noch einen kleines Q&A, das ist im Raum
Ada, da müsst ihr dann rüberwechseln. The
folowing talk will be held in english. The
talk is about Reko, it is an agricultural
grassroot Movement from Finnland. It
brings together consumers and the
producers of the goods on the direct way without
the mean of market stopping inbetween. I
hope lot of new information in this talk.
Let's start with it.
Julia: So hi, everyone. My name is Julia
Westberg, and I would like to talk about
how to hug agriculture today. Well, more
specifically about how to create small
scale, self administrated farmer markets,
and the concept is called Reko. So let's
have a look. Oh, very shortly about me.
I'm an environmental scientist, an
engineer living in Sweden on a small farm,
growing a few vegetables, having some
chickens, and I have been organizing a
Reko group for the last three years. My
favorite vegetable to grow is pumpkin
eggplants. And yeah, so farming is an
interest of mine, but I'm not a
professional farmer or doing that full
time. I will get back to that detail
later. And what is Reko? Well, Reko means
really konsumption hole or could translate to
real consumption, and it is a concept that
came originally from Finland, but has now
spread to almost all of Scandinavia. I
have a small map there that sadly only
includes the Swedish markets. We didn't
find a good comprehensive map that
includes Finland and Norway as well. The
basic ingredients of Reko market or group
or however to refer to them, is the direct
contact between the customer and the
person that produced the food. So it is a
small grassroots movement, so it started
from farmers and it's basically very
unrestricted growing food, selling it
directly to people that want to eat it.
And there is no actual transactions or,
well, there's no selling at the meetings.
The selling happens before online and that
is why it doesn't fall under restrictions
of farmers markets. Because if you want to
sell at least in Scandinavia, if you want
to sell on a farmers market, that is quite
a lot of effort to make it to like get
certifications and to meet certain
requirements. And that is hard for small
scale farmers or, for example, for people
that just have a big garden and some
overproduction. So that makes Reko
different and interesting. So Reko groups
are self organized and they're independent
of each other. So as you can see on the
map, there's quite a few, though they are
independent of each other. There is a
national wide community for support. So a
lot of the people that help administrating
those groups are then in a bigger group,
where they can all talk about issues that
have occurred in the groups or ask how
other groups handle situations. But it is
important to point out that every group
makes their own rules and decides how to
handle things on their own. There is a bit
of help. Like, for example, there has been
material for, for example, the graphical
stuff available from people that wanted to
share that. So then there is, of course,
experience from neighbor communities
normally, that where you can turn to and
ask for help. But essentially, every small
Reko group is, a bunch of people deciding
that, Hey, our village or our town should
have something like this. Let's do it. So,
I mean, why should you have something like
this? You want something like this because
you want to know where your tomato is
coming from, right? Or at least I think
that starting to get more important for
people again. So for the consumer here and
with the consumer, I mean, that is, well,
you that's wanting to buy tomatoes. It's
really easy to get super fresh seasonal
food because the farmers are selling what
they have produced this week, maybe even
that day. And you can meet the producer
like, you know, that loss has been growing
your tomatos. And you know how loss is
actually what loss? You can ask loss what
is using for treatments on his tomato
plants as a use again pesticides. And that
makes it really interesting and you get
unique products. So the farmer maybe wants
to try new sorts or specialies old sorts and
all sorts that are really hard to get by.
And so you can get really this unique
products that are really interesting and
make for such exceptional food. But a
supermarket wouldn't be able to provide
you with that, because some supermarket
needs to provide thousands of it. And
another plus side is really short,
transportation's. Reko is very much built
on local. So hopefully the tomatoes that
you're buying are just coming from the
village next. Well, next door, basically.
And that also means that there's a lot
less waste. You don't need to package
things in plastic. You can recycle. You
can recycle bags. Yeah, it it just makes
it a lot more efficient. And why should
you do it? Why should you do it as a
farmer? Well, as a farmer, you have the
you have it's really it's an easy way to
get started. For example, if you stay with
the tomatoes, maybe someone just has had a
lot of tomatoes one year and wants to try.
How is working out selling the tomatoes
and not just giving them away for free?
And it's it doesn't cost anything to sell
food in the Reko group, so you can just
put out your tomatoes and be like, Hi, I'm
selling tomatoes, and that can be the
start. It was also quite time efficient
because there's no middlemen. You don't
need to meet up with someone else first,
and then they will give it to the
customers you meet directly up with your
customer and handing them the food that
they have been buying from you. So that's
very practical. Another point is that you
can easily sell to positive customers, and
that might be not as selfexplanary as the
other ones, because the positive attitude
towards food, I think, is really can be
really motivated for farmers and small
scale farmers that work really hard for
the products they love. Not really. Quite.
Yeah. Driven people that really want to
provide great food. And it's really
amazing when you can then actually sell it
to people that are equally interested. So
that, yeah, that's cool. And you can also
try out new products quite easily. So as
you can tell, you can grow the specific
kind of vegetable or you can try to make
the specific kind of cheese. And then you
can see, are people interested that were
worth actually producing that permanently
or, well, didn't that really turn off that
great and people that weren't interested
then? It's not the end of the world
because you can just just make small trial
run. And the last thing on here on the
slides, but of product planning is
important as well. Because one of the Reko
groups, you know, in advance how actually
how much you're going to sell that day.
And that makes it a lot easier to plan.
And on the other side, it also the groups
can help you, like I said, with
overproduction. So if you have a lot more
than you can, just try to sell it over the
group, but easier than ever with
supermarkets. So yeah, that is basically a
very, very positive things with the Reko
groups and say, let's have a look. That's
how it's. But I slept there. Yeah. So the Reko
group that I have been administrating is
in a small village called Tybee. It's a
lower income area, quite conservative
structures. And by 2021 we have yeah, 2130
members. And we started in 2019. So. Why
did I mention the small village, low
income area, conservative structures?
Well, basically to tell you that if it
works in horby, it can work almost
everywhere laugh because of the
structures here people are not. It's not.
It's not a hip area. It's not where like
ecological food is driving force.
It's not like that. But like I mentioned
earlier, Reko groups make it possible to
connect with people and to connect to food
producers from the area. And I think that
that is really important and that that has
made a big impact. And when we started in
2019, there were basically we started with
five people that grew a bit of food and
maybe 10 people that felt a bit sorry. So
they came. But, Consistency and getting
out the world, basically telling everyone
that they should check out this group and
that paid of. So that is that's quite
quite a success, I would say, although
there is, of course, it's not really all,
it's just easy. What was really important
for this group was to get a diversity of
products that can be a bit difficult
because, well, people want to buy more
than just tomatoes. So to get farmers
interests that sell different products is
really crucial for these kind of groups to
work. Here's a small comparison that
hopefully illustrates that despite having
well, not as well as wealth a parking lot
in 2020, we actually haven't gotten a lot
bigger from just 2019 to 2020. I realize I
didn't have a good picture from 21, so to
do. Yeah, and one of the important things
here that people talk with each other and
it's like, you see the farmers are
actually coming in their cars and just
delivering the products. So because there
can't be any official sales on the spot,
you don't need any market stance or
anything like that. You just need a kind
of fast meet up. Normally, the meetings
are around 30 minutes, sometimes an hour.
Exchange products. People may make sure
everyone is paid and then you're good to
go. So it's also rather the real. The in-
person meetings are rather rather fast.
And talking a bit about challenges. Well.
Like I said, Reko is based on online that
people make their orders, so. I have a
first point accessibility, but I could
also easily name that in choosing the
right platform. In Sweden most of the Reko
groups are Facebook organized, which well,
is not optimal, but it is very easy
accessible for most people and we haven't
been. We have been trying to find a better
working platform to find a better working
solution and haven't really succeeded so
far. The point is also that a lot of
customers for these Reko groups, at least
in the rural areas on countrysides, are
like 50 and upwards and not very technical
interested. So basically, the internet
itself was a big step for this people, and
now they have slowly understood how well
this one platform works. So it's what
works for them. And yeah, that's
definitely a really big challenge, because
it makes the movement quite dependent on
this platform, which is definitely not
ideal. Another challenge can be
payment methods. In Sweden, we have a
system that makes it very easy to transfer
money between people with wireless. But I
know that, for example, in Germany, that's
not as easy. We have a bit of cash that
people people can normally pay in cash as
well, but basically no one wants to do it
anymore. But making sure payment works is
a thing and, well, a lot is really based
on trust. So upholding trust is also very
important within those groups. And you
need to have a good location, because when
you're meeting was like a sad, like
25 producers can easily can. So
25 farmers coming and then maybe
a 100 people only on a day that on an
evening that's that's quite good,
quite good. But that also needs space. And
yeah, you need to make sure that you have
a place where it's OK to park for half an
hour an hour and to have this amount of
people, of course. But we found that
rather easy because, there was a lot of
companies or just institutions that were
like, Oh yeah, right, we have a big
parking lot. You can use that. So ask
around. And while I was around, I mean,
then it's also very easy to talk to people
and just tell them about this group and
try to spread the word. That comes to
another challenge, which is, yeah, getting
the ball rolling, really getting around
things formation let people know that this
group exists. Let other farmers know that
this group exists, but as well. Tell.
People, everyday people, your parents,
your grandmother, your neighbors, your
colleague, tell everyone that these groups
exist and spread the word. And one last
point of challenges is keeping transport
efficient, because the more the group
grows, the further farmers kind of are
willing to drive to sell the products have
a very successful group, maybe, let's say,
50 kilometers away. Maybe it starts to get
interesting to me to actually go there.
And I think it's important to stay true to
the values of efficient transportation.
And by that, to quite close you to the
mission by making sure that transport is
managed efficiently and with as little
resources as possible. But I mean, here
here, it's absolutely possible to find
flexible solutions. Maybe some farmers
actually can take a hitch a ride together
or something like that. And I know that
there is also there have been groups that
have restricted farmers to a certain range
around the town or village there from to
make sure that that really stays local.
And talking about those restricting
someone, normally those Reko groups are
really open, but of course it is a bit of
a bit difficult where you draw the line
for small scale production. And yeah, when
is a farmer maybe too big, maybe to too
much into the commertional production to
really still should be a part of it? That
is definitely an issue that needs to be
addressed within the group. But normally
you have more than one person managing a
group and like I said, there is a support
net, so you're not alone of this kind of
decisions. So what I want to say is, bild
more Reko, maybe try to actually get into
Germany, try to get it going there. It's
basically quite easy to start. You need to
have a look into local laws and
regulation. I was hoping I could do that
before this talk, but I realized that my
knowledge of German law is. Well, yeah, *
laugh* not not sufficient for that task.
And, but have a look, I really want to
believe that there is a way to make it
work and then choose a communication
platform. Choose a good platform and be
aware that most likely the platform you
choose from the start will be the platform
that you will use for this group. Onwards,
we have had a few groups in Sweden that
try to change communication platform after
a while, and that was very hard for them.
So be mindful about it and think about it.
And. Then, of course, you need to have
farmers that are interested in being a
part of it, and you need to have farmers
that want to sell their goods, that are
well motivated to be a part of really,
really cool thing. And like I said before,
you want to have a wide range of products
and producers. So the more diversity, the
better. Of course, there is always
seasonal changes. For example, my tomato
example is kind of a bad example because
there's just so short time in the year
where actually local farmers can provide
tomatoes, of course. But. Find
farmers that are interested and then talk
about what products are possible. We have
realized the farmers very often just very
resourceful of finding alternatives what
they can sell in the winter, and that's
there's a lot of innovation actually
coming from that. That is really cool to
see. And yeah, that's basically what you
need for starting a Reko group. There
would definitely be the possibility to get
support from the Scandinavian communities
and see how they're doing and maybe just
try to start your own thing. And laugh I
realize I'm actually today super fast with
this talk. So I'm already at my sources.
So I was thinking of actually skipping
this a bit backwards to. Let's go to my
first line and talk a bit more a bit more
about the impacts for both farmer, for the
farmers, and that is, we have noticed that
a really strong. A really strong, a bit
unexpected force that happened with these
groups is the networking effect, because
it helps small scale farmers and people
that are just hobby producers to connect
and to meet once, twice a week on this, on
this group meetings give their product to
the customer and then maybe, say, 5 or
10 more minutes and just chat for each
other and be like, Oh, how is this going?
Oh, how would you deal with that? How are
your chickens doing? And well, that sounds
a bit trivial, but it actually makes a lot
of difference, because it helps people to
connect with their neighbors, a bit more
far away neighbors with people that have
similar interest in producing really great
food. And it creates a community that is
really, really resourceful, supporting and
inclusive. And I found that really
interesting that even in herby, with this
rather conservative population, it's
really worked. And that was a very, I
think, very healing, almost healing
program, process for that village to
really see like, Oh, there's so many
people around here by now making amazing
food, growing organic vegetables and being
curious about that. So this really
networking effect is super cool and
something that we maybe didn't expect to
happen that strongly. And of course, it
works for the consumers as well. They have
started to like the people coming to the
group started to see it. A bit of a social
event, though. Well, we all know, what also
happened 2020. So the social aspect has
been no, we were in need of trying to
minimize that as much as possible. But
still, it's networking is a very big part
of the entire thing. I'm yeah, 2020
pandemic. I actually didn't do an extra
slide about it because I assumed everyone
was tired of that already. But from a Reko
group perspective, it actually did not
that much damage. We were never in the
situation in Sweden, where the regulations
would have for would have forbidden to
have our meetings to exchange the
products. So it was more like people
realized, Oh, this is outside. Oh, here,
it's really easy to keep your distance
because there's not so many people and oh,
I can still buy super fresh food, even if
I don't dare to go into a supermarket. So
actually, the pandemic has brought more
customers to the Reko groups, which was a
bit unexpected in the beginning, but
really, really fun and really cool. And
now we will see, it's always a bit like a
seasonal thing because winter here is not
at least in Sweden, not as snowy as one
wants to believe. It's a lot of rain and
windy, and people are not that motivated
to actually go out and pick up their food.
So in winter, normally it's a bit of less
activity and then picking up on spring
weather. Yeah, about the peak in summer
and early autumn, when there is such a
wide range of products available. So there
is always a bit of the seasonal
fluctuation in how many people are
attending. But that's that's just the way
it is. Let's say. Yeah. So there was a lot
of good reasons why to actually have these
Reko groups and. I would really it would
be really interesting if that would happen
to peer groups in Germany. When I did this
talk, the last time I got a question, if
it was comparable to solawi(solidarische
Landwirtschaft), which I thought I could
talk a few shortly about. It has some
similarities, but I would say the Reko
groups are a lot easier accessible for
farmers than the solawi. So it's basically
everyone can participate. There is not a
lot of limitations to what you need to be
able to do to sell food on the market. I
mean, of course, you need to follow
guidelines about food safety and so on.
But you don't need to be able to promise
to be able to deliver, for example, eggs
all year round. It's totally OK to be
there just three or four times per year
and the rest of the year, you just don't
have enough eggs. And so the customer are
saying different to a solawi, how I've
understood it. You don't need to like,
have a contract and guaranteeing how much
you're buying every month so you can stay
flexible if it's the end of the month and
there's really more months left than money
in your bank account, then you just don't
buy from the group. Maybe just that time,
but next time you're very welcome to. So
in my eyes, solawi maybe to a farmer more
long term solution, more of the more
stable income situation. But the Reko
groups who would allow for a lot more
flexibility and. It's easier to get
started. Yeah.laugh I only took with me
the positive points, then I sometimes get
asked, Oh, but isn't it really expensive
to buy so well produced food? And the
answer is yes and no. Of a lot of products
will be more expensive than in a
supermarket. But because you buy directly
from the farmer, the farmers are still
able to make good prices for really
amazing products. So they actually get the
money they need to be to, to work, to make
a living from it. And you still it's it's
still affordable and because there is
exchange between the groups. There's also
a bit of a control about costs because the
farmers basically need to kind of keep an
even level if there's someone selling
eggs, so certain prize. And there's three
other people selling a lot cheaper eggs
that will be a discussion between the
farmers to actually come to come to an
agreement on a fair price for the eggs and
that self regulate all the regulatory
procedure. It's really a great thing. So
from an administrative point of view, I,
well, my group, we were never in need of
telling someone, you should change your
prices or something that is normally taken
care of more or less by itself and by the
people limit. So like, yeah, like most
grassroots movement, it really is living
from the people and need some engagement,
of course. But once that is rolling, it's
really, really great construct, I would
say, in a really great thing to do. Yes.
Say you and some sources and there one is
called who's holding okat hopp, which is
an organization in Sweden that is
basically something between a club and
some kind of political. How to say that
political ministry? Hmm. laugh I'm
actually not really sure about the
translation there, but they had gotten
some money from a European Union fond to
look into these Reko groups and see how
that could support the rural areas and
countryside in Sweden and how farmers
could benefit. So they were helping out a
bit like I mentioned earlier with graphic
material. And yeah, provided provided some
information. 2020 that man money ran out
and I think they are no longer providing
any kind of help. But since their help was
very little from the beginning, it doesn't
seem to affect the groups at all. I would
say so. It was definitely it was nice that
it was there, but I wouldn't say that some
kind of support from governmental support
is definitely not necessary to be
successful with these groups. Yeah, that
was my talk for today, I hope I will see
everyone later for the Q&A and would be
really great to chat about this. So have a
good evening and see you later.
Herald: Yeah, done. Sage ich noch mal
danke schön,
thank you for
watching. That was a very interesting talk
about how to install influence on ISO or
consumer. Oh, if you have any further
questions you can visit chat in events.
Haecksen the awesome ADA ATM. You can also
use the QR code in this window here on at
the right side to get into the room where
you can place your questions. Wenn ihr noch
weitere Fragen habt, dann kommt in den Raum
. Hex and org slash AIFS
Awesome, wonderful Ada . Da werden weitere Fragen beantwortet.
Thank you to Julia and
hopefully see you on the Q&A section.
Getting over there. Thank you.
rc3 Nachspannmusik
Subtitles created by c3subtitles.de
in the year 2022. Join, and help us!