Reko, lets reboot agriculture

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.

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