Shiro is an idea that has been percolating on this and other forums for quite some time now. A while ago @ViktorZaunders wrote about the project here: Shiro - Coordination for Local Communities.
Now we feel the time is right for next steps. Me and Viktor among others recently concluded a project working with Swedish food coops - buyers clubs, cooperative food stores, etc. The insights from that project proves there is a big need for cooperative solutions to local supply chain issues. In plain words, the demand for a system that makes buying and selling local food easy is huge, provided that the system is able to handle a multitude of business scenarios - subscriptions, pre-orders, online sales, bartering, as well as all the stuff that is not buying and selling such as logistics, member management, etc.
We believe Holochain to be the perfect platform to realise this local first regenerative supply chain network and plan to begin prototyping and developing in January.
If the Shiro ideas resonate with you please comment this post to find out how you can get involved.
Shiro – Our vision for a new local food system
Shiro is a local first supply chain network on a mission to create thriving regenerative food systems. A multi stakeholder platform cooperative – open source, owned and managed by all active participants from local consumers to regional wholesalers.
Shiro moves beyond food as a commodity and people as consumers. Participation on the platform means an active food citizenship to support the development of a democratic, socially and economically just, and environmentally regenerative food system.
We envision a platform that allows for many local initiatives to link up and become truly an ecosystem that supports regenerative development.
Shiro builds a new food system from the bottom up, not top down
Local first, that is our focus! Then region and city. After that national and international where possible.
It’s about scaling out, not scaling up! It’s about rejuvenating communities and creating thousands of jobs in thousands of small coops and companies. Let’s eliminate middlemen to achieve affordable food for consumers and increased profitability for producers. The vision with Shiro is a local economy where value is circulated rather than extracted, where locally created value stays local!
Shiro bridges the gap between producers and consumers
There is gap in local food systems, a gap between producers and consumers, between supply and demand.
Producers find it difficult to make ends meet
- Selling online is complicated and not well suited to food products
- Running an on farm store takes time, costs money, requires marketing, etc
- Chain grocery stores rather not work with small producers
- Local produce markets, direct restaurant sales, CSA programs, they all have advantages but also major drawbacks.
Consumers would like to choose local products more but often ends up visiting the chain grocery store out of time constraints, convenience etc.
With Shiro we want to bridge the gap between producers and consumers, enabling new streams of products and services within the food system. We want to move away from centralised economies of extraction to co-created economies of shared value. Built on trust, community and sense of belonging.
Shiro connects supply and demand and matches existing offers with consumer needs and wants. When value is unlocked it stimulates creation of new business models through a virtuous cycle of supply/demand discovery and co-creation.
A multi sided matching engine at the core
Shiro builds on ValueFlows and HoloREA – models for distributed economic networks where resources flow from agent to agent via events. Objects such as resources, events, agents, proposals, intentions, actions, commitments and processes can be combined in novel configurations to facilitate a multitude of business scenarios.
Agents in our network are the consumers, the producers, food hubs of different kinds as well as everyone involved in the logistics that lets the ecosystem thrive.
Shiro will support new business models as well as established:
- Direct sales (store, webshop)
- Community Suppported Agriculture (subscriptions)
- Buyers clubs (group ordering)
- Pre-ordering
- Etc.
)
But definitely some work…