Idea 280 of 500. Cluster 14: Farm to shelf
Seed banks and seed businesses for the heritage vegetables and grains
The mechanism, from the book
The smallholder sells raw to a collector at the gate and the collector sells to a packer who puts his own name on it. Denmark's farmers got rich the day they owned the creamery.
Every idea in cluster 14 uses this mechanism.
A first step
Collect seed from three heritage vegetables that older growers in one village still keep, record where each came from, and pack it in small envelopes with the grower's story. Sell them at a weekend market and online to home gardeners, and ask each buyer what else they are looking for. The sell-through and the list of requested varieties show which seeds deserve a proper business.
- Who pays first
- A home gardener in the city or abroad who wants the vegetables they remember and cannot find the seed anywhere.
- What leaves today
- Heritage varieties survive only in old gardens and disappear with their growers, while the seed trade is run on other varieties.
The idea and the mechanism are from the book. The first step was written for this site as a suggestion; if you know a better one, say so.
The test
Does it keep value that now leaves the island, or build the proof that lets somebody else do so?
The only test any idea on this site has to pass. The four rules that go with it are here.
In the book
- Ch. ElevenThe Mechanisms
Denmark's co-operative dairies and the binding contract that held them
More from cluster 14
- 271A farmers' co-operative dairy in the hill country selling cheese and yoghurt under its own brand
- 272Buffalo-milk mozzarella and ghee for the hotels and for export
- 273Fruit and vegetable drying: mango, pineapple, papaya, jackfruit and okra as premium snacks and soup mixes for Europe and the Gulf
- 274Frozen tropical fruit pulp for the smoothie chains of the world
- 275Heritage rice varieties grown under contract and sold at ten times the commodity price
- 276Organic certification services for smallholder groups, shared so the cost is bearable
Idea 280 of the 500 in the appendix of Why Not Sri Lanka? Every one can be started by one person, one family or one small firm.