Make Farming Secure, Profitable & Cooler Again: aka: OCFUG; Other Comestibles For Uplifting Gourmands

[GENERAL] Name and surname of main applicant

Rupert Leigh

[GENERAL] Are you delivering this project as an individual or as an entity (whether formally incorporated or not)

Individual

[GENERAL] Please specify how many months you expect your project to last (from 2-12 months)

12

[GENERAL] Please indicate if your proposal has been auto-translated into English from another language.

No

[GENERAL] Summarize your solution to the problem (200-character limit including spaces)

Shorten supply chains, increase transparency & traceability to mitigate future food insecurity, using a diversified approach, turn food loss into food profit & reduce agricultural GHG emissions.

[GENERAL] Does your project have any dependencies on other organizations, technical or otherwise?

No

[GENERAL] If YES, please describe what the dependency is and why you believe it is essential for your project’s delivery. If NO, please write “No dependencies.”

No dependencies.

[GENERAL] Will your project’s output/s be fully open source?

Yes

[GENERAL] Please provide here more information on the open source status of your project outputs

We will be exploring the use of open-source track and trace tooling to support the development of the concept in the UK. For instance, tooling from the Urban Farmer Dapp, Palmyra etc.

[METADATA] SDG rating

SDG 3 good health and wellbeing

SDG 9 Industry innovation and infrastructure

SDG 11 sustainable cities and communities

SDG 12 responsible consumption and production

#proposalframeworktool

[SOLUTION] Please describe your proposed solution.

We are seeking to develop our early stage ideas to deliver our proof of concept, design research and basic prototyping for an innovative Cardano powered suite of products, services, and business models, that tackle UK food insecurity.

We aim to explore disruptive innovation for supply chain use cases, using blockchain and smart contracts (Defi, RealFi), offering pathways for farmers, vendors, communities and individuals to authenticate the provenance of their food.

Exploring pathways towards integrating digital identity to bring value to their daily lives, and support behaviour shifts that are tangibly and positively socio-environmentally impactful.

Re-connecting people to a culture of local, sustainable, in a cool and entertaining fashion.

We aim to conduct a UK case study action research to test these ideas and engage virtually and in-person a local and national community of farmers, green grocers, vendors, policymakers, restaurants, NGOs, the youth, and impact driven communities and individuals :

Rebalance supply chains, to become local & smarter.

• Design out loss from the barn door

• invest in ‘locally grown’, ‘free from'

 

Power sustainable consumption.

• Reconnect with local food culture & food as a medicine

• Improve nutrition for a reason & food provenance.

 

Reduce our consumption of ultra-processed food

• Natural and manufactured can co-exit

 

Scale regenerative agriculture

• Drive nature-based solutions and equitable incentives.

operational principles:

· local fresh nutritional food available

· farmer focused; customer confirmed

· honest, transparent & convenient customer experience possible

· transparent availability, time & distance carried

· profitable by design, optimised price focused

· pre grown, pre-paid

o deposit payment system

· Co-operative ‘willing to buy locally together’

· circularity incentives – reuse-return-returned

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Additional research:

UK National Strategy

https://www.nationalfoodstrategy.org/

Food Retail: 

Savills (partner)

https://www.savills.com/research_articles/255800/347922-0#:~:text=On the surface, it appears,1.8% on the previous year

CBI

https://www.cbi.eu/market-information/fresh-fruit-vegetables/united-kingdom/market-potential

Food Security: 

WWF

https://wwf.panda.org/?10298466/COP28-WWF-responds-to-stalled-food-systems-negotiations

Project Drawdown 

https://drawdown.org/sectors/food-agriculture-land-use

The Food Foundation

https://foodfoundation.org.uk/publication/broken-plate-2023

Food Loss & waste: 

WWF

https://www.worldwildlife.org/blogs/sustainability-works/posts/how-farmers-are-measuring-food-loss-and-figuring-out-how-to-solve-for-it

WRAP

https://wrap.org.uk/resources/guide/food-system-transformation-courtauld-commitment-2030

[IMPACT] Please define the positive impact your project will have on the wider Cardano community.

• Fresh food greengrocery is not typically associated with popular culture, we look to entice customers who can relate and are inspired how their food is stored, presented, produced from and in recipes to take away,  

• Music culture, apparel, and Japanese-sensibility architecture to play a significant role in influencing by creating a compelling atmosphere which the customer experience is extended beyond the functional anxiety of supermarket visual and lighting identity; make nutritious food cool.

Technology:

farm management traceability software:

designed to facilitate and transform the supply chain transparency from the Barn Door. connected and data-driven farming, integrating across the agricultural sector with information and communication technology collaborating with the different value chain participants.

 

· Software that offers cloud-based advanced analytics and insights for the food industry supply chain:

· operation management,

· supply chain management,

· inventory management,

· produce status,

· order management,

· payment, delivery reputational tracking

· customer reliability & repeat custom rewards

· price variation of nutritional date tracking

· business & commercial intelligence on customers,

· human resource management

 

blockchain our food:

· A transparent, fair, and efficient fresh food supply service

o provenance of all food (fibres)

· Open-Source software

o Communication & Marketing services

o 40/60 farmers surplus direct to local customers

o incentivised to sell surplus locally

· Convenience of a supermarket without the hidden middle supply chain, increasing food nutrition & profit, reducing loss & waste

 

· Up to date web and mobile supply technology

o date picked, freshness, nutritional

· Fair & transparent contracts in global supply

· The in-n-out burger of fresh & local grocery

 

 

With multiple possible combinations, enabling farmers to increase their operational performance and optimize food security, safety & nutritional quality, and value of their offerings with real-time visibility

 

Support investment & innovation:

· Financing that farmers actually require.

 

· Training programmes, collaborative networks, and research up-skilling in regenerative knowledge & transition.

 

· Supporting with secondary income streams from surplus produce i.e., dairy farm & ice cream

 

[CAPABILITY & FEASIBILITY] What is your capability to deliver your project with high levels of trust and accountability? How do you intend to validate if your approach is feasible?

We are a highly experienced group of purpose-driven changemakers with diverse backgrounds, and a common vision of improving the UK food supply chain, with the learnings that can be shared globally.

Our project team is made up of:

Project Lead - Rupert Leigh: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rupertleigh/

Serial entrepreneur and CMO with a multi-disciplined track record of originating, launching, and scaling cutting-edge and environmentally responsible lifestyle brands with a passion to transforming brands through culture. C

apital raise experience & stakeholder management, driving growth through strategic brand marketing, B2B positioning, creative production, and international distribution by some of the world’s largest retailers & globally recognised cultural brands, collaborating specifically across, and developing programmes in the circular economy, transforming sustainable consumption from the grassroots.

A founder’s eye for operational excellence and supply chain efficiency, a category pioneer of circular packaging strategies. Unlocks perspectives creatively, recognising complex patterns through a dyslexic transformational vantage point.

Strategy & Systems - Elliot Rueben: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elliotreuben/

Leader in Digital Transformation. I work with organisations from global enterprises to small businesses in finding pragmatic answers to difficult strategic questions.

Working principally at the juncture between high tech, marketing and digital-in-practice, I'm a marketer by trade and a strategist by design. I thrive on solving long-, short- and mid-term challenges through identifying a strategy with practical steps to get things done.

In the last decade I've undertaken C-level engagements to deliver just that with dozens of the world's biggest enterprises. I have wide experience of blue chip / global enterprises in various verticals: CPG / FMCG, retail, e-commerce, high tech, public sector, telecoms and more. I have helped drive actual digital transformation from strategy to execution - and I specialise in making it easy on clients.

I have learned my trade primarily as a self-teaching, entrepreneurial practitioner - my USP is that I understand how businesses work from ground level all the way up to the C-Level.

Marketing: Dave Passey: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidpassey/

Strategy and Communications Director /ex Cornerstone/ ex TBWA-apple music/ ex TVG

Cardano Ecosystem - Razali Samsudin 'Raz': https://www.linkedin.com/in/razali-samsudin/

A veteran in the Project Catalyst ecosystem having successfully proposed and delivered projects across Fund 4 - 10. He has been part of the Cardano community since 2020, and has worked with dozens of teams, in various capacities.

Our network partners and collaborators will enable us to deliver this project successfully.

Suppliers:

local farmers and producers within a 30-mile radius of each store. intentional overlap to support supply and demand across local supply chain network, mitigating as much loss at the barn door, prolonging life span for fresh and nutritional produce. working towards ‘insetting’ carbon with the local supply chain.

 

• Local farm partners with restaurants, retail, and cultural destinations to bring life back to Britain’s high streets

 

Local – within a 30-mile radius that enables local delivery 1-2 hrs 

 

Regional – overlap 60 miles to keep a constant supply within each store 6-12hrs

 

National – mitigating food loss, no food intestinally wasted is it can be bought and delivered within supply chain – deliveries in 24hrs

Trend 1: Global population will continue to increase but at a lower rate towards 2050. By 2050 there will be 25% more people on the planet than today.

 

Trend 2: Changes in climate will stress current (traditional) food production systems. 

 

Trend 3: Agriculture and the food chain are becoming a proportionately greater contributor to greenhouse gas (GHG)

 

Trend 4: The arable land needed to produce a fixed quantity of crops has declined by about 70% over the past 60 years 

 

Trend 5: In recent decades the rise of the “global food system” has been the main driver of efficiency, reflected in declining food prices, 

 

Trend 6: Potentially disruptive technologies which merge chemical engineering, synthetic biology, robotics, and advanced manufacturing are on the horizon and could shift the paradigm from "food produced by agriculture" to one of “food produced by manufacturing". 

 

Trend 7: In tandem with technology change, most people have also adapted to eating processed foods, driven by the need for convenience, and this is an upward trend 

 

Trend 8: Land values will increase as pressure for access to land for food production increases

 

Trend 9: Countries, such as the UK, which rely on food markets for food supply need to plan for instabilities within the global food system. 

[Project Milestones] What are the key milestones you need to achieve in order to complete your project successfully?

Milestone 1 

1-4 months Jan - April 

• Partner with farm/producer as first client supplier for 3-5yr contract to supply food to OCFUG green grocery store 
• transparent/legal supply agreements created on the blockchain (with smart contracts)
• Planning and development of supply chain & software solutions
• B2C & B2C
• Cardano Ecosystem survey for operational track and trace delivery partners/toolkit menu of options finalised
• Sourcing relevant operational and development engineering team capacity (blockchain dev, smart contracts etc)
• 3yr contract retail and food production location partner/Savills. 
• first store opens 
• Storage, kitchen & production lines fitted 
• Contract first harvest with blockchain to support 30 days payment system
• delivery of produce 
• sale of produce 
• payment terms concluded 
• Develop brand concepts and marketing communication channel output. 
• brand and marketing, design and graphics manual 

Milestone 2 

4-8 months May - Aug 

• Partnership with local borough of Hackney or Tower Hamlets to support fund into food security education 
• agree program with borough/s on food education and grants

• Marketing Retail and Comestible brands with retail and farm/producer support team members 
• Launch first marketing campaign in conjunction with wider employment opportunities across: retail, farm/producer, marketing & communications. 

• 1st green grocery and comestible store opens
• daily, weekly and monthly trading

• Block chained first harvest into retail and sell the first season produce into retail 
• Delivery of and sale of produce from supplier 
• First payment back to farm/producer within 30 days of delivery - proving hidden middle loss and waste can be reduced, current retail payment 90 day system defunct. 

• No loss and waste proposal, test and production kitchens for first comestibles canned for retail sales
• where food may be past its best buy and or damaged, will produce first canned products with longer shelf preserved life line under OCFUG brand 

Milestone 3 into retail 

8-12 months Sept - Dec

• Community kitchen & food production concept opens/launches
• support local communities' nutritional borough targets 

• Environmental food loss and waste report 
• begin report 
• Publish Environmental food loss and waste report with feasibility study findings

• Increase marketing and communications 
• develop local collaborative digital marketing channel/s

Month 12

Milestone Outputs:

• Closing report
• Feasibility study in pdf format and accessible in a google drive folder for public view, and on partner websites, in English.

Acceptance criteria:

• url to read the pdf of the feasibility study in English

Evidence of milestone completion:

• pdf of the feasibility study in English, in a google drive/ supporter websites (eg OCFUG website, Sustainable ADA website)

[RESOURCES] Who is in the project team and what are their roles?

Project Lead: Rupert leigh: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rupertleigh/

Serial entrepreneur and CMO with a multi-disciplined track record of originating, launching, and scaling cutting-edge and environmentally responsible lifestyle brands with a passion to transforming brands through culture. C

apital raise experience & stakeholder management, driving growth through strategic brand marketing, B2B positioning, creative production, and international distribution by some of the world’s largest retailers & globally recognised cultural brands, collaborating specifically across, and developing programmes in the circular economy, transforming sustainable consumption from the grassroots.

A founder’s eye for operational excellence and supply chain efficiency, a category pioneer of circular packaging strategies. Unlocks perspectives creatively, recognising complex patterns through a dyslexic transformational vantage point.

Cardano Ecosystem: Razali Samsudin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/razali-samsudin/

Cardano Summit 2023 Masterclass Speaker | Blockchain for Good 2023 Nominee

https://twitter.com/Razlosophy

Co-author of Recalibrating Value, Identity and Impact Through The Blockchain - The Cardano Impact Report

Co-Founder of Sustainable ADA, Impact Web3, Streets of ADA - A Samsudin Brothers Projek

17+ years of experience as an interdisciplinary Educator from early years settings to postgraduate level, with a background in social sciences, humanities, and sustainability.

Author, Writer, Editor, Digital Economy, Blockchain, Sustainability and Impact Measurements, Researcher (Research Lead Connecting SDGs to Project Catalyst and lead on the SDG Proposer Tool and SDG Search Tool with Cardano AIM #Blockchain4Good, #Cardano4Good, #NFT4Good). Social Entrepreneur, Catalyst Proposal Mentor and Proposer across all Catalyst Funds since Fund 4.

Wada UN SDG and Education Coordinator, Contributor at Cardano AIM, PositiveBlockchain, Cardano4Climate, Catalyst School, Adafilms.

Strategy & Systems Elliot Rueben: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elliotreuben/

Leader in Digital Transformation. I work with organisations from global enterprises to small businesses in finding pragmatic answers to difficult strategic questions.

Working principally at the juncture between high tech, marketing and digital-in-practice, I'm a marketer by trade and a strategist by design. I thrive on solving long-, short- and mid-term challenges through identifying a strategy with practical steps to get things done.

In the last decade I've undertaken C-level engagements to deliver just that with dozens of the world's biggest enterprises. I have wide experience of blue chip / global enterprises in various verticals: CPG / FMCG, retail, e-commerce, high tech, public sector, telecoms and more. I have helped drive actual digital transformation from strategy to execution - and I specialise in making it easy on clients.

I have learned my trade primarily as a self-teaching, entrepreneurial practitioner - my USP is that I understand how businesses work from ground level all the way up to the C-Level.

Marketing: Dave Passey: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidpassey/

Strategy and Communications Director /ex Cornerstone/ ex TBWA-apple music/ ex TVG

We will be seeking to collaborate with relevant UK based Cardano community projects that resonate with our vision and mission, as well as IOG, Cardano Foundation, Emurgo, and the regional townhall teams eg EU Townhall team, as well as UK based SPOS such as the Upstream SPO team, and RCADA of CNC Alliance.

[BUDGET & COSTS] Please provide a cost breakdown of the proposed work and resources.

100,000 ADA

General Administration/Project Management - 18,000 ADA

Feasibility Study & Research, Tokenomics, design whitepaper - 30,000 ADA

Marketing & Communications - 17,000 ADA

Workshops and community engagements/events/meetups with stakeholders (farmers, greengrocers, supply chain partners, vendors) (physical/virtual) - 30,000 ADA

Travel & Misc - 5000 ADA

[VALUE FOR MONEY] How does the cost of the project represent value for money for the Cardano ecosystem?

OCFUG project incorporates a multifaceted approach that emphasizes various key aspects beneficial to the Cardano ecosystem, thereby representing substantial value for money:

• Supply Chain Optimization: OCFUG focuses on reducing inefficiencies in the supply chain, thereby minimizing loss and waste

• Transparency and Traceability: By implementing technology like Cardano blockchain tooling and farm management traceability software, the project enhances transparency throughout the supply chain

• Localized and Sustainable Agriculture: The emphasis on local and smarter supply chains promotes sustainability

• Consumer-Centric Approach: The focus on nutritional value, freshness, and convenience aligns with consumer demands for healthier and locally sourced product

• Technology Integration: Leveraging advanced analytics, inventory management, and blockchain for traceability can streamline operations, reduce costs, and optimize pricing

• Support and Innovation: The provision of financial support, training programs, and collaborative networks for farmers aids in fostering innovation and sustainability

Ultimately, the cost of implementing such a comprehensive project should be seen as an investment rather than a mere expenditure.

It not only addresses immediate challenges like food insecurity but also lays the groundwork for a more resilient, efficient, and sustainable agricultural system that bridges within the Cardano ecosystem and outwards to help promote greater adoption, thus representing a significant value for the money spent.

[IMPORTANT NOTE] The Applicant agrees to Fund Rules and also that data in the submission form and other data provided by the project team during the course of the project will be publicly available.

I Accept