open source

The Local Food Trust subscribes to the principles of “openness.” Popularized by software developers, the principles of “open data” allow others to build upon previous accomplishments and achieve greater function and reach than would be possible alone.

Open means anyone can freely access, use, modify, and share for any purpose (subject, at most, to requirements that preserve provenance and openness).

As we develop our programs, we commit to sharing the knowledge we gain. This could include:

• forms, templates, guidelines for running a local food trust

• whitepapers, analysis, and research on local food systems

• handbooks, guides, and best-practices documents designed for local food businesses and organizations

• our own financial records and accountability systems

Why do we make this commitment? Because it is the very nature of “local values” to be centered on particular people, communities, and businesses — i.e., human-scaled and human-centered. Our objective isn’t to make The Local Food Trust bigger to encompass multiple localities; that would be a contradiction in both form and function.

It would be one of the best possible outcomes if, through our commitment to openness, another group could more easily and quickly start a “local food trust” of their own, in their specific locality. We imagine a connected community of groups dedicated to improving their effectiveness in their own localities through sharing knowledge, and will work to bring about a renaissance in bio-regional self-determination.