This is a profound personal and collective story right at the heart of systemic and cultural change. Serenity Hill and Kirsten Larsen are regenerative farmers and co-founders of the Open Food Network. You might remember my conversation with Kirsten online two years ago, as Covid took hold, and Open Food Network took off. At that stage, they’d experienced a tenfold increase in both people signing up to the platform and in turnover, while spanning over a dozen countries.
A lot has happened since, too, with the Network, with the trailblazing land ownership and succession model we touched on last time, and on a transformative personal level. So when our family visited theirs recently, we had to pull up a pew on the front porch together, and press record.
Our conversation starts with a very frank and vital conversation about land, ownership and money, and how investment can work best for those doing the actual work of regeneration. From there we delve into other ways to enable more of that work, including more values-based supply networks.
And that leads us to where this pioneering couple is currently exploring further layers of personal transformation. Oh, and how over a decade ago, Serenity foresaw the independents movement that has just transformed Australia’s parliament.
More on the Open Food Network: it’s a not-for-profit, global collaboration building food distribution systems that are fair, local and transparent. The Network’s flagship open source platform enables new, ethical supply chains. And in the wake of COVID-19 has gone to a whole new level, as producers look for alternative ways to sell quality produce, and eaters look for alternative ways to access it.
This conversation was recorded in Violet Town, Victoria, on 29 March 2022.
Title slide image: Serenity and Kirsten (L-R), just before pressing record on this conversation (Anthony’s foot just makes it into this slide – the full photo can be viewed on the episode web page, along with a couple of photos on the farm) (pic: Olivia Cheng).
Music:
Regeneration, composed by Amelia Barden, from the soundtrack of the new film Regenerating Australia, available for community screenings now.
Find more:
Open Food Network.
And the farm, Pukawidgee.
The pivotal survey being run currently by the Network.
Sustainable Table Fund.
Convergence, the RCS international conference in Brisbane on 16-17 July 2022.
You can hear more of Kirsten and I in conversation from 2020, in episode 63: ‘Food Unincorporated: How a grass-roots system went global’.
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