The innovation journey

Nybrukarna aims to produce sustainable food in a system that is informed by relationships. The organisation is a cooperative that organizes the efforts of farmers who produce crops and vegetables. The organisation then sells units to customers who receive a bag of fresh produce weekly. Most of the cooperative’s costumers pay in advance before the harvest season starts.The cooperative is organised around three principles: (i) farmers enter into long-term relationships with their costumer; (ii) the risks and rewards of farming are shared between the producer and consumer; and (iii) no intermediaries are involved in the transactions between the producer and consumer. As a unit owner, the consumer promises to buy the vegetables from the producer for a season.

In addition to arranging relationships between farmers and consumers, Nybrukarna aims to create and further develop knowledge about sustainable, small-scale food production. Maja Söderberg is one of the cooperative’s initiators. Nybrukarna allows her to combine her passion for crop cultivation with her commitment to sustainable food production. Maja has also published books on sustainable food production. In 2015, the cooperative’s first year, they secured contracts with 20 unit owners. Only a few years later, the cooperative had 80 unit owners sharing 160 units. One unit is equivalent to one person’s vegetable intake for twenty weeks.