Gårdshubben

Sammanfattning: My master’s thesis project is an exploration of how a new distributon model could be implemented in a swedish local food chain in order to make local food accessible and attractive to a larger group of people. The interest in local food is increasing rapidly in Sweden. Farmers are turning directly to consumers for increased profit and less pressure from the industry. At the same time consumers are looking to buy food directly from local farmers in an effort to feel secure that the food they consume is high quality and produced using organic farming methods. With the development of the internet and e-commerce a myriad of new initiatives have appeared to facilitate the trade of local food in a way that’s fair for farmers and consumers alike. However the local food chains are still not adapted to work on the big scale it would take to meet the demand from from Swedish city dwellers. The thesis focuses on a user-centered design process, examining the needs and desires of farmers and consumers part of local food chains. Interviews and observations have been conducted of farmers and consumers participating in local food chains. The project has also been approached from a system level why a several areas of design such as product-, service- and business design were touched upon. The identified design opportunity/direction for the development of future local food chains is the adaptation of an emerging distribution model used by supermarket chains called “click & collect”, in order to make more efficient use of resources while keeping the fairness seen in small local food chains. The result is concept exploring how such a distribution model would look like in a local food chain context. Gårdshubben (The farm hub) a service that enables consumers in Swedish cities to pre-order food online directly from local farmers. The food is later delivered by the farmers themselves to refrigerated lockers located in clusters on public places around the city. Consumers are then notified and free to pick it up their convenience.