What’s a Social Biz?

“A social business is a non-loss, non-dividend company designed to address a social objective. The profits are used to expand the company’s reach and improve the product/service.” – Muhammad Yunus, the inspired founder of the Grameen Bank.

Basically, it’s business with a purpose or “social objective”. We do make money, but our profits go back into fulfilling our objective.

So local food is your social objective?

Yup. Something as simple as locally-sourced food makes for a whole world of goodness: understanding how our food gets to us, less chemicals, less food-miles, and of course healthy yummy eating.

But more than that, we’re building a resilient food system!

Most small and local farms have all but disappeared in the last decade. Large farms with mono-crop economies-of-scale practices have risen to dominance. More than ever our food systems have become fragile at the mercy of global exchange rates, the price of crude oil, and crop disease. We want to eliminate some of that risk, so that our children and our children’s children (and our children’s children’s children) will have access to healthy, nutritious food.

No dividend? Your investors don’t get paid?

Yup, this is key. In a traditional business the goal is to provide maximum return to investors, if we did that we’d have a conflict of interest. Unfortunately there’s more money to be made in non-local food.

Why not a become a charity or non-profit?

We think the tools of business are awesome… the drive for efficiency, the ease of scaling bigger to reach more people, and the speed.

(We think charities and non-profits are awesome too, but reckon a social business model will make for a more sustainable alternative to the current food system.)

I like it – can you stand on your soap box?

Sure. Except our hero, Muhammad Yunus, founder of the Grameen Bank, trained economist, and all-round nice guy can probably do it better.