Cookwala / Farmers and supply
A glut should become meals, not waste
Two things a farmer or a cooperative can get from a food standard: a way to list surplus before it rots that reaches a kitchen the same day, and a fair signal of what will be needed where. The first is specified, tested and runnable by any program that adopts it; no program has yet. The second is designed, experimental, and waits for a competition-law review.
Now: surplus by SMS
A farm is a donor in the Humanitarian Profile, an organization like any other, never a person. One message to a program's gateway:
FARM 120KG TOMATO A HV0411A food bank or kitchen claims it; the handover records the temperature and the kilograms accepted; the distribution counts the meals; the summary shows the kilograms rescued with the method. Try it in the walkthrough.
What this means for you
- Your cooperative registers one phone number with the program; the documents name the cooperative, never a person or a plot.
- The kitchen that claims your offer arranges and pays for collection; the program's agreement says so before the first offer.
- You get a reply with the kilograms accepted and, if any were refused, why. You can
CANCELbefore collection. - You do not need a smartphone or data; a basic phone with English keywords and either digit set works.
Where a program runs the profile, this works with a basic phone today. No program runs it yet; the grammar, the parser and the conformance vectors exist, and the concept note is how a program starts.
Next: fair demand and supply signals
If cooking is planned, the amounts grown and moved can match what is needed. The country and world simulators show the size of the effect under their assumptions modelled. The standard's smallest honest step is two experimental documents:
- DemandSignal: in region R, in week W, kitchens and programs planned to use between L and H kg of ingredient class C (legume, leafy vegetable, poultry), never a product or brand.
- SupplySignal: in region R, in week W, class C is in glut, normal or short supply, with a harvest window.
Rules, checked by code: at least 20 contributing sources; published at least 7 days after the week ends; no prices; no region finer than a province without 100 sources; open to all, identical for every reader, free. A small producer sees exactly what a large buyer sees. Supply signals · RFC-0007
gated Sharing forecasts between competitors is what competition authorities warn about. These rules are designed to keep the signal useful for planting and useless for pricing; counsel sets the final thresholds. Nothing is published until then.
What stays out of the standard
Prices. Contracts. Who gets food when there is not enough (that is a program's accountable decision). A perfectly lean supply chain: the signal design says reserves are part of the plan, because a food system tuned exactly to demand is one shock from an empty shelf.