The vast majority of food that is produced and eaten in Canada travels supply chains that are both complex and highly centralised, beginning with large-scale industrial agriculture and ending in a few major grocery chains. At Open Food Network, we believe this can and must change. Along with many Canadians, we want to see a very different type of system, built on diverse, regenerative ways of farming and distributing food. To make this transition, we need to figure out how to scale resilient, local food supply chains to compete with and replace the current ones.

At the same time, we know that existing short food supply chains already face some challenges. In fact, we spent months speaking with producers and market coordinators to better understand these challenges and what would help. We heard the same thing again and again: whichever technology you’re using to manage your farm or organise your distribution, you are probably running into issues with “data siloing.” That is, data stored in one platform can not easily be shared to another platform. 

What’s the big deal about data?

We know, ‘data’ is pretty abstract and may seem like a purely academic interest. But the data in question–product descriptions, images, prices and other related information–is what makes it possible to sell online. The problem with data silos is that they keep people from working together in flexible, innovative and beneficial ways.

If you’re a producer, you’ve likely been asked to upload your products onto multiple different sales systems in order to sell in different market places. We heard from many producers who have lost out on sales or opportunities because the admin overhead and SaaS costs that come with working across multiple platforms and accounts were prohibitive.

“We are receiving more invitations to participate in digital food hubs but we cannot assume the extra time required to maintain inventory across different platforms let alone the subscription costs that come with it.”  ~ Farmer

If you’re a distributor, you probably know farmers and other food businesses you’d like to collaborate with, but can’t handle the administrative overhead that comes with trying to integrate suppliers on different platforms. Some market managers have even told us that their attempts to develop digital sales channels failed, due to data siloing and the market fragmentation that results from producers and distributors working across multiple digital platforms that cannot yet communicate with each other:  

“We have about, I don’t know, 60 different farmer and artisan members. And the thing that we’ve come across is they all use different platforms. So when we actually tried to coordinate them all into one, it was impossible. So that’s why we just stopped paying for an online platform that wasn’t working for us, because half the people could join and half the people couldn’t. So we’re in limbo right now.” ~ Farmers’ Market Manager

Despite a desire to work together, producers and distributors face significant obstacles simply because we don’t have the tech infrastructure needed to connect with each other easily. At Open Food Network we are working to change this.

Interoperability = the ability to share data

The solution to the data silo problem is interoperability. 

Interoperability is simply the ability for several IT systems or platforms to communicate with each other, exchange information and mutually use information exchanged. ~ Data Food Consortium

You might not realize it, but you already see examples of this in action in your everyday technology use. It’s what allows you to log into different services using one common account, such as a Facebook or Google account, for example. In this case, interoperability is achieved with an API (Application Programming Interface) – essentially a software intermediary that allows two (or more) applications to talk to each other.

In our context, interoperability allows actors across the supply chain to more easily share data that will help them to coordinate, and conduct sales and distribution across multiple different platforms. It also extends to integration between the different kinds of tools that people are using in this space—not just ecommerce, but also logistics, farm management, social media, and accounting tools.

Benefits of interoperability

If we look back at the examples we started with, the benefits of interoperability are clear. 

• Producers can more easily distribute products across outlets and coordinate logistics locally, meaning more revenue to reinvest in better farming and more time for community engagement.
• Distributors and local food aggregators can recruit producers and suppliers more easily and with less administrative overhead, allowing for greater diversity of products 

These benefits extend beyond individual businesses to the food system as a whole, making it easier to coordinate delivery networks and circular logistics across regional networks of interlinked small scale producers and distributors. Looking to the future, interoperable data systems and standards can also facilitate the creation of data coops. Data coops would allow farms and other short supply chain players to be compensated for sharing anonymised data with academic research institutions. Data coops promise to provide farms with new revenue streams, while also leading to new insight into agronomy, logistics and marketing, leading to better practice across the sector as a whole.   

What OFN is working toward

Data interoperability is already a big conversation in the food system world, but right now, these discussions are focused on large-scale industry. One of our priorities is to make sure the needs of small-scale producers and community food businesses aren’t left behind. 

“At OFN we see our role as trying to create the conditions that allow these platforms to collaborate with each other: we want to build a true integrated ecosystem of ecommerce and farm management platforms, one that offers maximum benefit to its users. And we know that if these platforms could all speak to each other and exchange information and data, this would be a huge win for our users. Because we are a social purpose organization, we have a freedom to see the system and the sector as a whole, and to be that voice out there that is pushing for change and collaboration. We are the voice that can say ‘Hey, we could build something better if we can learn to work together.’” – Theresa Schumilas

Interoperability can be achieved most effectively through an agreed upon common data standard or interface that is shared between different systems. This means that every system needs only to integrate with one interface for all systems to be able to share data effectively. That’s why Open Food Network Canada is spearheading the adoption of an open standard that is purpose built for agrifood short supply chains. To be part of the conversation, email .

Leading the discussion: field research report 

From May 2022 to January 2023, we partnered with researchers from the University of Guelph on a project to explore technology needs of local food businesses and enterprises. Check out part 2 of this series for more information about this project, or read the full report below. 

Diving deeper: academic research article

Interested in an academic perspective on the issue of interoperability? In this research article, we review the literature on agriculture technologies, which has largely failed to include e-commerce technology in its discussion. Putting the issue in the context of our own field research above, we highlight the need for cross-platform sales for small food enterprises and the benefits of an open standard solution in meeting this need.