Sprout

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Sprout is our answer to lagging rural development & rampant food safety concerns in China. We will meet public demand for safe food by uniting small-scale farms and helping them adopt natural, chemical-free methods.

Standings & Awards

1313 out of 1313 in Asia
94 out of 94 in Food & Nutrition
935 out of 935 in Design
555 out of 555 in For-Profit
4003 out of 4003 Overall

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VOTES

The Sprout Life

Empower China's poor farmers to grow and live well. Provide consumers safe local produce. Preserve farmlands.

URBAN NEED [SAFE FOOD]: 97.2% of urban residents rank food safety as a major concern (Chinese Ministry of Commerce). Because no central administration regulates food safety, 2011 still brought scandals over exploding watermelon, bleached mushrooms, glow-in-the-dark pork, arsenic soy sauce, and cadmium-tainted rice. Rampant corruption has rendered even the government organic certification system meaningless.

RURAL NEED [ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT & EMPOWERMENT]: Rural households make up 50% of China's population, but urban income is now 3x rural income and inequalities are only expected to increase (BBC, USDA). Furthermore, poor farmers who cannot afford losses will keep using dangerous chemicals to produce higher yield and better looking crops (Baylis, 2011).

STATUS QUO: Corporations like Lenovo and Goldman Sachs invest in industrial organics and profit from high market demand, while rural households struggle to live on income from cheap conventional produce. In light of controversy over heavy “natural” chemical use on industrial organic farms, we believe large networks of small farms can produce better food at the same scale, with less environmental harm.

OUR MODEL: The Sprout cooperative connect transitioning farmers with organic veterans so the former can learn best practices from the outset. As member farms grow in productivity & revenue, we lease land and equipment to lower the cost of scaling up. Regular inspections will be conducted to ensure high standards of quality and earn public trust on behalf of our farmers. Sprout will then distribute aggregate yield from our cooperative directly to local consumers — allowing farmers to focus on farming. During summertime, we will launch “Camp Sprout”, a camp hosted on member farms to raise brand awareness and teach urban youth about environmental stewardship.

INNOVATION: Empowering small-scale farmers to embrace cooperative efficiency and methods that produce high quality food with high profit margins.

SCALABILITY: Adding farmers to our cooperative produces more safe food, generates more revenue, and raises more farmer incomes.

SUSTAINABILITY: Employing rural households rather than displacing them. Reducing chemical use and nurturing healthier farmland.

FIVE PROJECT QUESTIONS Required (60 - 90 minutes)

1. What is your innovation?

Lack of food safety in China is a social problem affecting everyone. Flooding the market with industrial organics is a costly, short-sighted solution. Because we employ (rather than displace) rural households, Sprout has the potential to permanently transform the way food is produced and distributed. We will make chemical-free practices easier to use than conventional ones, and ultimately empower small-scale farmers to embrace methods that produce higher quality food and higher annual incomes.

2. Who gains the most?

Sprout’s priority is to increase and stabilize rural farmer incomes through well-managed, organic farming. By going organic and joining the Sprout cooperative, our farmers will benefit from a premium brand, a wealth of services including financing, distribution, and marketing, as well as access to an established base of customers. Our farmers will enjoy economies of scale and efficiency without losing their farming independence, ensuring they consistently reap higher profits for their work.

3. Who pays?

The Sprout cooperative will be a for-profit social venture, aiming to supply organic produce to the consumer market in China. Paying customer segments will include restaurants, corporate & school cafeterias, supermarkets, small retail stores, farmer’s markets and individual households. Up to half of overall profits will go to our farmers, and most of the rest will in turn support more farmers to go organic and join our cooperative, improve Sprout brand recognition, and expand our customer base.

4. What is your success?

[Year 1] Sprout and 10 farmers will have a profitable 10-acre organic farming operation. [Year 5] Sprout will have over 500 farmers in our cooperative, quadruple the income of our farmers, and double the amount of safe, organic vegetables in the Shanghai market. [Year 10] Sprout will have replicated its model in other large, affluent cities in China such as Beijing, Shenzhen, and Guangzhou, helping develop local organic food markets across China and empowering farmers from different regions

5. How will you do it?

[Year 1] Sprout will use seed capital (~$50K) to help 10 farmers convert 10 acres into organic vegetable farmland and to sign contracts with a couple Shanghai restaurants to purchase our yield. [Year 2-5] Sprout will use its profitable operation to convince another 500 farmers on the island to combine farmland, go organic and join our cooperative. A central warehouse will be rented on the island to facilitate distribution. [Year 5-10] Sprout will start replicating our model in other cities.