Cargonomia is a community-based, experimental degrowth cooperative that offers home delivery – via cargo bicycle – of organic and locally- produced vegetable boxes to customers in and around Budapest, Hungary. From the start of the COVID-19 pandemic this past spring, Budapest residents initially panicked about access to food and the need for resilient local food systems became increasingly apparent. These residents immediately turned to Cargonomia to respond to this need; in the first few weeks of the pandemic, Cargonomia experienced a sudden increase in demand for its weekly vegetable boxes, with orders more than doubling in some weeks compared to pre-pandemic times.
| Authors | Charlotte Estey; Vincent Liegey; Logan Strenchock |
|---|---|
| Topics | Economy, Social change, Technology |
| Case Report | Volume 2: "Resilience in the Face of COVID-19" |
Cargonomia and the COVID-19 pandemic
Cargonomia is a community-based, experimental degrowth cooperative that offers home delivery – via cargo bicycle – of organic and locally- produced vegetable boxes to customers in and around Budapest, Hungary. From the start of the COVID-19 pandemic this past spring, Budapest residents initially panicked about access to food and the need for resilient local food systems became increasingly apparent. These residents immediately turned to Cargonomia to respond to this need; in the first few weeks of the pandemic, Cargonomia experienced a sudden increase in demand for its weekly vegetable boxes, with orders more than doubling in some weeks compared to pre-pandemic times.
Notably, when the pandemic catalyzed the increase in food prices for Hungarian consumers – due in part to the disruption of foreign markets and shortage of seasonal labour in March and April, and compounded by ongoing environmental effects such as drought and animal pandemics, as well as the inflation of the Hungarian Forint – Cargonomia’s prices never increased. And when the pandemic made food less accessible whereby social distancing restrictions limited people’s mobility, Cargonomia was able to provide a convenient delivery service, via cargo bikes, that is both reliable and low carbon.
Cargonomia’s resilience during the pandemic
Cargonomia emerged in May 2015 through the convergence of three independent, pre-existing organizations in Budapest: Zsámboki Biokert, a small-scale organic vegetable farm and education center; Kantaa, a bike messenger and delivery company; and Cyclonomia, a DIY bicycle repair community cooperative. Through the partnerships between these organizations, who cooperate together within a degrowth economic framework, customers can order a vegetable box every week from Zsámboki’s weekly vegetable box system, Kantaa’s bike messengers deliver the orders by cargo bike within a 30-kilometer radius of Budapest, and Cyclonomia helps with building and maintaining the bikes. These organizations rent and co-finance a space together for Cargonomia’s operations, which also serves as a dynamic space for the cargo bike community to rent and trade cargo bikes, and an open space for community activities and workshops, and for the community to gather and socialize.
The partnerships within Cargonomia have been fundamental to Cargonomia’s resiliency both before and during the pandemic. Cargonomia was founded by a group of friends who, over a few years, decided to combine their resources from their own initiatives, thus avoiding investing any money and keeping their costs low. Orsolya Lazányi, who is part of the Cargonomia team, explained in an interview for the Cooperative Journal that “The main resource is cooperation... For the cargo bikes, spaces, and through the network of Cargonomia we have access to a lot of things for free or based on solidarity and reciprocity, not based on money”. Through cooperation, Cargonomia is not dependent on making a fixed income every month and can thus continue its activities regardless of cracks in the global capitalist economy.
Being resourceful and thinking creatively also helped Zsámboki manage the swell in orders at the start of the pandemic which brought new administrative and infrastructural challenges. When I spoke with Logan Strenchock, one of Cargonomia’s co-founders and who works with Zsámboki, about these challenges, he discussed how the farm had to rethink their process of preparing vegetable boxes to be more strategic and efficient. Preparing orders of over 100 boxes per week required better planning and thinking ahead, and Zsámboki had to start the process of preparing the orders at least a day before the orders had to be packed, instead of the day of. Further, managing the higher volume of orders required new infrastructure which Zsámboki did not have the capacity to build. Instead, they had to improvise and build the necessary parts by converting the infrastructure they already had at low-cost.
The relationships between Zsámboki and other small-scale farms is also notable when thinking about Cargonomia’s resilience. For instance, as a small-scale farm, Zsámboki cannot always produce sufficient quantities of staple goods such as potatoes and onions, to meet increasing demands. This is generally a challenge for small-scale producers, as is the challenge of distributing their products locally, so many small organic producers sell to foreign markets instead. To overcome the challenge of meeting local demand, Zsámboki collaborates with local partners whom they know well and whom they can buy from and trade organic vegetables with. Working in a network of producers enables consistent, attractive box offers while helping to ease the burden of distributing their products. As Logan explains,
"It’s a much better strategy to work together instead of competing individually – which is still very rare, especially in the traditional, highly competitive food market".
Further, the connection between the city and countryside, or between city residents with their rural producers is an important principle for Zsámboki, and one that has helped Cargonomia stay resilient during the pandemic. When I spoke with Logan Strenchock and Vincent Liegey, two of Cargonomia’s co-founders, they emphasized the importance of this connection for boosting morale on the farm. Pre-pandemic times, volunteers came to the farm every week, and the farmers were able to meet with their customers at farmers’ markets in Budapest, which helped establish strong personal connections between city residents and Zsámboki. When Hungary went into lockdown, however, the volunteers couldn’t come to the farm anymore, and the farmers’ markets shut down. Yet because of Zsámboki’s pre-established connection between the farm and the city, Cargonomia experienced an increase in interest in local community groups and cafés in Budapest who wanted to help distribute vegetable boxes by establishing box distribution sites in their neighbourhoods and at their cafés. These new partnerships not only helped Zsámboki deal with the challenge of the farmers’ markets closing, but also helped the cafés maintain traffic when they couldn’t operate as normally with the restrictions.
Lessons learnt
While the pandemic illuminated the need for resilient, local food systems, Cargonomia teaches us the importance of cooperative relationships and creativity for these food systems to thrive. Through cooperation and being creative, Cargonomia shows us what is possible when experimenting within a degrowth economic framework, without investing money and by drawing on initiatives, resources, and relationships that already exist.
Cargonomia hopes that the shift that encouraged people to engage with and support their local food systems during the pandemic, which has been sustained throughout the summer, can endure beyond the pandemic. Hopefully the shift can be part of a greater movement that helps to increase the number of producers of organic and locally-produced fruits and vegetables, as well as access to these fruits and vegetables.
References
- Cargonomia. “Zsamboki Biokert in time of COVID-19 - Itw with Logan for the Global Degrowth Day.” YouTube, June 2, 2020, https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=fGX9PWXNqz4&ab_channel=Cargonomia
- Cargonomia. “Cargonomia in time of COVID-19 - Interview with Vincent Liegey for the Global Degrowth Day.” YouTube, June 2, 2020, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ondJVcqTjr8&ab_channel=Cargonomia
- Cooperative Journal. “Cargonomia: Cargo Bike Collective.” August 4, 2020. Accessed September 23, 2020. https://www.cooperativejournal.com/cargonomia
- Eco Logical Films. “Zsámboki Biokert Part 2 – Cargonomia.” YouTube, April 24, 2017, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_-rOcuQhW8&ab_channel=EcoLogicalFilms
- Ministerie van Landbouw, Natuur en Voedselkwaliteit. Hungary: The Cost of Putting Food on the Table. News Release, June 12, 2020. https://www.agroberichtenbuitenland.nl/actueel/nieuws/2020/06/12/hungary-the-cost-of-putting-food-on-the-table
- Ministerie van Landbouw, Natuur en Voedselkwaliteit. Hungary, agriculture and the COVID-19 crisis. News Release, June 17, 2020. https://www.agroberichtenbuitenland.nl/actueel/nieuws/2020/06/17/hungary-agriculture-and-the-covid-19-crisis
- Mosquera, Jorge. “Cycling for Alternative Systems –The Cargonomia Experiment in Budapest.” Cooperative City Magazine, April 10, 2018. Accessed September 23, 2020. https://cooperativecity.org/2018/04/10/cycling-for-alternative-systems-the-cargonomia-experiment-in-budapest/
- Strenchock, Logan (co-founder, Cargonomia; Environmental and Sustainability Officer, Central European University in Budapest) & Liegey, Vincent (co-founder, Cargonomia; co-author of a “Degrowth Project”) in discussion with the author. September 28 2020).
- “Who We Are.” Cargonomia. n.d. Accessed September 23, 2020. http://cargonomia.hu/who-we-are/?lang=en