How do springtime weather events affect future harvests?

If temperatures rise too quickly, the excess heat can burn the flowers of fruit trees such as almond trees (Prunus dulcis), cherry trees (Prunus avium) and pear trees (Pyrus communis). The drying of flowers hinders pollination and fruit set, thereby reducing production. 

However, overly low temperatures can be just as harmful. Late frosts affect species such as peach (Prunus persica), apricot (Prunus armeniaca) and grapevine (Vitis vinifera), causing necrosis of floral tissue and loss of the crop. In regions where frosts are recurrent in springtime, farmers must resort to protection systems such as sprinkler irrigation or heaters to minimise damage.

What’s more, heavy rainfall can have negative consequences not just for fruit trees, but also for pollinators. A downpour can wash nectar off flowers, making it difficult for bees and other insects to gather food. This affects both crop pollination and honey production, as honeybees (Apis mellifera) rely on nectar as their main source of energy.

Despite all this, the biggest threat to our farms in Europe isn’t caused by these weather events, but by the use of synthetic chemical pesticides.

Pollinators and organic crop production

Springtime is also a key period for pollinators. In addition to bees and bumblebees (Bombus spp.), other insects such as butterflies (Lepidoptera), hoverflies (Syrphidae) and some species of beetles play a key role in the reproduction of many cultivated and wild plants. Without these pollinators, agricultural production would be severely affected, which would jeopardise food security and biodiversity.

When a non-organic farmer applies pesticide treatments to trees, they’re also applying it directly or indirectly to the bees that collect the nectar containing the chemical residue. This reduces the bees’ ability to get their bearings, as well as their survival rate, contributing to their global decline. Organic crop production, on the other hand, promotes a healthy environment by avoiding these toxic compounds and encouraging floral diversity.

Adoptions guarantee farmers a price that allows them to produce organic crops. This also helps preserve ecosystems and their pollinators.

Happy springtime!

In these seven years, full of lessons learnt, we’ve become the main sales channel for organic farmers in Europe. We started out with a simple website where farmers could create a profile and sell their crops by having their trees adopted or by selling individual boxes.

Over time, we’ve expanded our services and now, aside from the website, we help our farmers with logistics and also with implementing organic and regenerative farming practices in their fields. The direct sales channel is a lever for more and more farmers to be encouraged to grow organically, ensuring a sale price to absorb the costs of cultivation.

Reflecting on the successes and learnings of 2024, I can see that direct selling isn’t just about avoiding intermediaries, but also about having the chance to generate consumer awareness. When a consumer buys something at a supermarket, they only see good things dressed up by a style of marketing that is truly disconnected from the agricultural reality. When a consumer buys directly from the farmer, they can better understand what they’re paying for and that the fruit doesn’t have to look perfect to taste good.

Here’s a summary of the main successes, failures, and learnings of 2024:

• (Positive) 47 new farmers signed up and more than 95% of those already with us renewed their membership. In total, there are already more than 330 farmers selling their crops without intermediaries, with more than 32% being young farmers.
• (Positive) We’ve received the results of the first twelve farmers who signed up to our regenerative agriculture programme and, on average, they have improved the metrics that indicate the health of their ecosystems (soil, water, and biodiversity) by 25%.
• (Negative) In the summer, an early-stage fungus invisible to the human eye caused 4.5% of the orders delivered in those months to experience some kind of incident, with stone fruit being the most affected. We returned more than €160,000 to affected customers, but what hurt us most was losing the trust of those consumers who had placed an order for the first time and haven’t ordered again.
• (Positive) Thanks to donations from CrowdGiving, we sent 17,844 kg of food to the people impacted by the terrible floods in Valencia.
• (Positive) We’re the leading European farmer community in terms of direct sales. We’ve boosted sales by 35% this year, we have 475,000 active users, and we’ve broken the barrier of two million orders delivered.
• (Negative) Our main suppliers (transport and advertising companies) have again hiked up prices, making it difficult for us to achieve a profit this year. We’ve lost €3m this year because we want to keep on offering competitive prices.
• (Positive) Despite this, we’re on our way to reaching a critical mass of orders that will help us generate economies of scale and become a financially sustainable business. Although we had losses during the year, November and December were months with positive results.
• (Positive) The subscription to our mixed box of seasonal organic fruit with products from several farmers already has more than 35,000 subscribers, making it the best-selling box for European organic farmers.
  
  

Happy harvesting for 2025!

Gonzalo Úrculo, Farmer & Co-Founder of CrowdFarming

• Being transparent about prices is brave: we’re open to sharing all the details and receiving your comments and questions. We know it is through this exchange that awareness is born.
• Being transparent about prices is innovative: there are not many examples of companies doing this in the industry, and this opacity is blocking progress. 
• Being transparent about prices is sustainable: we need to acknowledge that if farmers’ economics don’t work, a sustainable transition is not possible.
• Being transparent about prices is, above all, human: we are in this business to make the agrofood supply chain a fair one. This means farmers must be recognized and paid fairly for their work. 
  
  

So if you have ever asked yourself, “With CrowdFarming, how much does the farmer get paid? How is the price of the boxes calculated? How is my money distributed? How much is CrowdFarming getting?” you’re in the right place. 

“300 farmers choose CrowdFarming as their sales channel because of what this means for their business and for their profession. With CrowdFarming they set the price, and are able to offer their produce to consumers, building a direct relationship of trust and commitment. It’s about a fair and sustainable income, of course, but it is also about the type of recognition that drives improvement”. 

Gonzalo Úrculo, co-founder and farmer at CrowdFarming

Price building in conventional channels

In conventional channels (like supermarkets) the prices are ruled by the commodity mechanics, where the farmers make estimations of the price at which they are going to be able to sell the produce based on last year’s prices — with the uncertainty, however, of external factors that will affect this year’s harvest. Because their income depends, mainly, on the amount of kilos produced, they will try to maximize production at any cost — many times with the help of agrochemicals. 

When the harvest is ready, it’s time to negotiate the price with intermediaries and supermarkets, accompanied by sentences like “the increasing imports from Turkey, Morocco, or Chile have lowered the buying prices” while the produce continues to ripen, and the risk of losing it all increases. These are not fair terms to negotiate. 

On top of this, the supermarket will set standards for the fruits they purchase (size calibre, shape restrictions, and overall so-called “perfection”) creating a lot of waste for the farmers who are therefore unable to sell all their harvest. The farmers sell the fruit to intermediaries who then sell it to supermarkets and have no idea where it’s going and who is buying it. A consumer will pick it up from the shelf without knowing who, how, when or where it was produced, and probably make something delicious with it, but the farmer will never know. The supermarket will then pay the farmers for their fruit up to 120 days after the sale. 

This is a broken and unfair system, founded on speculation and instability, which directly impacts the price consumers pay (like we’ve seen with olive oil), the price farmers get, the amount of food waste generated, and even the taxes we pay: one third of the EU budget is used to keep this inefficient supply chain running.  

How does a farmer sell his produce through CrowdFarming?

The most important thing to get out of this article is that, at CrowdFarming, the farmers set their own prices based on their own criteria. No matter the volume sold, destination country, or market volatility, the farmer will get the agreed price per kilo and CrowdFarming will assume the rest of the risks. 

• CrowdFarming adds value by offering all the necessary services that farmers need to sell their harvest.  Joining the CrowdFarming platform is free for farmers, they do not need to pay any fee. Our services just apply if they sell and are divided between logistics services, platform services and agronomist services.
• The price decided by the farmers at the beginning of the season sticks for the rest of the season, protecting the farmers from fluctuations and speculations of the conventional trade and allowing them to have a much more stable financial plan. This speculation found in conventional channels can drive farmers to artificially extend the season through ripening chambers or cold chambers in order to earn more at moments where the competition is lower.
  
  

How is the final price created?

After the farmer sets their own price, we calculate the final price that will appear on the platform. 

Price per kilo set by the farmer, which the farmer gets entirely no matter how much is sold and no matter the destination.  

• 22% as an average calculated based on the farmer price, for CrowdFarming services. To promote adoptions, CrowdFarming brings this fee down to 16%. For products with low production costs, CrowdFarming charges up to 32% to be able to absorb fixed costs. 
• 1,5€ cost per transaction for secure payment methods (credit card, paypal, sepa etc) and anti-fraud systems.
• 3-4€ per box for picking and packing, including recycled packaging materials, dedicatory letters and transport labels.
• 25-30% calculated based on final consumer price, for transporting the order to the home address (depends on volume, origin, destination, transport provider)
• VAT depending on the country of destination 

= Final price paid by the consumer at the destination country.  

These percentages are averages of all products offered through CrowdFarming, this is why if we study a specific case, percentages may vary. Why is this? Let’s say we buy 4kg of oranges or 4kg of cheese, and both make the exact same journey, the only thing that changes is the price at origin set by the farmer. The costs of transaction, picking, and transport are the same, but the farmer price is lower in the citrus case (because it costs less to produce 1 kg of oranges than 1 kg of cheese); therefore, the proportion of the final price going to the citrus farmer will be lower in comparison to the proportion the dairy farmer gets. 

By choosing CrowdFarming as a sales channel, what services does the farmer receive? 

CrowdFarming’s mission is to offer all the necessary services to allow farmers to focus solely on farming. These days, if a farmer wants to sell directly to the consumers they have to not only do farming work, but also need to do marketing, administration, logistics and packaging, finance, customer service, and more. So we take care of these sides of the business, so the farmer can focus on growing and harvesting their products. 

Services CrowdFarming offers to let the farmers be farmers

• Digital marketplace
• Expedition and logistics services
• Customer Service
• Technical assistance from our team of agronomists on the ground (including programs to accompany our farmers towards more sustainable farming practices like organic and regenerative farming).
• Marketing and advertising services 
• Picking and packaging, or preparing the boxes, can either be done by the farmer, or by one of our “CrowdLog” logistic centres.  
  
  

Transport costs and incentivising efficiency 

As consumers, it can be easy to underestimate the implications of shipping CrowdFarming boxes. Our products are fragile and sensitive, and it’s really important to us that the journey to be as quick and as efficient as possible. This, of course, has a price that depends on the number of km travelled and volume.

Given the context in the last year, transport costs have become more significant. Currently, we are paying around 25-30% of the final price to the transport companies.

The more efficient we are (by calculating precisely the quantities and sales, by studying the best routes to take, by making sure that trucks travel at full loading capacity etc.) the better it is for the planet, and it helps us reduce costs on this percentage. If we are able to reduce the final cost, we can choose to lower the final price to increase sales or to improve our margins to invest in offering more services to the farmers.  

Secure payments have a price

Regarding the payment services, we usually pay around 2% of the final price to the payment provider. (PayPal, visa, Klarna etc.) In total, the financial cost can be of around 4% if we incorporate frauds and payment rejections.

Picking and packing

This part of the price can go to the farmer or CrowdFarming, depending on who is taking care of this part of the process. We came to realise that this is a lot of work for the farmer — who often doesn’t have any logistic resources on the farm for direct sales operations — so we also offer these services through our own logistic hubs (like the one in Valencia that you can learn more about in this article). A beautiful thing CrowdFarming has made happen is to help farmers that excel at picking and packing to provide this service to other farmers in the area.
 

Simply put, if the farmer does the picking and packaging, he gets the cut, if CrowdFarming does the picking and packaging we get the cut. 

Avocado pricing in detail

Although these percentages may seem like simple calculations, there are a lot of different variables that will affect the price of a CrowdFarming order, whether it is an adoption or single boxes, the size and format of the box (subscription, mixed box etc.), the destination country (this affects transport costs and tax). 

Again, and to make it very clear, what does not change, under any circumstance, across the whole season, is the price per kilo the farmer gets and which was set by him at the beginning of the season. 

To try and make this more tangible, let’s look at a concrete example of a specific box and journey. In this case, we have selected a box of 4 kg of organic avocados going from Spain to Germany. 

The final price for this box would be 8.4 euros per kilo  (which adds up to 33.64 euros total for the box).

1. Price set by the farmer: 3.5 €/kg (42% of final consumer price)

2. Picking and packaging: 1€/kg (12% of final consumer price)

How this is calculated [4€ approx per box prepared]

3. CrowdFarming services: 0,7€/kg (8% of final consumer price) 

How this is calculated [22% of farmer price 3.5 equals 0,7€]

4. Transport services: 2,3€/kg (27% of final consumer price)

How this is calculated [27% of final price 8.4 equals 2.3€]

5. Secure payment services: 0,3€/kg (4% of final consumer price)

[1,5€ approx per transaction]

6. VAT taxes: 0,6€/kg (7% of final consumer price)
   
   

It’s not always easy for us as consumers to understand where our money goes, but it is crucial. Consumers are a key part of the transition to a fairer and more sustainable food supply chain, and to reach our goal of creating this transition, we encourage consumers (or potential consumers!) to be conscious of the source of their food and where they buy from, but for this, the information has to be made available! 

We hope this article helps give some clarity on where the money goes for each CrowdFarming box, and if you have any questions or doubts, drop them in the comments or contact our customer service team who will be happy to help!

“For me to be part of CrowdFarming is to try to break with the system and offer the opportunity for people to get closer to the products they consume, to be part of a collective where we try to improve the sales channels and the land through regenerative agriculture.”

Farmer at CrowdFarming

Our farmers suffered, and so did we. As a young and growing company, we had prepared for a 40% increase in shipments that never materialized due to the absence of a harvest. This shortage went unnoticed in supermarkets (our competitors) as they sourced oranges and avocados from different continents. However, we, who only work with fresh produce grown in Europe, ran out of product.

We went through a tough period and had to focus on securing financing to avoid making significant cuts that would have forced us to halt key projects for the future.

When taking on projects like CrowdFarming, encountering challenging times is expected, but my apprehension went beyond financial concerns. It was more of a personal than a business-related fear. What if, due to the drought, our farms were no longer suitable for cultivating what we had planted?

Adapting to changes in climatic conditions on the farms

The ideal climate for citrus cultivation requires areas with an average rainfall of around 500 millimetres per year and maximum temperatures that do not exceed 38ºC. During the year 2023, the average rainfall in Valencia was 340 millimetres (33% lower than the average of the last 30 years) and temperatures above 40ºC were reached on several days, causing heat stress to the orange trees. The heat stress causes (among other things) the orange trees to drop the fruit to the ground because they no longer have the energy to maintain them.

It is curious how some plants in stressful situations sacrifice their fruit when they feel their life is in danger (orange or olive trees) and others may even die trying to save their crop (such as almond trees). 

I believe that fear is natural and that the key is not to let it invade and override you. I also believe that living through these situations makes us react and that it is no coincidence that in these adverse weather situations, we are seeing a boom in farmers embracing the principles of regenerative agriculture as a way of counteracting the effects of low yields due to climatic causes.

One of the big things you admit as a farmer introducing regenerative farming practices is that nature rules. Farming is not about transforming the natural ecosystem of your farm with chemicals, but about ensuring that the resources you take from the ecosystem to grow food are naturally regenerated with each crop cycle: water, carbon, flora and fauna.

Milestones for the year 2023

In a year where the weather has not been good, making the wrong decisions becomes more visible. When the weather is good, the abundance of harvests can make up for our mistakes, but when it rains just about enough, any bad decision or logistical inefficiency becomes costly.

During the last part of the year, we have managed to greatly improve our logistics service by supporting our farming community in the preparation of orders, reducing incidents and delays in deliveries.

• (Positive) 52 new farmers joined us and more than 90% of our existing farmers have renewed their contracts. In total, we are now 283 farmers selling our crops without intermediaries, and more than 40% of them are young farmers.
• (Positive) We already have 27 farmers applying regenerative farming techniques and measuring results to convince other European farmers to shift to organic farming that regenerates ecosystems.
• (Negative)The lack of harvest forecasting caused many projects to be refunded and we did not manage communications well.
• (Positive) 10 farmers have been able to obtain the organic label without financial problems thanks to the security of selling their harvest at a fair price for the adoptions.
• (Negative) Our e-mail response time to customers has been over 5 days during the last part of the year.
• (Positive) We have launched a subscription to a mixed seasonal organic fruit box with products from various farmers which is proving to be a success.
  
  

The challenges of 2024 

In 2024 we have the biggest challenge in CrowdFarming’s history to date: to prove that regenerative organic farming is economically viable for farmers and society through direct sales. 

The more people who buy directly from farmers, the more income they will be able to dedicate to implementing organic and regenerative practices on their farms.

“But Gonzalo, with organic farming we cannot feed the entire population because the yields per hectare are lower.” 

This is the biggest lie spread by the chemical fertiliser industry. Here are some arguments so that you can refute it the next time you hear it:

First, in Europe a third (⅓) of the food produced is wasted. We live in a society of abundance and chemically synthesised herbicides and fertilisers have made it possible to produce very cheap food at a high environmental cost. If you live in Europe you should be more concerned about the loss of natural agricultural soil fertility than about the lack of food. 

Second, a lot of research is being done in the regenerative organic farming space and there is a huge gap for innovation. The scientific community is developing ways of working that not only take into account yields per hectare but also don’t damage the ecosystem where they are to be applied.

Third, as the consumption of organic products increases, not only will it encourage more farmers to go organic, but it will also mobilise more capital towards companies that are innovating in these fields.

Europe has set itself the target of having 25% of the fields cultivated organically by 2030.  Personally, I think this is not enough, but we have to start somewhere. The last official figure for 2021 says that we are at 9.9%, today we estimate that we are between 11%-12%.  

We still have 6 years to double the amount of land cultivated organically. From CrowdFarming we take on this challenge, which drives us to do our best.

Happy 2024 harvest!

Then the answer becomes more complicated: the farmer has to choose to plant something that is commercially viable and adapted to an ecosystem made up of many components that are changeable.

The third problem is consumer fads promoted by supermarkets. A new exotic fruit, a red lemon or a white strawberry can change consumption trends from one year to the next to the detriment of demand for more classic products.

Getting the answer right becomes a lottery: farmers have to choose a product that is commercially profitable, that will be consumed for decades to come and that can adapt to a changing ecosystem.

Our food system is based on farmers growing crops blindly, not knowing what they will produce, the price they will receive for their crops or whether there will be enough demand to sell what they grow.

We know that organic agriculture is one of the most powerful tools for creating jobs and combating climate change. According to data from the European Union, the extended use of pesticides and chemical synthetic fertilizers degrades 60%-70% of our agricultural soils.

How is it possible that the consumption of organic food grown in Europe is not promoted more (with any kind of measures)? I can’t find an explanation for it. Especially because I think there are simple measures that could have a lot of impact such as not taxing organic and nutritious foods with the same VAT as non-organic goods, might have a huge impact. Alternatively, refrain from importing food from other countries until those grown locally have been consumed.

It saddens me to consider the consequences: a decline in consumption will put an end to the excellent streak of farmers switching to organic farming. Worse, some of those who have lately made the transition are now reverting to using synthetic pesticides that destroy ecosystems. Furthermore, the transition to organic farming in Europe coincided with a generational shift, and the decline in consumption may discourage young producers (the average age of farmers growing organic crops is 48 years and that of those who grow with synthetic pesticides is 64 years).

The start of a new year has turned grief into motivation. There are numerous things CrowdFarming can do to help reverse the situation, and one of them is our outreach effort to create awareness in society (farmers and consumers) of the environmental, social, and economic benefits of organic farming.

Agriculture in Europe needs to be associated with environmental responsibility, fair pricing, and high-quality jobs.

What have we done in 2022?

We have launched our podcast What The Field?! to discuss the sustainability of the food supply chain with experts in a didactic and transparent way. This podcast has become one of my favourite hobbies. It allows us to have the perfect excuse to meet extraordinary people, invite them to chat and learn from them.

In terms of functionality, we have had a very busy last quarter on the website. We were desperate to offer the option to gift adoptions (it’s already available!). For now you can only give the adoption as a gift for one season. During this year we will be rolling out improvements so that, for example, you can include payment for shipping in the gift. 

We have also introduced the option of group orders. This way you can share the payment of a box with several people and save the environmental and economic cost of transportation.

We are quite proud of these improvements, but now is also a good moment to reflect on our failures, assess why we failed, and plan how we will go forward to prevent repeating them. I also want to say thank you for being patient with us if there was ever a problem.

Where have we failed?

1. Logistical issues: we have improved a lot compared to last year, but we need to continue to improve. We delivered 70% of orders on time (vs. 64% last year). 
2. We wanted to start selling summer fruit last year, but we could only conduct a few tests. We didn’t yet have a reliable way to deliver summer fruit to your home due to packing and refrigerated transit issues.  We hope that next summer we will be able to offer you peaches, apricots, plums, etc. and that they will arrive in good condition.
3. The last year has seen a number of technical issues with our new app. It has much improved over the past month, so if you don’t already have it, I recommend you download it so you can place orders more quickly.
   
   

Optimistic vision for 2023

While last year’s organic consumption data was not encouraging, the direct selling data was: we are a niche market but with a very engaged community.

There have only been 3 farmers (out of more than 290) who have given up on direct sales in the past five years. The remainder are still here, expanding each season and showing greater enthusiasm than ever before.

Happy 2023!

What is a consumer-centric company?

A consumer-centric company focuses all its business decisions on consumer convenience to generate more sales. For example: reducing delivery time without taking into account the environmental impact, or making a 2 for 1 offer on food that will end up having an impact on the price the farmer receives.

We have decided not to run our company based on trends or survey results, or on the newest marketing strategy they are teaching at business schools. Don’t get us wrong, we do take consumer needs and profitability very seriously, they represent a key input in our day to day – but they are not the only factors that drive us. 

Our vision

Our vision is to build the most sustainable food supply chain in the world. To build a system that allows organic farmers to set their prices and sell directly to final consumers. In order to achieve  this goal, we need to balance our decisions and not just focus on the consumers, but also take the environment and the farmers into account. For us, the environment and the farmers are stakeholders at the center of our business, as much as the consumers are.

In the past decade food-industry players have gotten the consumer accustomed to certain standards, which we removed from our farmer-to-consumer model, in order to make sure it is sustainable: no immediate deliveries. No discount prices. No absurd amounts of packaging for small quantities of food. In other words, if we only think of short-term satisfaction, no one wins in the long term, because it comes at the cost of sustainability. 

What is a mission-centric company?

Consumer convenience should not mean that companies will do anything, no matter the environmental or social cost. This is why we have chosen to be a mission-centric company, where the environment, consumers and farmers are all our “customers”.

Both farmers’ and nature’s wellbeing are at stake if we don’t change things now. Artificially low prices suffocate the rural economy and force farmers to take decisions based on productivity only. This ends up damaging product quality and the ecosystem in which they operate. The common alternative of simply importing the food we need from far-away countries comes at a high price in terms of social conditions and carbon footprint.

We are not willing to participate in the game where companies just care about selling to consumers and let governments or NGOs care about the environment and social justice – let’s take care of it all together! 

Our mission-centric commitment

Environment-centric decisions

1. We don’t offer same–day delivery: when you click on the “buy”-button on our website,your fruits are still hanging on the tree and are not already waiting in the cold storage of a warehouse. They are then shipped out on a specific, pre-planned date, along with many other orders with the same destination, to avoid unnecessary transportation.
   
   
2. We want our products to be as natural as possible: no cultivation with synthetic pesticides. No post-harvest treatment such as fungicides and wax.
   
   
3. We try to avoid unnecessary packaging waste: we avoid absurd packaging layers, ship most of our products in just a recycled cardboard box and do not sell individual portions.
   
   

Farmer-centric decisions

1. Our farmers set their own prices: this seems pretty obvious but nowadays farmers don’t have any influence on their selling prices. The supermarkets decide the selling price. Based on this price the supermarkets deduct their cost and margin and pay the distributor. The distributor deducts the same and pays the producer. The producer receives what is left over after subtracting all the costs and margins of the other actors in the supply chain from the retail price.
   
   
2. Our farmers are able to sell their products in advance to avoid food waste: promoting the adoption of trees allows farmers to secure the future demand of their food at a guaranteed price and offers them financial stability as well as the ability to better plan their harvests.
   
   
3. We promote the worth of our farmers’ products: we don’t sell commodities, farmers differentiate their prices based on their real costs. This way they can cultivate sustainably and shift their focus – quality over quantity, organic over conventional.

Gonzalo Urculo

Co-founder & CEO of CrowdFarming

Is regenerative agriculture necessarily organic farming?

In Europe, there are farmers using synthetic chemical pesticides who carry out practices to regenerate the land. We defend that having an organic agricultural certification is a necessary condition for being regenerative. To be considered a regenerative farmer, you must ensure that all your practices align with the philosophy of regenerating natural resources.

Is regenerative agriculture better than organic farming?

Regenerative agriculture is, in our view, complementary to organic farming. They cannot be compared. Please be aware that while organic farming is an officially recognised label in the European Union, regenerative agriculture is not.

Regenerative farming techniques work to regenerate the environment’s natural resources in the area where they are being used. For instance, organic farming does not specify what to do if a farm’s well’s water level is dropping yearly. Regenerative practices will look for ways to keep or raise the water table and retain water.

Organic farming does not regulate how often the ground can be ploughed or whether aromatic plants should be planted to attract pollinators. These are costly practices that regenerative farmers develop in an effort to rebuild their ecosystems.

Is conventional agriculture making farms less fertile?

We know that this is a sensitive issue on which we wanted to formulate an opinion, not wanting to offend any farmer, but seeking a transformation in the food industry which is what we founded CrowdFarming for.

Conventional agriculture is defined as farming that regularly cultivates fields using chemically synthesised pesticides. Although not all pesticides used to eradicate weeds or exterminate pests do the same damage, their use has a detrimental effect on biodiversity. Whenever agrochemicals are applied, it is not only the pest that is at risk, but also the other fauna living in the fields. And whenever herbicides are applied to eliminate spontaneously growing plants, soil fertility is reduced. 

We are aware of the rationales behind the usage of synthetic pesticides, including cost-saving measures, productivity gains, and enhanced crop aesthetics. However, these justifications consider the economic impact rather than the environmental impact.

We wanted to take a stance against synthetic chemical pesticides while supporting better income for farmers. The goal is to achieve a balanced production, taking into account the regeneration of natural resources, and ensuring that farmers receive a fair price, not to produce as much as possible at any cost.

“Disintermediation promotes organic farming. They are two different things, but we have found that they feed on each other. In our case, thanks to direct sales, we have been able to create a profitable agricultural business on which more than 50 families live by farming organically”.

Gonzalo Úrculo, farmer and co-founder of CrowdFarming.

Farmers use crowdfarming.com as a platform to launch direct sales of their food. Our team helps them with 5 activities: setting up their public profile, publicising their products, developing packaging, attending to customers and managing shipments.

The basic selling price is decided by the farmer. CrowdFarming services and VAT are then added to this price, depending on the country of destination. Discounting the VAT that the farmer pays in the country where he sends his products, this is what each of the parties takes:

• 50% to the farmer for growing and harvesting the produce
• 25% the transporter for transporting the order to the home address
• 22% CrowdFarming for the 5 aforementioned services
• 3% financial commission for payment methods (credit card, paypal, sepa, etc).
  
  

Note: our margin of 22% is the annual average. For adoptions, our margin is 16% and for individual box sales, our margin is as high as 32%. By promoting adoptions at a better price, we ensure that farmers can secure the sale of their crop and have more predictability regarding their income. 

The cost savings on adoptions are related to marketing costs savings due to the fact that these are loyal customers and transport costs savings due to more efficient management.

How to ensure fair food prices?

By allowing the farmer to set their prices based on their real costs and at the same time, simplify the supply chain so that the price at the customer’s end remains competitive.

At CrowdFarming we are against setting a fixed price for food (commodity) at which farmers are obliged to sell. The fair price of a product is one that reflects its uniqueness based on the country of origin, the quality of employment it generates, the farming methodology and the packaging material.

CrowdFarming Guarantee

The farmers and the CrowdFarming team assume the risk of any incident that may occur during your purchasing experience. If the product you receive does not arrive in good condition, we will offer you a replacement or an adequate refund.

What’s the difference between clementines and mandarins?

There is a lot of debate, and we can find contradictory information on the internet. Citrus fruits can easily produce new varieties as a result of natural hybridisation, which occurs by chance. Furthermore, humans have created new citrus varieties (artificial hybridisation) in search of sweeter, seedless, earlier or later ripening fruits.

The word mandarin refers to a wide range of varieties, including clementines, which are further subdivided into clemenules, orogrande, and fine clementines. On a commercial level, we usually try to simplify by referring to all citrus fruits of smaller size that are easy to peel as mandarins. It is difficult to tell them apart at first glance, and perhaps the simplest way is by the time of ripening. Most clementines ripen in Europe between November and January, while the other mandarin varieties ripen before or after these months.

Note: after this post was published, one of our readers David Hanke, a former Professor of Botany at Cambridge University, argued that clementines are not mandarins: The origin of the Clementine is not a myth but well-documented. The first plants were obtained by frère Clément Rodier by crossing the Mandarin and the bitter Seville Orange (the reason that Clementine fruit is more acidic than the Mandarin), around the year 1900, near Oran in Algeria. The Clementine is therefore a distinct hybrid and not a type of Mandarin.

Table oranges or juice oranges

All oranges are suitable for juicing and can be consumed whole. This distinction is the result of a commercial argument. This distinction is less common in the direct sale of organic citrus, as the consumer does not perceive a large or seemingly perfect fruit as a fruit of higher quality. Oranges are classified into three types: white oranges, navel oranges, and blood oranges.

• Traditionally, navel oranges have been considered table oranges, though smaller sizes or those with more damaged skin are sold as juice oranges in supermarkets.
  
  

• The white group’s varieties are typically sold as juice oranges. Because their juice lasts longer and is less bitter, many of these oranges are sold directly to the beverage industry. This does not imply that their juice is of higher freshness than the juices of navel varieties.
  
  

• Blood orange varieties are typically consumed in juice form. These varieties are distinguished by their reddish flesh. The degree of coloration is determined by both the variety and the thermal difference between day and night.
  
  

The amount of juice depends on the type of citrus fruit and its ripeness index. Clementines have a high juice content as well, but due to their small size, they are not widely consumed as fresh juice. A question about the amount of juice in citrus fruits: it is assumed that the longer the fruit ripens on the tree, the more juice it contains. This is true until a certain point in time, when the tree may begin to suck its juice and dry the fruit if the outside temperature rises.

Citrus peel is not shiny

The color or thickness of the peel, the presence of pips, or the sweetness of a citrus fruit are not indicators of its quality. Not even in terms of size. Nature creates each fruit in its own unique way, and each person may prefer it in one way or another. Many factors influence these characteristics, including how much rain has fallen, the temperature, the age of the tree, how it has been pruned, when it was harvested, and the pests it has encountered.

If we want to support sustainable production, we cannot demand aesthetic criteria from the fruit, and we should not believe that an orange will please us more because it appears to be perfect. When a citrus fruit shines, it’s most likely because a post-harvest waxing treatment was used to hide natural flaws and make the skin shine.

At CrowdFarming, we define quality using two criteria: organic and freshness. The higher the quality, the more organic it has been grown and the less time that has passed between harvesting and delivery to your home.

Citrus peel colour and ripeness

Is an orange’s green skin a sign that it isn’t ripe? No, not always. It is an indicator that can lead us astray in some cases. Oranges, clementines, and lemons that we can eat before the cold weather arrives usually ripen before their skin has reached a completely orange (in the case of oranges and mandarins) or yellow tone (in the case of lemons).

The temperature difference between day and night causes the skin’s colour to change continuously. When the outside temperature rises, the tree’s roots must absorb more water, incorporating more nitrogen. When the weather cools, water absorption decreases and nitrogen concentration decreases, causing the green hue to fade. The reversible transformation of the chloroplasts of the exocarp (skin) into chromoplasts causes the skin to turn from green to orange. This transition is caused by the concentration of carbohydrates within the orange as well as the nitrogen content of the peel (more nitrogen, more green). This is a potentially reversible process that occurs in late oranges (those harvested from April to June). The heat causes the tree to absorb more water and nitrogen, and its skin to turn from orange to green.

Sour or sweet citrus fruits

It is difficult to categorize citrus fruit as sweet or sour because it depends on when it is harvested and the tastes of the individual. Citrus fruits all contain Citric Acid, which gives the fruit a higher or lower level of acidity depending on its concentration, but oranges and mandarins are thought to have a lower acidity than lemons or grapefruit. The edibility of the fruit is usually correlated with the sugar-to-acidity ratio rather than just the sugar-to-acidity ratio. Citrus maturity standards are typically expressed as a ratio of total soluble solids to acidity, both measured in weight over fresh weight.

The flavour of an orange is stronger and the aroma is more intense in the first few days after it is picked from the tree. This can lead us to believe that the orange is not ripe. As the days pass, the acidic flavour fades and the aroma fades.

Citrus fruit can travel from the tree to the consumer’s home in a short period of time thanks to direct sales between growers and consumers. This introduces new flavors to consumers who are accustomed to eating fruit that used to take weeks, if not months, to arrive on supermarket shelves (especially in northern Europe).