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Small Matters: How Bicycles Are Powering Sustainable Food Enterprises

Tricia Edgar | Saturday 31st October 2009

The word subsistence brings to mind the idea of barely scraping by, growing just enough food to sustain ourselves. There is marginality in this word, and for many there is marginality in their lives as subsistence farmers. In a world increasingly impacted by the rains, droughts, and wild swings of climate change and the stress of many people on too little land, it can be hard to make a living. It's especially difficult when you don't have a surplus of food to put away for the lean times. Why don't people simply sell some of the produce, creating a cash flow and potential reserves for their families? It can be hard to move into the realm of the small-scale food producer. It takes land, money, and time to create a small-scale farm.

Recently, Global Cycle Solutions has worked with small farmers to address the need for more efficient labor. Global Cycle Solutions creates bicycle-powered technologies that vastly increase the efficiency of farm labor. The technologies work with a universal bicycle adapter, so many different types of farm equipment can connect to the power of the bike. The adapter doesn't change the bicycle, but it allows its power to be used in other ways. For example, corn that is processed with the power of a bicycle can be shelled forty times faster than a person can do it by hand. For those farmers who would otherwise need to rent a gas-powered machine, the bicycle is cheaper. For farmers who are just breaking in to the small-scale market, the bicycle is an accessible technology that is much more efficient than manual labor.

Global Cycle Solutions was founded at MIT by a group of students. The organization is working with small entrepreneurs to bring bike-powered energy to different applications worldwide. In addition to corn processing, the company also offers a grain grinder and a cell phone charger. The organization also sees applications for home energy, like charging batteries. The idea of using bicycle power to help small farmers make a living is such a small idea, but it has the potential to make a big impact on the lives of small farmers to use human energy to transform their ability to make a living.

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Tricia Edgar | Posted: 3 November 2009

They have a blog at the moment for their work in Tanzania: http://globalcyclesolutions.wordpress.com/

I think that the adapter, corn grinder, and charger are the main focus right now.