Nigeria and the fsys Africa–Europe partnership deepens

The collaboration deepend in the many meetings with my dear Conscious Food System Alliance fellow Ibrahim Gadzama in Jos, Plateau State, Nigeria and me, located in the Kassel Region of Germany. Ibrahim brings the wisdom, knowledge, experience and passion of farmers to the circle. He carries a deep vision for a new Generation of regenerative Farmers, where farming is being highly and deeply valued, where farming is seen as a diverse path of work callings – where farmers are paid fair, well and feel supported in implementing deep, sustainable practices with head, heart and hands. Where Farmers are highly skilled and Cool! and not associated with “the most poor” in an industry of exploitation.

I am very happy, Ibrahim joined the re:gen fsys development with his passion.

Agile Response-Ability

Agile, organic development also means, to walk responsively through the wild Innovation landscape, which naturally doesn´t know of any roadmaps.

As we saw an interesting, yet challenging mountain peak as a June Goal to reach, we set course back in May and walked into the Month of the rising Summer. A couple days before the epic June Goal was due, some wonderful sidepath to explore showed up and took us into another direction as the “fixed to the mountain” one.

A bee farmer from Nigeria and a farm horse farmer from Germany wanted to see their passion topics as a Quest card in the regenerative food system game.

“Players of the card game should learn about bees,” he said, “— how important they are in our regenerative systems.” “They should be able to learn about a horsehuman relationship,” she said, “a work and life relationship that treats soil with care and nurtures both of us anima(l)s.” The wish of the farmers inspired and created the new fsys game cards. More organizations and professionals within food systems voiced their interest, to have game cards for their fields of profession, too.

I have stopped using “target groups” in my project developments a decade ago. I rather speak of “resonance groups.” Just do your authentic, passionate deep thing (as individuals and organizations), and the group with resonance will show up! — no overblown strategy mindFullness to influence “target groups” needed. When narrow fixed to a target, one might also oversee the path next to the plotted road – a “sidepath” that might be truly helpful, if explored and can enrich the original intention. When fixated to one group, one can also oversee the group in need right in front of us.

While we thought we were creating cards for young students in this June development sprint for a first testrun in schools before summer holidays, the mid June agile development state showed, that farmers, educators, and people with special food system knowledge want to see their passion topics as a card in the game.

Agile as we are, running in an innovation wilderness of no-roadmaps towards certain targets at the near horizon… until a different valley shows up and we responsively change direction and take another path, naturally getting to the first one — enriched by the change of direction.

This adjusted, current development path now serves people with regenerative food system knowledge through analog game card design – and their digital web companion pages. Our task is now to optimize this service and design cards for the “Know people.” The cards will then have more vital substance for the players of various ages taking a first Play-test during or after Summer holidays.

The new card design and pages can be seen here:
https://www.fsysgame.org/chapter-1-the-card-crafters/

Food System Collectible Card Game Development started

fsysgame.org

The Smart Waste Agency Game (The SWAG) has reached its impact goal!

Epic Education adopts The SWAG. Community for educational Multipliers in Beta

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ktopia joins Conscious Food Systems Alliance CoFSA convened by UNDP

Healthy soil begins with a fertile mind

Antonio Guterres, 
UN Secretary General

Playful Food System Expedition Quests, pragmatic k.limate Utopias and mindful Living Lab Ecotopes for growing joyful Optimisms.

Here we have it! A wonderful, clunky sentence and essence of my self treated re-identity design retreat. As I compressed the vision and mission statement, as well as a tiny manifesto into that one clunky sentence, it’s pretty condensed and short. The golden nugget.

The 6 Services showed up in retroperspective after the first year since founding ktopia: Idea Scouting, Rapid Prototyping, Facilitating a multi-stakeholder quest coop in a living lab, Deploying custom self-hosted Open-Source Social Collaboration Tec, Myth Weaving an engaging story narrative, Designing the Narrative into an edutaining product and freely share with the commons.

If, so far it still sounds lofty and abstract. The concrete products out of this context show, that the deeper philosophy is also pragmatic with an effective outcome.

I founded Ktopia in January 2024 as a freelancer. In November 2023, during International Novel Writing Month, I wrote and published a climate fiction short story. It painted an alternative vision for my place of residence, the documenta City of Kassel, Germany.

Ktopia, the Smart Eco City version of Kassel, embraced both technology and practical ecology – especially through its abundant, close loop circular food system – its passion for creative urban gardens and gastronomy. My story was inspired by the novel Ecotopia, published by Ernest Callenbach a year after I was born.

“I have great faith in optimism as a guiding principle, if only because it offers us the opportunity of creating a self-fulfilling prophecy.”

—Sir Arthur C. Clarke

Inspired by the stories of Ecotopia, Ktopia, and Sir Arthur’s optimism as a guiding principle, I have also found great beauty in Pragmatic Utopias, betting on the same outcome: a possible, self-fulfilling prophecy.

Two months into Ktopia, I became immersed in its first project quest within the Wastelands, assigned by the city administration’s Smart City department. Over the course of 2024, this led to the creation of the Smart Waste Agency Game (The SWAG), an edutaining, open-source tabletop and card game about waste, recycling, and the circular economy. But something else emerged as well: a circular, cooperative model, as described in this article.

A year after its foundation, in January/February 2025, I have revisited Ktopia.eu itself again and reflected on its practical philosophy while redesigning the website to express the “today”.

Technically, Ktopia remains a social brand under my freelance status within the EU Small Enterprise / Business Owner scheme, dedicated solely to the common good. But I let it flow & grow organically. It might as well evolve into a non-profit org legal entity, that becomes a fellowship in diverse project coops for shared seasons.

On the re-designed website there is also a visual story, narrated by Grove Druid. It also tells about the essence of what playing with pragmatic utopias in ktopia means.

As I researched the possibility space of Smart Waste and Youth Participation for my City Administration client exactly one year ago, I compared different countries and their waste management systems – from statistics to the mindsets and models behind. I also came across another helpful meme from Japan, known for it´s mindful, simple words describing not just a policy but a philosophy: „mottainai.“ This term, which merges respect for resources with practical conservation efforts, serves as a cornerstone of Japan’s environmentally conscious mindset and exemplary waste management system. 

In recent years, „mottainai“ has gained international recognition as a versatile principle for environmental conservation and sustainable living. Nobel Peace Prize laureate Wangari Maathai popularized the term outside Japan by adopting it as a motto for her environmental and social justice work in Africa. The concept aligns closely with the 3Rs of waste management (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle) but adds a fourth, „Respect,“ to highlight the importance of respecting the earth’s resources. 

Cultural attitudes towards cleanliness, respect for resources, and community responsibility play a significant role in the effectiveness of Japan’s waste management system. The concept of „mottainai“ (a sense of regret concerning waste) permeates Japanese society, encouraging frugality and the mindful use of resources. Japan has, like Germany, implemented EPR policies (Extended Producer Responsibility), requiring manufacturers and retailers to take responsibility for the disposal of products and packaging. This includes obligations for recycling and has led to innovations in sustainable product design in Japan to reduce waste and improve recyclability. 

 The 6R-waste Approach

To fully articulate the breadth of „mottainai,“ I proposed an expanded 6R framework, which includes 2 basic mindsets and 4 practical applications. 

1.     Respect: Recognize and appreciate the intrinsic value of resources. 
2.     Respond: Act responsibly towards valued resources. 
3.     Reduce: Minimize consumption to prevent waste. 
4.     Reuse: Identify new uses for items, extending their life. 
5.     Repair: Design products for durability and ease of repair. 
6.     Recycle: Transform used items into new products. 

In the graph, the x-axis, common ground and horizon is „Respect“. The y-axis, the depth and heights is Respond. Both build the foundation pillars for the Circle and Quadrants. The 4 practical applications of Mottainai. Reduce Waste wherever possible. Reuse waste in creative ways. Repair items as long as you can. Recycle if the end of the product has come. 

A consequence of the 6R mindset would be Exnovating the dominant product life cycles trimmed for short life spans of products to sell new stuff quickly and dispose of the outdated version as waste or second markets in developing countries. We should encourage markets for repair-abilities both within products as well as repair and enhance service small businesses. 

The 6R offer a holistic framework to create fun and deep educational content, which is being planned to accompany the SWAG Tabletop- and Cardgame and 2025 Boxversion release! We are currently scouting for funding, to create the edutaining 6R content.