Crop plan
Product · planned volume · harvest window
Proposed stakeholder research workshop
Shared Data Standards for Regional Food-System Decision Infrastructure
A crop plan, purchase order and delivery log can describe the same product—and still fail to connect.
INDYpendent Bytes is developing a two-day workshop so the people who grow, buy, move, study and govern local food can help decide what information is useful, what can be compared and what must stay private.
Why this is needed
Same food. Three records. No shared language.
The information already exists. It is scattered across texts, spreadsheets, forms and separate systems that use different names, units, dates and statuses.
Purchase order
Specification · order unit · delivery date
Delivery log
Received quantity · condition · outcome
The goal is not to make everything public or collect more information for its own sake. The goal is to make agreed information usable by the right people at the right time.
Proposed participant mix
Who needs to be in the room?
Selection will prioritize practical knowledge, varied operating conditions and balanced representation—not only familiar organizations or people with clean spreadsheets.
Growers
Small and mid-sized producers and cultivators
Buyers
Institutional and nonprofit procurement staff
Hubs and logistics
Food hubs, aggregators, distributors and intermediaries
Extension and research
Extension, university and applied researchers
Public and regional
Public-sector and regional-planning representatives
Data and governance
Privacy, interoperability and data-rights specialists
Community perspective
Food-access, workforce and equity organizations
No one organization or stakeholder group will control the agenda or final priorities.
What participation would involve
Contribute practical knowledge—not your books.
- Complete a short pre-workshop survey.
- Describe one representative decision, workflow or information source.
- Join mixed working groups across stakeholder roles.
- Review the draft synthesis before anything is released publicly.
What the workshop is for
Build the research conditions before building more tools.
- A minimum regional food-system information framework
- Draft shared definitions for supply, demand, procurement and outcomes
- Recommendations for privacy, access, validation and responsible reuse
- A prioritized research agenda and next-step study designs
Help shape the workshop
Bring your real operating experience into the design.
Tell us your role, the decisions you make and what would make participation useful and safe for you.
Express interest in participatingOr email indypendentbytes@gmail.com