Data Food Consortium (DFC)

The Problem It Solves

Small-scale farmers and short supply chain platforms operate in a state of “forced isolation.” While industrial food systems use massive, centralized databases, local food systems are fragmented across dozens of independent tools (the many competing CSA, foodbox, ecommerce, and food hub / farmers markets apps, currently used across the sector).

This creates a cooperation tax: every time a producer joins a new platform, they must manually re-enter their entire catalogue. For developers, connecting two platforms requires expensive, custom-coded bridges. This fragmentation doesn’t just waste time, it limits the ability of the “local food and farming” economy to compete with industrial giants.

The Data Food Consortium (DFC) exists to drive a change of scale for short supply chains. By providing an open technical infrastructure, we allow operators to cooperate more effectively, pool their resources, and reduce their overhead. Our mission is to move from a collection of silos to a coherent digital system where producers can find new markets easily and share or reuse their data as they see fit.
 

⚡ The Bottom Line: We shouldn’t have to choose between digital efficiency and local autonomy. Interoperability turns a collection of silos into a resilient, distributed network.

What the DFC Standard Is

Born in 2017 from a collective of French food-tech pioneers, and spearheaded by the Open Food Network, the DFC Standard is a technical infrastructure for the Digital Commons. It is more than an API; it is a shared “Ontology”, a specialized vocabulary that allows different software to understand exactly what a “producer,” “product,” and “offer” are in a local food context.

By using Semantic Web (Linked Data) principles, DFC enables a “Distributed Web” for food. It allows data to flow securely (utilizing OpenID Connect to secure all data exchanges) between platforms while letting each platform maintain its own unique business model and technical stack.

Why It Matters: For Farmers and Supply Chain Players

• End the Data Entry Loop: Update your price or availability once on your “home” platform and have it sync automatically with every other DFC-compatible marketplace you use.
• From Lock-in to Sovereignty: You are no longer “trapped” in a piece of software because your data is stuck there. DFC makes your data portable, giving you the power to switch tools without losing your history.
• Strength in Numbers: By joining a DFC-aligned network, you become part of a larger ecosystem. Small producers gain the logistical efficiency of a large distributor while remaining independent.

Why It Matters: For Developers and Product Owners

• Built for Decentralization: DFC was designed specifically to bridge the gap between “closed-software” and “open-source” models, allowing diverse projects to cooperate at the infrastructure level.
• Semantic Foundations: Built on Linked Data principles, the DFC ontology ensures your data is both human-readable and machine-processable
• Pragmatic Semantic Web: Leverage the power of RDF and ontologies without the steep learning curve. DFC provides the “Shared Vocabulary” so you don’t have to reinvent the food supply chain model from scratch.
• Reduce Integration Debt: Instead of maintaining ten different API integrations for ten different partners, you implement the DFC standard once to connect with the entire consortium.

🔧 Get Started: View the DFC Ontology and Connector Libraries on GitHub.

Getting Started (The “Toolbox”)

Ready to stop building silos and start building the ecosystem? Use these resources to get started:

• The Technical Standard & Ontology: Explore the formal definition of the DFC data model and semantic rules on the Official DFC Standard Documentation.
• The “Quick Start” Connector: If you are a developer for an existing platform, don’t start from scratch. Use the DFC Connector Library (available in Ruby, PHP, and JavaScript/TypeScript) to interface your application with the DFC network.
• Explore Our Taxonomies: Browse and search our collaborative taxonomies (in English) through the DFC ShowVoc platform. To request changes to our taxonomies, create an issue here
• Connect with the Community: The DFC is a living project. Engage with the maintainers and other platform owners via the Data Food Consortium GitHub, join our Slack workspace; or contact us by email.
• Join a Working Group: We welcome you to join our recurring coordination meetings: General Coordination (FR): Bimonthly, Thursdays @ 11:00 CET; Global Governance (EN): Every 4 weeks, Thursdays @ 12:00 CET.; Ontology Team (EN – Technical): Bimonthly, Tuesdays @ 15:00 CET.
• Contribute: As an AGPL-3.0 project, we welcome pull requests. Whether you are fixing a bug in a connector or suggesting an update to the ontology, your contribution strengthens the Digital Commons.

The “Codesocial”: Democratic Commons-based Governance

The DFC began with a simple question: “How can we make cooperation easier between value-driven projects?” Unlike industrial standards like GS1 (which are governed by global corporations and impose requirements designed for industrial-scale logistics, like mandatory barcoding) the DFC is a Digital Commons.

It is governed by an association of developers, producers, researchers, and grassroots food-system leaders. This ensures the standard remains a “public good,” prioritizing the needs of short supply chains and ecological transitions over the interests of large-scale industrial incumbents. You can find our charter here. Consult the Getting Started (The “Toolbox”) section for details on how to raise issues, make contributions to the taxonomies, or propose feature/functionality requests or improvements.

The Ecosystem

Currently the following platforms have integrated into the DFC standard ecosystem:

• Socleo
• Open Food Network
• Shopify (see DFC Shopify apps repo here)
• Big Barn
• Ooooby (in progress, paused)
• Ordle by Cambridge Organics (in progress)
• Provisions.coop
• LiteFarm
• Locavora