A different Food-Sharing concept.

We eat apples from New Zealand and strawberries from Egypt, even though there are lush unharvested fruit trees in our immediate environment – sounds ridiculous? It actually is!

THE STORY

In 2009 the idea for the platform “mundraub.org” was born to counteract this ridiculous situation. During a paddling-boat trip with friends in Saxony-Anhalt Kai Gildhorn realized the absurdity:  appletrees with a ton of fruits loomed into the shore and literally just waited to be harvested, whereas Kai and his friends bought expensive and plastic wrapped fruits in the supermarket in advance. The group of freinds quickly realized: this problem has to be solved – with a special online-platform called “mundraub.org”.

An online-platform by and for everybody who wants to have domestic unharvested fruits  in their kitchen again.  An interactive map shows where members discovered eatable, wild growing fruits/herbs which obviously do not get harvested or don’t belong to anybody. Other members of the platform can subsequently go to those discovery sites and pick the fruits at their whim.

You can actually turn this to good account: the food doesn’t rot and the people are going to buy less food which was shipped around the world so we can buy it expensively in the supermarket.

The constantly growing number of platform-members has become 19.000 by now and diligently shares discovering sites, organizes joint planting & harvesting activities and lives the vision to bring back the local eatable region into the minds of the people and preserve it.

FOOD ROBBERS?

Harvesting fruits for free which nobody else wants to have and would miserably go to rack otherwise, sounds like an amazing idea – but: is it legal? The platform’s name “mundraub” actually provoces the question many critics questioned already in the beginning of the project: is this robbery?  Of course Kai Gildhorn and the other co-founders of the “mundraub”-iniative thought about this too and implemented the so called “mundräuber-rules” to dodge the legal steps in this sensitive sector. First and most important rule: 

„Ensure in advance that no property rights are infringed by harvesting the fruits.” User of the platform should assure this by asking responsible authorities such as the Nature Conservation Agency, the Parks Department or the road authority, before registering the location in the map. The other three rules target the conscious approach with nature and support the philosophy of the platform.

„Treat the trees, the surrounding nature and the local animals gently.“

„Share the fruits of your discoveries and give something back.“

„Be committed to the care and reforesting of fruit trees.“

WHAT REALLY MATTERS

The initiators of the platform do not only care about the simple point of free food but rather about the conscious approach with existing resources and the preservation of this “public resources”. It should encourage people to walk around in nature with open eyes more often. The harvesting-camps which are organized by members of the platform bring together people who share the same vision: act more conscious (concerning food) and use the existing resources at the best.

If you don’t just buy the apple in the supermarket, but you have to climb a tree, pick the apple and transport it with a barrow, the value of the apple will be much higher for you. And this is what the platform wants to effect: appreciate the value of food again, in a world full of abundance. But that’s not all: the people should ideally take care about the cultivation of the trees so that they don’t just harvest them and take, but also give back something to the nature and other people.

WE LIKE!

This concept is entirely to our “green” taste, because we from SleepGreen also believe that the deliberate handling of existing resources should be an essentially important topic for everyone of us. That’s why we absolutely want to take part in harvesting, nibbling, sharing, planting and discovering & do something good for us and our nature! 🙂

More information about this fantastic platform and how you can get a member, can be found here.