Values

Sustainability

We value sustainability on all levels. Through encouraging people to grow stuff, we hope to build sustainable food systems. We also believe in building a sustainable project: working at a sustainable pace, building code and data that can be shared and improved over the long term, and avoiding unsustainable business models.

Adaptability

We believe that as individuals and as a project we have the ability to adapt and change. We frequently reflect on how we're doing, and adjust our course as necessary.

Incrementalism

We don't make the "best" the enemy of the "good". We consider a small improvement to be an achievement worth celebrating, rather than an insufficient shot at the end goal.

Maturity

We balance enthusiasm with experience, action with reflection, and take time to consider history, best practices, and work that's come before ours.

DIY (Do It Yourself)

We value being involved in the production of the things we use: food, software, and more. We are happy to get our hands dirty, learn new skills, and use the things we've made for ourselves.

Learning

We value the learning process and support learners. We welcome participants with any level of experience and skill and will provide mentoring, resources, and a space where it's okay to take your time and get things wrong as you figure stuff out.

Diversity - marginalised communities

We believe that having a wide range of voices, experience, knowledge, and practices in our community makes Growstuff stronger, more effective, and more fulfilling to be a part of. We particularly aim to support marginalised communities through our processes and our products.

Hospitality

We have a friendly and inclusive community, and go out of our way to maintain a supportive space for participants, and provide resources to help new people get involved and feel a part of Growstuff.

Wisdom of crowds

We believe that the knowledge we hold as a broad community can be more powerful than that of a single expert. Many small pieces of knowledge, together, create something much bigger. We prefer information that emerges from the crowd, rather than information dictated from on high.

Openness - transparency

We value doing things in the open, and letting people see how our processes work. While we need to balance this with needs for privacy, on the whole we feel that having an open process builds trust and accountability, and helps people understand how our community works and how they could be a part of it.

Sharing - abundance

We have an attitude that there is plenty to go round (of things we produce and resources we need) and aren't stingy with them; we encourage others to share, too.