Green Source seeks to help millions of smallholders in West and Central Africa produce sustainably-made oil and make a living wage. A majority of smallholders live below the poverty line due to the inaccessibility of machinery. Green Source is a cooperative that 1) supplies locally-made processing machinery for smallholders to use at affordable rates in their communities; 2) offers sustainably certified oil; 3) connects smallholders to a growing number of environmentally and socially-minded buyers. Green Source is proving this works at our pilot facility, which we launched with MIT grant support in Sypouma, a rural village in Cameroon, where we’ve served hundreds of farmers. Beyond our proof-of-concept facility, our next goal is to regularize our processing system into local factory-built turnkey containers with machinery inside, and then to build out a network of these containers across greater Central and West Africa to serve millions of smallholders. This model will allow us to reach areas of high demand, eliminating the long-distances smallholders travel. In an industry that is dominated by large palm oil producers responsible for the clearing of native people’s lands, large-scale deforestation, and exclusionary practices, we offer an alternative: palm oil that is not only fair trade but sustainably made.
