PortiaSun was established in the Summer 2002 and initially concerned itself with providing people with a produce sourcing service. We looked to help concerned people encounter producers that farmed and produced using environmentally and culturally sustainable techniques and approaches. This involved working with organic production initiatives, fair trade projects, as well as alternative and community orientated sustainable development programmes. We encouraged localisation where possible while always keeping a global emphasis about our work. We found that transparency was all too often traded and substituted for and by rubberstamps. We found that the politics of food and trade placed people, environments and cultures behind balance sheet imperatives. And we found that we could do something about this – and that we were not alone.

Today PortiaSun has changed its remit. We continue to help people source producers and produce – but we now increasingly work to initiate new thinking and approaches toward food security and sustainable development; from farm gate to governmental level – for all peoples, cultures and communities.

Through our work and in collaboration with others concerned, we aim to rethink current provisos towards development and explore alternatives that address the issues that current thinking ignores, or more to the point disregards.

Our office will continue to operate out of Waterford, Ireland – and our presence will remain global.