Research & Thought Leadership
Breadbasket publishes research on urban food infrastructure, distributed manufacturing, and the systems thinking required to feed rapidly growing cities. Our papers combine data, frameworks, and operational insight.
The architectural blueprint for urban food resilience
This flagship paper outlines Breadbasket's core thesis: that urban food security in emerging markets depends on programmable, distributed manufacturing infrastructure. It examines the structural gap between population growth and food system capacity, introduces constraint-based production scheduling as the enabling technology, and models deployment pathways across 50+ cities.
The comprehensive systems framework for programmable food infrastructure. Start here to understand our approach.
Focused explorations of specific challenges: electrification constraints, network effects, resilience strategies, and import dependency.
Data, implications, and operational frameworks
An analysis of how load-shedding, grid unreliability, and diesel costs reshape production economics in African cities. Quantified impacts and mitigation strategies.
Data flows, learning transfer, and competitive advantage
Explores how operational data and learning from early deployments compound across the network, improving production efficiency and resilience in subsequent cities.
Technical and operational strategies for uninterrupted production
Technical deep-dive into production scheduling algorithms, energy storage strategies, and equipment design for maintaining output despite grid disruptions.
Economics and implementation pathways for sub-Saharan Africa
Examines how local processing of imported grains and local flour blends can reduce food import costs, stabilise supply, and build resilience against global shocks.
Hypothetical deployment models showing how our infrastructure scales in real cities. Financial projections, operational timelines, and impact modelling.
A hypothetical model of infrastructure rollout, unit economics, and impact
A proof-of-concept model for Kinshasa deployment. The case study covers initial hub setup, production scheduling optimisation, supply chain integration, and scaling to a network of microhubs. It includes financial projections, employment impact, and food security outcomes.
How distributed manufacturing networks are architected for rapid scaling and operational resilience.
Technical and economic solutions for production under unreliable power and high diesel costs.
How learning compounds across deployments, improving efficiency and reducing risk.
Constraint-satisfaction algorithms for demand forecasting, equipment optimisation, and cost minimisation.
Breaking import dependency through local processing and regional value retention.
Financial, employment, and food security outcomes of infrastructure deployment.
Download PDFs for deep reading. Use for partnerships, research, or deployment planning. All papers are publicly available and designed for academics, partners, investors, and operators.
If you're a development finance institution, city planner, manufacturing operator, or systems thinker interested in food infrastructure, let's talk.
These papers are designed for partners. Use them to understand our thinking.