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Imagine having a cow in the backyard. Or on the balcony. Slightly impractical, but that’s where Herdshare steps in. Herdshare is crowdfunding for wannabe cattle farmers. People can buy a share in a cow and pay a local farmer to board, care for, and milk the cow. The shareholder then obtains (but does not purchase) the raw milk from their own cow. Which neatly gets around the food standards regulations banning the sale of unpasteurised milk products for human consumption. The arrangement allows consumers to buy a share in a cow for about $50, plus a monthly agistment fee - yielding about seven litres of milk a week (or less, plus cheese and butter). Even better, it’s tweaking the food production paradigm, enabling consumers to become food producers. And farmers, instead of being primary producers, are paid to care for animals that are no longer theirs. The first Herdshare has hit Brisbane. It’s early days, and prices are expected to fall as demand grows. I’ll drink to that.