This short film is the result of their yearly thematic work about food, that is one of their working topic.

What is the Children City Council?

Since 2017, the City of Avignon has set up a Children City Council i.e. an institution consisted only of children, elected by children from all our city schools (public and private).

All school children have to choose two elected representatives per school, for a 2 years term, only within a targeted group from 8 to 10 years old children.

The children are stepping into elected representatives’ shoes so they are in charge to implement their projects (once validated by the Mayor herself!), organized into different thematic groups; so they:

• are informed about various issues
• collaborate with some municipal services, helped by 2 dedicated adults in charge of their group
• are empowered by experimenting their projects’ implementation from start to finish

It aims at increasing their awareness of citizenship, testing the elected representatives’ role and discovering various issues.

In 2021, there are 66 elected children from 33 public and private elementary schools.

Each child who candidates to the Council writes a statement of objectives to inform his schoolmates of his projects, program, and priorities.

Food is one of the thematic commissions such as:

• Food (institutional food service, fighting against food waste, balanced diet)
• Living together (social actions and solidarity)
• Save the planet (environment, sustainable development)
• My life my city  (equipment, security, education)
• Having fun in Avignon (culture and leisure activities)
• Taking care of your health (sports and health)

The making of this short film was one of the projects of the current mandate (ending at the end of June).

They initially researched information and figures (in France, in the whole world..) about food waste to have a large approach and to define the issues. Then, they decided to split the film into two short parts, proposing a second part highlighting the solutions linked to our daily behaviours (children and adults included…) that lead to food waste.

The short film shows by the children themselves some typical behaviours regarding food and propose in a dynamic way some tips to solve the problems.

As we wished to share it with our FoodSHIFT partners (and maybe with the children related to them), we made the English translation.

All this project is included within a larger project of « Zero Food Waste », currently in progress in our canteens : increasing children awareness by weights and challenges between children’ tables to be the less « food waste » producer…!

So…why don’t we hear the children’s  voices and follow their ideas and tips?

Let’s go to « Zero Food Waste », we need all your energy; looking forward to receiving any feedback about this project!

The post Children’s involvement against food waste – Avignon LAB appeared first on FoodSHIFT 2030.

The fellow city-regions will participate to the project in many ways:

• General advice and support from your paired ‘frontrunner’ city, Food Accelarator Labs (FAL) in the FoodSHIFT2030 project
• Inclusion in a peer learning network
• Travel/accommodation expenses paid for 1 exchange visit with your FAL
• Access to all tools and material developed in the programme and to some visits organised for the whole consortium (at your own expense)
• Access to peer learning events bringing together all FALs and FELs on specific innovations from other cities
• Bilateral support depending on availability of the experts involved in the FoodSHIFT2030 project

What do you need to do?

We would love you to join in the programme.

We need a primary contact person(s), to commit to participate to the above-mentioned events on a regular basis. The primary contact/organisations will need to provide a link to other local organisations and individuals in your city-region engaged in your food work and this programme. The primary contact together with local partner organisations must be willing to commit to being part of the programme until end of 2023, ideally forming mutually beneficial partnerships.

Recruitment process is closed. Selection will be released by mid-February 2022.

If you wish getting more information, or be associated to our up-coming activities, please send us an email at foodshift2030@ku.dk

Download and share the FoodSHIFT2030 FEL commitment form

The post Is your City/Region interested in joining the FoodSHIFT 2030 programme? appeared first on FoodSHIFT 2030.

There are important dimensions to the places in which the communities in question participate. The first is the food local community. This community is a ‘community of interest’, i.e. a group of different people, who share a common interest for the food policy of the city, and related activities.

Beyond a community of interest that offers a framework for collective reflection, community engagement can be an active participation in “Citizen driven innovation” which are grass-root initiatives, that are new (in an incremental or radical way) and initiated by city-region inhabitants. 

The objectives of the webinar were the following: 

• Sharing experiences in establishing local food community and initiatives, and in contributing to the success of citizens/people led initiatives 
• Discussing main bottlenecks and difficulties 
• Brainstorming about pathways and communication tools which could help (=solutions) 
• Six cities actively participated in this learning process by exchanging experiences

Download the Report and Annex here: F2FAL Web#1 Factsheet.

Download reports per city:

• Avignon_F2F_web#1
• Barcelona_F2F_web#1
• Bari_F2F_web#1
• Copenhagen_F2F_web#1
• Oostende_F2F_web#1

The post Living LAB: Peer learning event appeared first on FoodSHIFT 2030.

Earlier this month, we brought together speakers from Berlin, Ghent and Amsterdam to discuss how each of their food policy councils balance citizen engagement and political buy-in. One of the conversation’s recurring themes was how to get the structure of a council right in order to facilitate involvement from the community as well as ensure the decision-making process with the city government is transparent.

When thinking back on how the food policy council was originally set up, Lisa Haarhoff of Ernährungsrat Berlin (Berlin Food Policy Council) reflected that it needed to be both more dynamic and diverse. This has led them to adapt a sociocratic model (see webinar recording and slides for detail further down) which allows more participatory approaches that focus on dialogue, debate and consensus rather than voting.

“What would we do differently if we were to start again? We would pay more attention to structures that better and more effectively enable people to connect together and get involved. [Our new structure] helps us to be more flexible and react to the current climate.” Lisa Haarhoff of Ernährungsrat Berlin (Berlin Food Policy Council)

From the perspective of Arnold Arnold van der Valk, co-founder of the Amsterdam Food Council, the emphasis has been on shifting from “persons to practice” so that the functions of a council become embedded within the city. While there are many people motivated to transform the industrial food system to make it both more healthy and sustainable, there remains a need for more cooperation among institutions as well as reliable funding to sustain the time commitment that is needed to bring about lasting change.

“The elephant in the room… is funding.

We managed to get [the food policy council] going with almost full-time input of labour of two individuals. But you can’t keep the whole machine going with two people.” Arnold Arnold van der Valk, Amsterdam Food Council

In Ghent it has also taken time for trust to build between citizen collectives and the food council. For Maarten Crivits with Food Policy Council Ghent, he’s found that citizen participation can have a significant and positive impact on the city, but that it requires the council to take up issues that matter to the people. And when there are people who are funded to be involved, it is also important to ensure meaningful ways to participate for non-paid members as well.

“Gather interest around your goals. For instance, if you have a local food strategy with operational goals, do a survey, do interviews with the citizens and entrepreneurs of your city to see what kind of interest is there and use the energy of civil society, the energy that’s already there.” Maarten Crivits, Food Policy Council Ghent

Some of the key lessons from the discussion were best summarised at the end by our chair Beatrice Walthall from the Leibniz Centre for Agriculture Landscape Research (ZALF), who noted that although councils are still evolving in many cases, they also offer concrete ways for citizens to engage politically and instigate change in the food system.

“It’s a very dynamic field of action.

Things are emerging and growing, things are also collapsing because they didn’t work. But overall, we can see some new governance structures and modes emerging.

Communicate about the existence of food policy councils and communicate about the issues. Make people curious, it’s not just a theoretical dry way of lobbying. Food is a really active form of political engagement”, summarised Beatrice Walthall.

• Presentation Slides: available here!
• Take part in our innovation conference in Barcelona in October 
• Join our newsletter to stay in the know about future events (scroll down!)

The post Webinar key takeaways: Structuring food policy councils for citizen engagement appeared first on FoodSHIFT 2030.

These are critical moments to demonstrate how food system transformation needs to be a key aspect of addressing the climate and nature emergency. Our most recent webinar showcased the work of Glasgow and Barcelona to highlight how cities are taking this matter into their own hands.  

• Presentation slides: available here
• You can download the Q&A here!

Ben Reynolds, the webinar chair from Sustain, opened the discussion by emphasising how little food and farming had thus far featured in international and national commitments to tackling climate change, despite it contributing between a third and a quarter of greenhouse gas emissions. As a result, cities have stepped up to the plate to devise their own strategic action plans, which we now seeing being translated into policy and practical change.  

The Glasgow Food and Climate Declaration is one such example, as Sofie Quist?from?Nourish Scotland outlined. The Declaration’s aim is to put food on the climate agenda before, during and beyond COP26, which is taking place in Glasgow, by inspiring ambitious local government-level action. It was written using inclusive language in order to enable wide participation among sub-national governments, with over 40 cities across five continents already having signed. City and local governments from around the world are invited to join the movement ahead of COP26 by signing the Declaration.   

“What we argue needs to be on the table at COP26 is a participatory whole food system approach, which cities are clear leaders on, in order to deliver effective food and climate change policies and planetary health,” Sofie Quist 

Riikka Gonzalez from Glasgow Food Policy Partnership shared how their city’s new 10-year food plan translates this declaration into concrete actions. The city has a thriving sector of over 200 community food projects, but also has high levels of income and healthy inequalities. Therefore, a participatory approach was key to the food plan’s development, with over 80 organisations taking part, and improving access to fresh, fair, healthy, affordable food was integral throughout. Launched in June, the plan has 76 actions divided between six themes, many of which address climate change, such as increasing land available for growing food in urban areas and sourcing more food from local and low-carbon producers to be used in public sector catering. Signing the Declaration and hosting COP26 has been a major catalyst for the city to step up its work, to lead by example and to secure political support. 

This year Barcelona is the World Sustainable Food Capital, a nomination stemming from the Milan Urban Food Policy Pact (MUFPP). Amaranta?Herrero?from?Pla?Estratègic?Metropolità?de Barcelona (PEMB) spoke about how the city is using their host status for the seventh MUFPP in October to ensure sustainable food is at the center of the political and social agenda throughout 2021 by running a host of events and working towards a 2030 Food Strategy. They have also helped launched the Barcelona World Sustainable Food Capital, a commitment and toolkit for cities related to the transformation of food systems in order to tackle the climate emergency. It includes a set of core indicators to demonstrate the positive impacts this will have for cities, citizens and the planet.  

Finally, Alessandra Schmidt from Fab Lab Barcelona, one of the nine FoodSHIFT Accelerator Labs (FAL), focused on how they use bottom-up approaches to build a bridge between food policy and citizens in the city. Barcelona has fostered an environment for food citizenship to flourish, with Fab Lab capitalising on this atmosphere by working with entrepreneurs to link food and tech, and to develop communities of practice in this area. Through their Food Tech 3.0 Acceleration Program they are accelerating ten initiatives, which will be driven equally by both society readiness as well as tech innovation. In addition, they are hosting a FoodSHIFT 2030 FAL showcase in Barcelona, within the Innovation Conference, on Monday 18 October focused on food system innovations, which will be a hybrid format of in person and digital access.    

“We have the political will, which is great, so how can we keep pushing forwards as a local actor towards this direction and participating in the decision-making at the table together,” Alessandra Schmidt.

Barcelona and Glasgow offer just two examples of the incredible work cities are doing to integrate policy and practical action around food and climate change, but there are many more leading the way. We look forward to the second half of 2021 bringing further attention to these issues and inspiring more people and place to get involved.     

• Encourage your city to sign the Glasgow Food and Climate Declaration 
• Take part in our innovation conference in Barcelona in October  
• Explore the work of the other FoodSHIFT 2030 Acceleration Labs 
• Join our newsletter to stay in the know about future webinars and events (scroll down!)

The post Webinar key takeaways: Getting food on the climate agenda appeared first on FoodSHIFT 2030.

A healthy diet

The EAT-Lancet Commission brings together world-leading researchers in nutrition, health, sustainability and policy from across the globe. In early 2019 the ‘Food in the Anthropocene: the EAT–Lancet Commission on healthy diets from sustainable food systems’ was released, clearly concluding that diets primarily consisting of plants – fruits and vegetables – were considered to be the healthiest.

The report says:

‘A healthy diet should optimize health, defined broadly as being a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease. (…) Healthy diets have an optimal caloric intake and consist largely of a diversity of plant-based foods, low amounts of animal source foods, contain unsaturated rather than saturated fats, and limited amounts of refined grains, highly processed foods and added sugars.’

To guide consumers, the report suggests the ‘Planetary-Diet’, a model that uses a plate to visualise the necessary proportions of each food-group needed in order to reach health boundaries for humans, at the same time as respecting planetary boundaries.

Planet and plate

The Commission concluded that not only human health was necessary to healthy diets. Planetary health is also crucial. The Planetary-Diet plate represents a diet that can provide us with the nutrients we need whilst also ensuring consumption stays within planetary boundaries. ‘50% fruits and vegetables’ is recommended, with smaller portions of grains, plant sourced protein, unsaturated plant oils, dairy foods and animal protein. Starchy vegetables and added sugars have the smallest recommended consumption.

FoodSHIFT 2030 aims to provide pathways for a wide customary take-up of such a diet. The EAT project ‘Shifting Urban Diets’, which has synergies with the FoodSHIFT viewpoint, was presented by Emily Norford as an example of an approach to ‘make healthy and sustainable food the default for city dwellers.’ See the example now on the webinar playback.

The post What does a plant-based diet really mean? appeared first on FoodSHIFT 2030.

FAO World Food Day to be hosted in the City of Bari 

From the 3rd to the 11th of October the city of Bari, in collaboration with the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Italian Agency for the development cooperation, has been selected to host the FAO World Food Day. The FAO World Food Day organises events and promotes activities and strategies to support the agri-food sector. Other partners of the World Food Day are the United Nations SDG Action Campaign, the European Commission through the DG DEVCO, Save the Children.

Ciheam Bari will be the local partner of the Italian Ministry, planning events, workshops, and meetings both in its premises and in the Fiera del Levante. The Fiera del Levante is the most relevant international fair in Bari and is usually the policy stage to report on current policies and projects, collect feedback from practitioners, citizens and announce future programming. 

Considering the topics the WFD will cover this year, #together for the SDGs, the city of Bari received the commitment to identify the most initiatives and projects that match with the SDG 11 “Make cities safe, inclusive, resilient and sustainable”. 

FoodSHIFT 2030 FAL Kickoff Event 

This is a unique and special occasion to present the FoodSHIFT 2030 project for the nine days of the event which is attended by students, policy-makers, academia, grassroots movements and NGOs and to kick-off the Bari FAL. Ciheam Bari and the FAL team will have two events: 

Ciheam

The first kick-off event will be in the Ciheam premises on the FAO World Food Day. The meeting will have the likes of the Italian Ministry of Agriculture and 41 mayors/officers from the Metropolitan City of Bari. This event will connect and engage policymakers and stakeholders in the FoodSHIFT 2030 project and work on the principles of gathering interest in activating abandoned lands in the city for food production.

Fiera del Levante

The second kickoff event will be in the framework of the Fiera del Levante – World Food Day. Bari FAL will host workshops and host a ‘speakers corner’ on the different challenges FoodSHIFT 2030 project. 

Sign up now!

The post Bari FoodSHIFT 2030 Accelerator Lab to kick off with their first event on the FAO World Food Day appeared first on FoodSHIFT 2030.

FAO World Food Day

The Bari FoodSHIFT Accelerator Lab will encourage youth entrepreneurship and job creation through targeted capacity building services and education with an existing incubator. It will focus on testing the feasibility of the new entrepreneurs’ innovative and sustainable solutions, linking them to a renewed short food chain model (linking production, processing, distribution and consumption) The lab will support the ethical and responsible reuse of abandoned lands in the Bari area for use in social and technological food system innovation.

When? October 3rd – October 11th.

Ciheam – the first kick-off event will be in the Ciheam premises on the FAO World Food Day. The meeting will have the likes of the Italian Ministry of Agriculture and 41 mayors/officers from the Metropolitan City of Bari. This event will connect and engage policymakers and stakeholders in the FoodSHIFT 2030 project and work on the principles of gathering interest in activating abandoned lands in the city for food production.

Fiera del Levante – the second kickoff event will be in the framework of the Fiera del Levante – World Food Day. Bari FAL will host workshops and host a ‘speakers corner’ on the different challenges FoodSHIFT 2030 project.

Sign up now!

The post Bari FoodSHIFT Accelerator Lab Kickoff Event appeared first on FoodSHIFT 2030.

Guided Walks, Public picnics and a Pop-Up Market

Healthy and sustainable food is essential for our future. The city of Oostende is devising a sustainable food strategy and is will kick off their first event the food park, the Gardens of Stene. The Oostend FoodSHIFT Accelerator Lab will elevate the local food sector with a newly developed agricultural park managed by a “social farmer.” It will strengthen the link between the local producers and the catering sector and produce high-quality education on local products, short food supply chains and food waste targeted at chefs. For example, it will collaborate with existing ongoing initiatives to deliver freshly caught fish directly to consumers. The Lab will work to combat poverty by offering new jobs and supporting vulnerable societal groups.

When? October 3rd, 11:00 am – 16:00 pm. 

The kickoff event will consist of Guided Walks around the Gardens of Stene, with information about local agriculture and food production in the city. You can also register for a picnic containing local produce to enjoy in the park, and stroll around the pop-up market selling local products from the region.

Sign up now!

The post Oostende FoodSHIFT Accelerator Lab Kickoff Event appeared first on FoodSHIFT 2030.

Madland afterparty x FoodSHIFT 2030 kickoff

Madland is a food policy rethinking festival that brings together the farmers, farmers, fishermen, producers, grocers, chefs, media and food people and citizens who want to use the restart to rethink the food systems in Denmark. Madland embraces the good people behind maddanmark and gives their ideas, concepts, business and events a place in the festival program with the aim of engaging you and the rest of us in the fact that we all have an important role in a sustainable food system.

When? August 26 – September 25, 2020.

Madland is headquartered in CPH Food Space in Kødbyen in Copenhagen, and in addition, the festival’s many activities and events will be distributed throughout Copenhagen and the surrounding area.

Join the Copenhagen FAL FoodSHIFT kickoff in their event on September 24 at 14:30 – 17:30. 

When Madland switches off the festival light chains, the food system in Copenhagen and the surrounding area pulsates further towards greater diversity, sustainability and delicacy. We celebrate this with a bang of a thoughtful after-party, where you are invited to rethink and develop Denmark as a food country after the festival. The celebration of Madland’s end is also the celebration of the kickoff for FoodSHIFT 2030 – an ambitious change project that will transform the European food system in a more sustainable, circular and democratic direction. Join in on inspiration, bubbles and folk cuisine by Matt Orlando from Amass.

Sign up now!

Cover image credits – Karl Ejnar Jørgensen, Madland, 2020.

The post Copenhagen FoodSHIFT Accelerator Lab Kickoff Event – Madland Festival appeared first on FoodSHIFT 2030.