In this final FoodSHIFT workshop organised by Sustain and facilitated by Food Matters we look at several movements around the globe shaping a place-based approach to food, offer participants an opportunity to discuss how to drive change in food policy and practise at a local level and learn from movements across the globe.

We will hear from sub-national food policy work happening across hundreds of cities and states in the US and loosely coordinated by the Food Policy Networks project. We will hear from the Bristol Food Network in the UK and learn how they managed to get their local mayor on board. And as the FoodSHIFT2030 project wraps up this year, it will be celebrating its impact and hosting its Policy Conference in Brussels 26 of October. What messages does the project hope to communicate to the EU Commission about local place-based partnerships and what changes would it like to see?

We will invite participants to explore what is driving change in food policy and practise in their local area, and to look for similarities and differences with other cities and places.

This will be a participatory workshop with breakout sessions and other opportunities for participants to input, share and network with like-minded people from places around Europe. We will be sharing FoodSHIFT resources as well as other useful materials.

Speakers:

• Sub-national food policy work in the US – Anne Palmer, Food Policy Networks project, John Hopkins Centre for a Livable Future
• Celebrating FoodSHIFT achievements and vision to policy makers – Luke Schafer and Christian Bugge Henriksen, Coordinators of FoodSHIFT 2030
• Impact of a place-based approach to food in Bristol – Heloise Balme, Bristol Food Network

Register via zoom link

The post Workshop: Driving change in food policy and practise at a local level appeared first on FoodSHIFT 2030.

Cost of living crisis: From farm to fork, food system innovators are fighting back

The cost of living crisis and rising energy prices are affecting every link in the food chain; with many food producers and retailers having to close shop, and citizens struggling with their household budgets. Access to healthy, sustainable produced food is seriously at risk as pressure mounts on the slow food movement to give way to intensive farming and cheap, highly processed foods. But rather than give way, radical food system innovators are rising up to the challenge and adapting to the times. This webinar will explore responses to the crisis in three different areas, looking at how businesses, government and citizens can respond.

In the UK, growers, producers and veg box schemes are working collectively with organisation Better Food Traders, to drive up efficiency, save costs and ensure a steady supply chain, all the while participating in innovative schemes to ensure the most vulnerable still have access to fresh fruit and veg.

At food partnership Food Plymouth, the council is working closely with local suppliers to ensure continued procurement contracts. As the need for food aid increases in the city, citizens are now being invited to set up bulk buying cooperatives in their neighborhoods to retain their agency amid the crisis.

In Berlin, Germany, a decentral network of food hubs is being developed by neighbours and community spaces, looking to build up collective cooking, food sharing and solidarity with small producers, stepping in where the traditional food structure has not.

Watch the recording of the webinar here:

Download the presentations below:

Berlin FAL presentation

Better Food Traders presentation

Food Plymouth presentation

Q&A

The post Cost of living crisis – takeaways appeared first on FoodSHIFT 2030.

Date: 13 December 11-12.30 pm CET 

This online interactive workshop aims to help place-based organisations which already have or are setting up a local food partnership, or food policy council or local food governance body, and who are interested in setting up a food strategy.

This workshop is open to local food partnerships or councils who would like to join the FoodSHIFT network, keen to build local food strategies with community involvement that result in positive transformation of the food system.

As well as learning from other organisations on governance and food strategy, attendees will then be invited to join the FoodSHIFT2030 email forum, a unique platform for all those involved in the project, to share questions, expertise, information and more, as we continue to build the movement for food system change across Europe!

Programme: 

As part of this workshop, we will be sharing FoodSHIFT tools and guides on governance as well as other useful materials such as the UK’s Sustainable Food Places toolkit.

We will have presentations with case studies from places that are at different points of their food governance journey, as well as breakout sessions for interactive activities,  providing an opportunity for attendees to work and learn alongside like-minded people from places around Europe.

Speakers include: 

• Beatrice Walthall, from FoodSHIFT2030 Berlin Lab
• Sustain, the alliance for better food and farming
• Food Matters

WATCH THE RECORDING HERE:

Please note this is the 1st of a series of 4 workshops, from now until end of 2023. Please stay tuned for future workshop announcements. Thank you!

The post Workshop: Governance and food strategy appeared first on FoodSHIFT 2030.

Soaring energy prices, the rising cost of living and threats to our food system brought on by the war in Ukraine have provoked panicked calls for more intensive farming and a scaling back of green ambitions, including the recent decision from the EU agricultural ministers to allow production on marginal land. But these calls detract us from our long-term, but most urgent need to achieve net zero and will reverse any gains in food security for a fairer, greener, healthier Europe. We need to stick to the Farm to Fork food strategy, which lies at the very heart of the European Green Deal, if we want resilient food systems now and in the future.

In this webinar, EU Horizon 2020 project FoodSHIFT2030 is joined by network partners Sustain: the alliance for better food and farming, IFOAM Organics Europe and Eat, to discuss transforming food systems in European city-regions in line with the Farm to Fork strategy. Protecting wildlife, forging greater links between urban and rural areas, building fairer supply chains for our farmers and food entrepreneurs, as well as promoting more plant-based food consumption in the
cities are just some of the areas of work.

In 2020 we argued it necessary in light of Covid-19, and today’s crisis is no different – we need Farm to Fork for a sustainable, resilient food system which ensures everyone has access to healthy, nutritious food.

Speakers include:

• Dirk Wascher, Innovation Manager FoodSHIFT 2030 (Chair)
• Silvia Schmidt, Policy Associate Manager, IFOAM Organics Europe
• Vicki Hird, Head of Sustainable Farming, Sustain
• Christian Bugge Henriksen, FoodSHIFT2030 Project Coordinator
• Olav Kjørven, Senior Director of Strategy, EAT

WATCH THE RECORDING:

Download the presentations here:

Silvia Schmidt presentation

Vicki Hird presentation

Christian Bugge Henriksen presentation

Olav Kjørven presentation

Download Q&A session

The post Farm to Fork webinar appeared first on FoodSHIFT 2030.

Some FALs have asked to get more information about possible ways of getting funds for their innovators. This topic is very complex, as getting successful with fund raising and accessing financing requires many skills and knowledge.

This first webinar on the topic will be an introduction with short inputs from experts, and questions/answers short sessions. Participants will get basic knowledge about the specifications of setting up business models for social entrepreneurs, and a short introduction to 3 main sources of funds / finance: the crowdfunding, the impact investment, and the European funds.

To get deeper understanding and share their experiences in the funding/financing processes, the FALs will be invited to a next FAL2FAL webinar, on Friday 21 January, where there will be more time for deeper discussions, especially in the topics “business models for social entrepreneurs” and “crowdfunding”.

More FAL2FAL webinars on this topic will be organized in the future, based on expression of interest from the FALs.

Objectives
• Gaining knowledge about the social entrepreneurship funding / financing logics and timing
• Discovering the impacts investment logics and opportunities
• Learning good practices in crowdfunding
• Learning about how to get involved in more European projects

Learning outcome
• At the end of this webinar, participants should have increased knowledge and capacities to raise funds and finance for the innovators involved in the FoodSHIFT2030 project.

The post Financing and fundraising appeared first on FoodSHIFT 2030.

“Knowing that short supply chains are on the political agenda, and are mentioned in the Farm to Fork strategy, is definitely a step forward.” Silvia Schmidt 

Raluca Barbu, from High-Clere Consulting in Brasov, Romania, highlighted her team’s work on shorter supply chain development as a part of their role within FoodSHIFT 2030 as a Food Accelerator Lab (FAL). Over 90% of Romanian farms are less than 5 hectares and have minimal access to capital, with few formal networks for cooperation and a reliance on informal networks for selling. The FAL is therefore working to support predominantly traditional, small-scale local producers to establish a more ambitious regional food system, thereby boosting the food economy and reviving rural communities.  

“Communities of farmers are very important for us in Romania. The welfare of farmers and small producers depends very much on the welfare of their communities.” Raluca Barbu 

For example, with the support of the municipality a new public market was trialled last summer in a former market space that had gone unused for years. More and more families visited each week, who enjoyed getting to meet the producers and learn more about the products on sale. A chain of local gastronomic points was also set up to tap into the area’s tourism industry and attract visitors directly to the farms for tasting and purchasing. Helping farmers improve their business acumen, access better financial support and connect with new customers has been very well received. But Raluca noted that many challenges remain such as improving communication and building trust, which takes time. Even for very short supply chains, establishing what support is needed in the middle (e.g. storage space) is a critical step on the road to better business sustainability.   

Tom Uhnak, from the Association of Local Food Initiatives (AMPI) in the Czech Republic, brought in the perspective of Community Support Agriculture (CSA) as a model for creating shorter and more equitable supply chains.  

“I see it as paradigm-changing in terms of how consumers are sharing risk with the farmers in crop failure, for example. The CSA principles are based on mutual trust, ecology and food sovereignty. So we are trying to define and shape our own food and agriculture system through CSAs.”  Tom Uhnak 

Czech CSAs first took off in 2008 and have since expanded to involve 30 farmers and 3,000 shareholders, many of whom are families. To help meet the growing demand and build more direct connections, AMPI has created an online map to track both existing CSAs as well as new farmers and consumer groups who would like to start a new one. Over the last year, and with the participation of farmers themselves, they have been developing a national CSA coalition to identify key elements of the models that should be preserved when expanding.  

As Tom explained, solidarity with farmers is one of the greatest strengths of this model, although can bring more risk to consumers who must weather any change to the harvest along with the farmers. There are also opportunities to set-up a pay-it-forward system within a CSA to lower the barrier for people to join who have a lower income, but without affecting the farmers’ pay.  

However, while CSAs are beneficial for those involved, Tom pointed out that system level solutions are also needed to increase access to local food for a wider number of people, for example though changes to public procurement in schools, which AMPI is also working on. It also means that other models are needed for sourcing food from further away. For example, Tom’s CSA group has also developed a solidarity partnership with agroecological fruit growers in Greece who provide them with fruit and citrus that can’t be grown in the CR. While this supply chain isn’t necessarily short in terms of kilometres, as there is no intermediary and the relationship is equitable, Tom says “it feels local to me.” As all the speakers noted, shorter supply chain models must also balance the demands of not just financial viability but also the reality of consumer demands.   

Joining us from the Open Food Network, Nick Weir then led a tour of their open-source, not-for-profit online platform for ethical food producers. It is active in 20 countries, with another 15 in the process of deploying it. The OFN allows producers to set their own prices as well as band together with other local enterprises and community members to develop food hubs, which can be as geographically small or large as the group decides and act like a virtual farmers’ market. Many members are CSAs, but there are also farmers selling direct from their land as well as food hubs, which take many forms such as farmers’ markets offering an online option.  

“The Open Food Network wants to build not only short food supply chains but transparent food supply chains… so we can build connections between the people growing the food and the people eating it.” Nick Weir  

The OFN aims to take a behind-the-scenes approach on the platform, putting the farmers, food hub or other uses at the forefront of the pages instead. Being open-sourced is integral to their approach as it means the technology is owned by the people who are using it, with new tech updates released weekly that directly address user needs. As Nick mentioned, there are many platforms that offer similar e-commerce platforms, but they are proprietary and therefore owned and controlled by the people who set up the software in the first place. OFN is unique in offering the only global open-source platform for shorter supply chains in food, putting their values into practice at the very core of their operations.  

“The current system is built on ownership and control, and we believe that if we need to rebuild then we need to rebuild with tools that are in common ownership.” Nick Weir 

As was expressed by all the speakers, the digital readiness of small-scale farmers and producers varies significantly from one person to the next, so the Open Food Network platform is designed to allow administrative responsibilities to sit more with a food hub coordinator than a farmer if needed. Similar to Raluca’s experience in Brasov, farmers often have limited capacity for marketing their produce or integrating new tech or financial systems. The OFN aims to make that expertise more readily accessible to food entrepreneurs, while maintaining high ethical principles as an enterprise themselves.  

We were lucky to have a such lively discussion amongst the group and audience, who brought in questions about food poverty, digitalisation and public procurement as well. As Silvia said in the webinar’s conclusion, 

“We’ve really looked at three ways of making short supply chains work in different settings and distances. We’ve also seen the role that citizens can play in transitioning towards more sustainable food systems, and specifically buying local food to support short supply chains.”  

The post Scaling up and out: A recap of our webinar on building short supply chains 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.

• How much do we really know about food?
• Where it comes from, how it was sourced, what impact it has on us, our city and the environment?
• And how much do our children know?

Food education in schools is essential for igniting this interest early on and fostering a new generation of food citizens who see what we eat as part of the bigger picture in our fight against climate change and towards greater sustainability and health.

The shape this education takes can vary, and in this webinar, we’ll explore the school leading the FoodSHIFT Lab in Athens; Ellinogermaniki Agogi with focus on childhood Obesity prevention with use of big data; the innovative Food Schools in the Municipality of Copenhagen; as well as the UK-based charity School Food Matters and its Fresh Enterprise 2020 project that looks to unearth the next generation of food entrepreneurs.

Speakers:

• Athens FoodSHIFT Lab: Katerina Riviou (Athens Lab Coordinator, R&D Dept. Ellinogermaniki Agogi), and Ioannis Ioakeimidis (Associate Professor, Karolinska Institute)
• Copenhagen FoodSHIFT Lab: Emil Kiær Lund (Food School Coordinator, Municipality of Copenhagen) and Christian Bugge Henriksen (Associate Professor, University of Copenhagen)
• Rachel Copus, Partnerships and Programmes Officer, School Food Matters, and students from Northolt High School, London
• Emily Norford, EAT (chair)

• Check the Q&A: All the questions and answers during the live webinar
• Click here to discover the webinar Presentation

The post Webinar: Education for a new generation of food citizens appeared first on FoodSHIFT 2030.

• How much do we really know about food?
• Where it comes from, how it was sourced, what impact it has on us, our city and the environment?
• And how much do our children know?

Food education in schools is essential for igniting this interest early on and fostering a new generation of food citizens who see what we eat as part of the bigger picture in our fight against climate change and towards greater sustainability and health.

The shape this education takes can vary, and in this webinar, we’ll explore the school leading the FoodSHIFT Lab in Athens; Ellinogermaniki Agogi with focus on childhood Obesity prevention with use of big data; the innovative Food Schools in the Municipality of Copenhagen; as well as the UK-based charity School Food Matters and its Fresh Enterprise 2020 project that looks to unearth the next generation of food entrepreneurs.

Speakers:

• Athens FoodSHIFT Lab: Katerina Riviou (Athens Lab Coordinator, R&D Dept. Ellinogermaniki Agogi), and Ioannis Ioakeimidis (Associate Professor, Karolinska Institute)
• Copenhagen FoodSHIFT Lab: Emil Kiær Lund (Food School Coordinator, Municipality of Copenhagen) and Christian Bugge Henriksen (Associate Professor, University of Copenhagen)
• Rachel Copus, Partnerships and Programmes Officer, School Food Matters, and students from Northolt High School, London
• Emily Norford, EAT (chair)

• Check the Q&A: All the questions and answers during the live webinar

The post Webinar: Education for a new generation of food citizens appeared first on FoodSHIFT 2030.