Last April 24th COCOREADO celebrated its Final Conference “Building a sustainable food future together” in Brussels. After more than three years of work, the COCOREADO project has nearly come to an end and has achieved the envisioned targets. The event was an opportunity to present the results that the project has obtained over the last few years, such as the COCOREADO Ambassadorship, the Food System Innovator Toolkit and successful initiatives to replicate innovative food short supply chains, among others.
A total of 70 people participated in a hybrid event, organized by the European Council of Young Farmers (CEJA) in Herman Teirlinck Building. One of the most interesting and important aspects of COCOREADO is its focus on youth, this is why a large part of the audience were young farmers, COCOREADO Ambassadors, and youth movements with a strong interest in coming up with solutions to strengthen the position of farmers and their link with consumers.
During the event, participants had the chance to get to know more about good practices on novel and fair food systems and public procurement and listen to a panel discussion about which challenges to address to rebalance the position not only of the farmer but also of the consumer. After a networking lunch, two parallel sessions were organized, one where they created an EU Food System Simulation, and the other about Communication skills in the agri-food sector.
Get to know more about COCOREADO
COCOREADO, which is inspired by the Esperanto for co-creation, is a project designed to rebalance the position of the farmer as an individual actor, as a key player in innovative food supply chains, and as a supplier for public procurement. Based on the multi-actor approach and a deep understanding of Agricultural Knowledge and Innovation Systems (AKIS), the project applies a three-fold approach to maximise impact, relying on ambassadorship, good practices, and a focus on youth.
The project has involved both academic and farming community partners across Europe, recognising regional differences and barriers (in terms of replicability of good practices) and regional opportunities (in terms of solutions). A substantial part of the project has been building and maintaining the COCOREADO Ambassador Network of 40 young people passionate about food and agriculture, who are willing to facilitate sustainable changes in food systems.
For more information, follow the project on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram or visit the website www.cocoreado.eu where you will find all the project results.