COCOREADO at JCI European Conference
Is there a future for agriculture in Europe and how should this future look like? From June 8th to June 11th, 2022 is taking place the JCI European Conference in Bruges and this year the motto is “Food For Generations“....
First training in Brussels learning about good practices
The first training for the 40 COCOREADO Ambassadors network was held in Brussels on the 28th of March. During these days, the selected participants received several sessions and workshops based on different fundamental topics of the project. These people passionate...
Let’s see the power of food!
If we want to shift food behaviours, we need to understand what drives them. Food behaviour is driven in many ways by economics. So let us follow the money. Any analysis of the profits in the food systems will tell...
Public procurement as a driver for transforming the European food system
Public expenditure on goods, services and works constitute approximately 14% of the EU GDP accounting for 1.8 trillion € annually. Total expenditure on food and catering services in EU is 206 billion €. The sector includes 1.5 million enterprises, has...
Connecting consumers and producers… Let’s start in the classroom!
There is a gap between food consumers and food producers, between citizens and farmers. The transition towards a novel, fair and more sustainable food system implies a repositioning of the farmer in the food chain. But who is the man...
The importance of valuing local initiatives
Nowadays, more and more focus has been put on short food chains that value the position of the farmer, as well as bridge the connection between consumers and producers. This is the aim of the COCOREADO project, but also of...
Direct selling as an opportunity to improve the position of farmers in the value chain
Several reports and regulations recognize the interest of direct sales and short channels as a tool for improving the position of the farmer in the value chain, as well as for accessing to local and more sustainable food by...
Working on advancing sustainable public procurement of food
In November 2021, the COCOREADO WP4 team focusing on advancing sustainable public procurement met in Copenhagen to align and discuss tasks. Task leaders presented their work with existing examples of tender requirements for sustainable procurement, inclusion of sustainability criteria within...
Welcoming our ambassadors
We welcome you as ambassadors to the COCOREADO family. The COCOREADO project “Connecting producers and consumers to rebalance farmers’ position through ambassadors training” is aimed to make our food chains fairer and more sustainable through supporting the ambassadors. Who are...
The Ambassador selection
A very exciting milestone was reached in the COCOREADO project last week. After almost a whole year of work and planning, the COCOREADO selection team met together in Helsinki to choose our ambassadors. These are the young people who will...
High school students collaborate with local food producers to help Covid -19 front line medics
During the peak of the Covid pandemic in Bulgaria, students from the Vocational school of tourism and construction in a small mountain town in Bulgaria joined forces with local food producers to provide hot meals to front line medics. The...
Time to team up!
Did you know that less than 10% of the European farms are run by farmers under the 35 years old? And according to EU statistics, only Austria, Poland and Slovakia are doing better than the EU average. Did you also...
Presenting our youth organisations: Rural Youth Europe
Rural Youth Europe is a European Non-Governmental Organisation for rural youth. We were established in 1957 and function as an umbrella organisation working as an intermediary between national organisations, youth organisations and public institutions on a European level. Rural Youth...
Presenting our youth organisations: MIJARC Europe
MIJARC Europe- International Movement of Catholic Agricultural and Rural Youth – Europe is a non-profit, non-governmental youth led organization gained its independance from MIJARC World in 1996. MIJARC Europe represents the interest of fourteen member organizations, acting at the European...
Presenting our youth organisations: CEJA
COCOREADO is not a project about young people, but we co-create with young people. This makes the project more powerful. In the consortium, we have representatives of the youth umbrella organizations. One of them is CEJA, that represents national organizations...
Bundling forces across projects to develop an online course on business models in farming
KU Leuven, ILVO, Rikolto, Odissee Hogeschool and the Fachhochschule Südwestfalen bundle their forces in the development of a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) on Business Models for Sustainable Farming. With this initiative, they also provide output that is highly relevant...
Who will transform our food system?
Food systems need to change. There are just too many issues associated with current arrangements structuring our food supply. Most of the people who are reading blog entries like this are well aware of these problems and thus there...
Artificial Intelligence for managing sustainable food systems
Agronomy is actively upgrading the classical research approach of the slow but reliable acquisition of new knowledge (problem, hypothesis, method, data). In addition, it is obliged to meet the objectives of several sustainable development goals and must provide a wide...
New network of pan-European ambassadors to change food systems
On the 14th of September 2021, EU Horizon project COCOREADO celebrated the launch of a pan-European ambassadors’ network. The project has opened a call to select individuals passionate about food and agriculture who would bring forward the project’s ambition of...
Call for Ambassadors launch event
COCOREADO is pleased to invite you to the official launch of its Call for Ambassadors! The event takes place on Tuesday 14th of September in the presence of potential local ambassadors and all consortium partners among which CEJA, MIJARC and...
MIJARC Europe & the Agriculture
MIJARC’s main topic of work for the year 2020 was youth participation to agriculture. Despite the difficulties associated with Covid-19 situation, we were able to implement local visits in 6 European countries, that enabled our young participants to identify priorities...
The city by the sea: an undiscovered treasure
Ostend is the largest coastal city in Belgium with 71 332 inhabitants, well-known by Belgians and often crowded by tourists on sunny days. What most of them don’t know, even the people of Ostend, is the 35 ha polder landscape...
A long-term vision for the EU’s rural areas!
The Horizon 2020 project COCOREADO has a strong focus on rural areas. With the primary aim to rebalance the position of the farmer in the food supply chain, the project wants to foster the economic development and entrepreneurial innovation in...
Working together to change food systems
To quote the COCOREADO’s project proposal: COCOREADO aims to rebalance the position of the farmer in food supply chains. In other words – COCOREADO is working to change food supply chains. Probably everybody working with food systems will agree that...
Replicating good practices in local context: mission possible
A new initiative, created with care for the healthy nutrition of the youngest, was recently launched in a small municipality in Bulgaria. This is the first municipal organic farm in Bulgaria, located in the city of Troyan. Its main goal...
How can we bridge the gap between different rural realities in Europe?
COCOREADO is a project under Horizon 2020 that aims to bring balance to the food chain, giving more relevance to farmers. The project applies a three-fold approach to maximize impact, relying on ambassadorship, good practices, and a focus on youth,...
Bringing H2020 to the classroom
Our research group SFERE – sustainable food economies research – is actively involved in European projects dealing with food and farming. In line with the vision of the agricultural European Innovation Partnership (EIP-AGRI), European consortia bundle academic and non-academic expertise...
Rebalancing the farmer’s position by bringing in business risk management practices
The COCOREADO project is designed to rebalance the position of the farmer. Although COCOREADO has just recently started, the objective has been a common denominator of the national and regional food supply chain related projects of LUT University Supply...
Successful Kick-off of the COCOREADO project
The COCOREADO project was launched during an online kick-off meeting on January 11th 2021 gathering the 13 consortium partners representing 9 different countries. The project will run till June 2024. Erik Mathijs and Tessa Avermaete (KULeuven), coordinators of the...