News

On the 30th of November and 1st of December, Tessa Avermaete (KU Leuven, project manager COCOREADO and RUSTICA) and Dioni Ortiz (project coordinator Visionary) met at the Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV). They had been working together in the European...

Last December, our coordinator Erik Mathijs participated in a session called “Transitioning to a more sustainable food system”, within the framework of the EU Agricultural Outlook conference, the flagship annual event for broad exchanges among stakeholders on market prospects in...

A milestone for the work on public procurement of food in the COCOREADO project was the assessment of sustainability in selected public procurement cases, which we completed this August. The cases were assessed based on four basic criteria: i) Division...

On Monday the 21st of November, the seminar “Biocultural Heritage and Sustainable Business Models” by Vincenza Ferrara was held at Hollands College in Leuven. A room that recalls times long past, in which religion and ethics were discussed – priests...

COCOREADO has participated in the 2nd Joint Webinar with agroBRIDGES, COACH and SISTERS Projects on November 24th. More than 60 participants from the projects’ teams gathered to exchange insights and experiences about the methodologies, tools and approaches each project employs...

Bio.Giardino is a practical example of “passion” and “hard work” to connect the farmers to end users. We deliver the true taste of fresh Italian organic extra-virgin olive oil to those who appreciate a healthy lifestyle and care about the...

After a long process, the book “Present knowledge in food safety – A risk-based approach through the food chain” has been finally published! Our coordinator, Tessa Avermaete, together with Wannes Keulemans, Olivier Honnay, Gerard Govers, Barbara De Coninck and Tjitske...

During the last days of October, from the 28th until the 30th, it took place the Savour Kilkenny food festival in Ireland. This festival celebrates the produce, food and culture of Kilkenny and the surrounding rich pasturelands. Our Ambassador, Daniel...

We are in Pamplona for the second COCOREADO ambassador training! In this episode, we focus on some of the seed initiatives that are being co-created by the ambassadors. They aim to rebalance the position of the farmer within the food...

Chickpea production in fairly new in Flemish agriculture. However, there is a lot of potential in this sector. Not only are there value-addition opportunities in the additional processing sectors such as drying, cleaning and packaging, but cultivating chickpeas also offers...

Our partner Rural Youth Europe is recruiting a new part time project manager to join their motivated team. Work can be done remotely and does not necessarily require daily commuting to the office. Rural Youth Europe is a European Non-Governmental...

Both the corona pandemic and the current war in Ukraine have revived the debate on food security and the vulnerability of the food system. The food debate concerns everyone, as we all make food choices several times a day. There...

Jon Bienzobas and Paola Eguinoa, INTIA technicians, highlight the enriching knowledge and experience they have acquired during these days from the more than 50 people coming from a dozen countries, belonging to different European entities that have visited Navarra this...

On October 10, 11 and 12, Pamplona, located in northern Spain, will host the second training session for the 40 project ambassadors from different parts of Europe. Throughout these days, the participants will carry out various activities around different topic...

Problem encountered and objective The Fruta Feia initiative arises from the need to reverse the trends of standardisation of fruit and vegetables that have nothing to do with food safety and quality issues. This initiative aims to combat market inefficiency...

Problem encountered and objective To introduce a permanent change in the way how food reaches our tables and how farmers are positioned in the food supply chain, one must engage simultaneously with social structures, values, practices, and other elements these...

Ploutos project -related to COCOREADO- invites you to a Digital Workshop on Policy Recommendations for a Sustainable Agri-food Sector that will take place from 10:00 till 12:00 CEST on 23th of September via Webex. The Ploutos team is looking forward...

One of the main tasks the project had to accomplish in the first year of its implementation was to collect between 60-100 innovative initiatives across Europe. The innovative initiatives that we looked for had to illustrate a mutually beneficial cooperation,...

One aspect of the COCOREADO project is advancing sustainable public procurement and ensuring that small-scale farmers play a central role. Small-scale farmers are innovative and often base their production on more sustainable practices, such as regenerative and organic farming, but...

The summer holidays are already at an end and the second COCOREADO Training is coming up! Today we would like to look back at the podcast that our partner Rural Youth Europe prepared about the 1st training celebrated in Brussels....

The European Forum on Urban Agriculture (EFUA) organized on the 21st of June 2022 a policy talk in Brussels on better policies for urban farming. Experts with very diverse backgrounds reflected on bottlenecks and opportunities in current policies. An intense...

Food and farming have become popular topics for debates and events. That’s an evolution we should embrace. Food is so much more than a basic need. Food determines to a large extent our wellbeing and it has a high cultural...

All across Europe, farmers seek ways to enhance their position. The SFERE group invests in related research and in the dialogue across researchers, farmers and stakeholders. Such dialogue also includes cross visits. Mid May, Belgian and Slovene experts meat each...

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“....

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...

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 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...

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...

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...

  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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

  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...

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...

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...

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’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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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,...

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...

  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...

  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...