Call for papers!
Local food systems, local food policies and public procurement of food and catering: When is local (more) sustainable? From 26-27 September 2023, Oslo Metropolitan University (Norway) holds a conference on public procurement and local food systems. Sustainable public procurement of food...
Barriers for small-scale farmers in public food procurement
Last week took place the training “Smart innovation for small-scale producers accessing the market”, a two-day programme which brought together experts, procurement officers, and small-scale farmers. The first day of the training offered a variety of lectures, focused on how...
COCOREADO at Deep Tech Atelier
On April 20th, our partner Mikelis Grivins from BSC, presented COCOREADO in one of the largest regional innovation forums in Baltics: Deep Tech Atelier. The session was called “Enabling enthusiasts to become ambassadors of your research”. Achieving the impact of...
Seed initiative – KALASKA
NAME: KALASKA INITIATOR: Nerea Viana LOCATION: Spain SUMMARY: This is an initiative that seeks to unite meat production with local consumption through a cooperative of farmers that produces, transforms and sells directly to the consumer. They will also collectively manage...
Training event: Smart innovation for small-scale producers accessing the market
On the 18th and 19th of April is going to take place the training called “Smart innovation for small-scale producers accessing the market”. This training event is a two-day programme which will focus on how to open up tenders for...
Seed initiative – FOODHUB
NAME: FOODHUB INITIATOR: Bledar Meta LOCATION: Albania SUMMARY: We want to create a food hub in which farmers will receive various services such as standardization and control of their products. This will increase food security for consumers, packaging and labelling...
Discover the sustainability cookbook
The aim of the last study session ‘Feed it Forward’, organised by Rural Youth Europe in conjunction with The European Council of Young Farmers (CEJA), was through understanding food as a human right in terms of availability, access, health and...
Training events on public food procurement
We would like to share with you an important update: the public food procurement training events on the 22nd and 23rd of March! They are co-organised by ICLEI, Copenhagen, Access to Land, WWF Sweden and IFOAM EU jointly in the framework...
Seed Initiative – FOODSCHOOL
https://youtu.be/VauxbHXr1vo NAME: FOODSCHOOLINITIATOR: Domen VirantLOCATION: SloveniaSUMMARY: More and more citizens lack knowledge about food production, farmer lives, living with nature, livestock etc. The easiest way for spreading knowledge is through the school system. But for farmers, they are very important also...
COCOREADO at the Entrecompfood final conference in Brussels
Lisa Van den Bossche attended the EntrecompFood closing conference in January where she learned about their approach to stimulate entrepreneurship and shared the learnings from our COCOREADO Ambassador trainings. Entrecomp Food aims to increase the entrepreneurial competencies of young people...
Seed Initiative – FARMERS ARE OUR TEACHERS
NAME: Farmers are our teachers INITIATOR: Aitor Azkarate LOCATION: Spain SUMMARY: Today’s pupils do not know where the food they eat comes from, how it is obtained or produced. Children, especially those in primary education (6-12 years old), should have...
Farming in Flanders: Does size matter?
University Press Leuven kicked off the year with the publication of a book on the future of farming in Flanders. As all across Europe and beyond Europe’s borders, there are lively debates in Flanders on how to move towards more...
Exploring Synergies and Exchanging Experiences in Valencia
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...
2022 EU Agricultural Outlook Conference: ‘A sustainable agri-food system forged in crises’
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...
Evaluation of public procurement cases
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...
Seminar “Biocultural Heritage and Sustainable Business Models” by Vincenza Ferrara
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...
Sister projects second webinar
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...
Ambassadors’ voice! Bio.Giardino – fresh Italian organic extra-virgin olive oil
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...
Book published! “Present knowledge in food safety – A risk-based approach through the food chain”
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...
Ambassadors’ voice! Daniel Long at the Savour Kilkenny food festival
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...
New podcast about the second training held in Pamplona
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...
Towards an inclusive chickpea sector in Europe?
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...
Want to join the Rural Youth Europe team and work for COCOREADO?
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...
Food security: a global challenge, a local concern
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...
Second training organized by INTIA in Pamplona, Spain
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...
The second training for Ambassadors is about to come!
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...
Fruta Feia – “Ugly Fruit”
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...
European ambassadors striving to change food systems
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...
Digital Workshop on Policy Recommendations for a Sustainable Agri-food Sector
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...
Task accomplished! Gathered 97 innovative initiatives across Europe
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,...
Food system bottleneck
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...
Podcast on the first training held in Brussels
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....
Better policies for Urban Farming
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...
Debate on the Future of European Agriculture
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...
CELSA visit to Slovenia
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...
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...