The Feeding Ourselves 2024 collection brought together a wide diversity of people and topics over four days in the Irish Midlands. From political research and in-depth listening, tactile workshops and bridge building, the four days were a full spectrum of delights. Here we summarize Friday, a delight of local food economies for activists, facilitators, and organizers in this field. So what do you want to do and what can you do to integrate and magnify local agroecological food sources across communities, for communities?Oliver Moore reports.
Feeding Ourselves Friday 2024 focused on the theme of food hubs, climate action, and local food economies. Participants focused on potential pathways to network resilience through cooperative approaches to short supply chains, listening to practitioners in the field, whether in Ireland and abroad.
The day got off to a good start with the arrival of the Climate Action and Local Food Project, which developed resources to help communities identify their own networked food distribution centers. *
The toolkit includes data on the other Food Hub models, how to get started, and teams to help expand food hubs in your community, as well as inspiring case studies from some hubs already operating across the country. You can get it by contacting lovelocal. @openfoodnetwork. ie and it will soon be available on the Open Food Network Ireland website.
In this opening session, reference was made to “activating the ordinary” (Noreen Byrne of the UCC Center for Cooperative Studies). In other words, where do you stand now?What do you do and what can you do for the wishes of your community?Credit co-operatives were cited as an example, while reference was made to the early Gaelic Revival era in preparation for independence, when dairy co-operatives emerged after the Land Acts.
Maarten Klop, responsible for several projects in and around Utrecht (Netherlands), including Grounded (festivals) and Amped (regenerative agriculture) (and EU4Advice), cited his participation in festivals as a wonderful way for other people to think and live sustainably, through an inspirational program, activate, co-create a loop. The Dutchman also referred to the collaboration as a way to adapt the next big supermarket; digitally driven network effectiveness (combining shopping lists of goods and wants), upstream sourcing networks to take advantage of further expansion (the sun of attention and the rain of money), and the importance of peer-to-peer learning in agroecological circles. .
Evonne of the Open Food Network (OFN) that food hubs are not just surplus distribution centers or purely advertising companies. Community Food Centers are centers of expertise and advocacy for the local food system.
Some non-unusual features:
The Lessons from the Field panel brought together several Food Hub professionals to describe their desires to make their businesses more viable: Imelda Mullen (Local Green Box Cavan), John Brennan (Drumshanbo Food Hub), Evonne Boland (Local Market Hub). Newbridge) and Janet Power (Talamh Beo).
The inspiring stories provided insight into the demanding situations of operating on low margins in a labor-intensive project, in the nonprofit sector that struggles to be valued and earn from labor costs.
Added to this are the demanding situations of the emerging burden of life and the general lack of understanding of the importance of local food and food sovereignty in general. Agencies on the floor don’t see food centers as answers to a challenge and would possibly be slow to do so. to provide appropriate support.
While Teagasc, Bord Bia or others directly involved in agribusiness don’t say much, there is at least some groundswell of information. Moreover, those rumors show a way forward for policymakers.
Talamh Beo’s Local Food Policy Framework sets out a diversity of ideas, desires and supports to activate and encourage local food resilience, interacting with food hubs as the next point for farmers and producers to add value.
The framework includes institutional popularity for local food producers, with parameters explained about what constitutes local sourcing; source of income to enhance the local food source through an equivalent investment of up to €15,000; applicable monetary categorization for loans, VAT and insurance; measures to activate and retain the workforce and, in spite of everything, an improvement in land rights and regulations.
It should be noted that Talamh Beo’s proposals come with “the status quo of networked feeding centers served through a local food facilitator. “The hubs would be represented through local manufacturers at the organizational point and would lead the organization of public procurement, the progression of local markets, and much more, all as a component of a networked wealth creation strategy.
The next panel consisting of Joanne Butler (Donegal LDC), Jo da Silva (OFN UK), Cynthia Masina (MASI) and Evonne Boland (OFN Ireland) came together to talk about the food equality factor and local food.
The Donegal Food Response Network, which includes 17 food banks across the county, has taken steps to improve the quality of food distributed by participating in the Food Cloud Growers project. This pilot project, which recently ended, reduced packaging waste and delivered approximately 60 tons. to county food banks. It is vital to note that local manufacturers were the suppliers of this project.
Demanding logistical situations have provided valuable learning opportunities and the purpose of the network now is to expand a network farm and grow projects for food banks locally.
OFN UK’s Jo painted a picture of a network backlash that also seeks to move away from the food surplus model. The recent Resilient Green Spaces project, supported through the Welsh Government, addressed six other facets of smart nutrition development: gardens; food centers; networked orchards; greener corridors; network to farms and land; and horticultural skills.
Five new network hubs have been established, helping to expand new avenues of market for manufacturers and a number of network culture spaces.
The truth of Ireland’s direct sourcing formula came under the microscope when Cynthia explained the style of eating, which can range from self-service with some limitations to full-fledged catering. There is a wide diversity of qualities within the formula and problems such as reported limited meal times, lack of attention to nutritional needs, limited access to cooking facilities, and poor quality of food in downtown “shops. “
Community Food Centers can provide more holistic responses to demanding situations of food inequality while also acting as places of integration and team spirit for places that welcome new members of the network and face the demanding situations of far-right message development and activities.
After lunch, two simultaneous workshops in the afternoon on the topics “Digital Solutions for Sustainable Food Systems”, with CODECS and “Mapping Ireland’s Local Food Ecosystem” with the EU4Advice team.
The virtualization workshop included an introduction to the OFN platform and the Hubs model, followed by in-depth research and discussion on blockers and enablers of virtual responses in the sector.
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Barriers ranged from lack of skills and apprehensions about digitalization to understanding the investment and other supports that professionals needed to provide.
Well-known facilitators included effective and appropriate tools, such as the OFN, and relevant face-to-face training, especially for those who have not yet embraced the virtual world. The OFN team has called for more collaborators to carry out the assignment. remains operational in Ireland and grows to its full potential.
Organised through the EU4Advice project, the second workshop aimed to explore and map Ireland’s local food ecosystem. This is a valuable opportunity for participants to collaborate, share concepts, and contribute to an understanding of the actors and collaborations that drive local food systems in Ireland.
Discussions here have focused on the effectiveness of collaboration when interacting with policymakers, the desire to integrate local food chains (with the same fondness we have for local GAA clubs!), and the popularity of farmers as biodiversity advocates once reliable data is available.
Talamh Beo’s local food policy framework and Feeding Ourselves community of practice provide opportunities for Cultivate’s Living Lab to develop.
The final panel of the day brought together some “emerging voices from the field,” as we heard from Beth Bell (Food Ethics Council) and Lee Robb (Carrick Greengrocers), from Northern Ireland, John Brennan (Drumshanbo Food Hub), and Maarten Klop. (Operation Food Freedom Utrecht).
Attendees heard about the importance of food citizenship and the challenge of referring to other people as consumers when it comes to food. The examples of The Larder in Belfast and Grenfell Community Kitchen in London illustrate the price of a more holistic reaction to demanding situations. of food inequality, playing a more proactive role in local food supply and in the means of production themselves.
The lesson from the Netherlands is that others want food freedom and this can only be achieved by working intensively with farmers.
Carrick Greengrocer’s story in Carrickfergus is another example where a shared network that was offered in the summer of 2023 raised over £34,000 and allowed locals to open their own greengrocer in the city, something High St lacked for 15 years. The initiative continues to go from strength to strength and is a wonderful example of what the network is doing on its own. ” No one is coming to save us,” as Lee put it, and the overarching message of this consultation was that replacement comes from grassroots movements, building new models rather than fighting existing ones or seeking to replace them.
RESOURCES AND EXPERTISE exist at the grassroots level and in the community. We can find out about the examples from Ireland and elsewhere.
COMMUNITY APPROACHES: These are essential, but “community” means low or no pay, so how can we make sure these paintings are valued?Volunteering is important, but it has its limits (e. g. , burnout).
FOOD ACCESS: This network is inclusive and smart, quality local food will be available to all. Pathways to achieve this include:
OWNERSHIP is key. We want governance spaces, infrastructure, food hubs, virtual platforms owned and operated through the community. Access to land seems to be important, and it is now being added in Ireland.
TRUST – Distrust is growing, not only among the population towards the industry, but also among farmers: not all farmers think the same. Distrust has risen in part because the cost-of-living crisis was not a crisis for big industry, which also boosted profits during Covid. Therefore, the answers do not belong to those who have been in the rate so far. Local, cooperative and community-based approaches can offer an option that citizens can trust.
CHOICE – in fact, this doesn’t exist in many places, supermarkets are just one way to buy food – so we can offer an alternative.
LANGUAGE – in the context of all this, and as Slow Food and many others have argued, it is about moving from the language of the customer to other concepts such as co-producer, food citizen or the like. **
**It should be noted that citizenship is used here as a concept that deduces rights and responsibilities, but is not similar to nationality. It’s all diners who deserve political rights, even if they’ve been denied them lately.
*The collaborative project, supported through the Ministry of Environment, Climate and Communications under the Community Climate Action Fund (stream 2), is led through Sonairte, with Open Food Network and Cloughjordan Community Farm. The Community Food Hub’s toolkit of resources and case studies presented at the conclusion of the day’s activities.
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Dr. Oliver Moore is the Director of Communications and Editor-in-Chief of ARC2020. She holds a PhD in sociology of agriculture and food, where she specializes in biological and direct selling. It is published in the International Journal of Consumer Studies, the International Journal of Agricultural Resources, Governance and Ecology and the Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems and Community Development. A weekly columnist and contributor to the Irish Examiner, he is a regular on Countrywide (an Irish agricultural radio programme on the national channel RTE 1) and is concerned with other communication frameworks around agri-food and rural issues, such as soil, permaculture and climate. Crecer Observatory of the Adapt to Change Initiative and Citizen Science. He teaches part-time at the UCC Center for Cooperative Studies.
This interior of the ecovillage is a third painting stand that also houses painters from the Cultivate and Ecolise associations, as well as a production laboratory (“fab lab”).
Oliver is a member of the board of directors of Network Farm (at the moment!) and also teaches courses in the MSc in Cooperatives, Agribusiness and Sustainable Development at University College Cork. She has a background in rural sociology: her PhD and the articles she publishes. in clinical journals about this box in the broadest sense.
He dedicates most of his time to the 2020 CRA. It has been running with the ARC since 2013, when Ireland held the EU presidency for six months. It was there that he was able to see the importance of the agri-food and rural sectors. through his weekly column on ARC’s website. After six months, he was named editor-in-chief and head of communications, a position he still holds today. Oliver oversees the online page and social media content, is helping to set the direction of the organization, and even writes an article for the online page.
At a time when other people were traveling more, he was fortunate enough to spend time in the tropics, where he helped Irish trade fair industry NGOs (in Ghana, Kenya, Mali, India and El Salvador) tell their stories.
Those days would possibly return. For his part, Oliver still prefers to sail in Europe by boat and then by train. After all, France is only an afternoon away from sailing. In the meantime, there are still plenty of opportunities for networking in the countryside of central Ireland. .
Seven Things I Learned at Feeding Ourselves 2024
What kinds can we learn from the brave parakeet? How will we navigate this beautiful world next year?From Seeds4All to Soup and Talk, from rural action to diversified diversification, the ARC has a plan. Come and participate. [. . . ]
As the pandemic collides with inequality and ecological emergencies, new approaches are emerging to build resilient local food economies. Innovative communities are experimenting with tactics to shorten, broaden, and democratize chains of origin. ARC2020, Cultivate and Forum Synergies have combined to host a webinar bringing together pioneering network projects operating at the regional level, with the aim of encouraging the replication, scale-up and mainstreaming of those approaches. [. . . ]
Last week, the European Parliament called on member states to strengthen the enforcement of existing regulations on livestock transport coverage. MEPs urge member states to step up spot checks, use tracking generation to monitor compliance, and impose tougher consequences on violators. Transport times deserve to be reduced, but it is preferable to phase out exports of live animals in favour of local slaughter. And when animals are transported to third countries, EU criteria will have to be applied. [. . . ]
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