By Peter Volz, European CSA Research Group and Agronauten Photo Courtesy: Sara Meissner The Thessaloniki International, European and Mediterranean CSA meeting in November 2018 featured
In 2019, the role of our Urgenci Community Supported Agriculture network will be key. Our collective efforts to build greater social, environmental and economic justice – with an obvious focus on food justice – means that every project, every collective action must clearly aim to create genuinely sustainable local food systems.
At a time when the CSA movement globally is working to gain greater recognition by policy makers, it comes a jaw-dropping and agreeable surprise to discover the extent to which CSA in China has gained legal status and is perceived as a genuine part of the way forward by all three levels of government in China (local, provincial and national).
The 10th anniversary celebrations of the Chinese network marked this achievement in many noteworthy ways.
Over 300 URGENCI International Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) network delegates representing over 2 million members from all over the world have just spent three days gathered in Thessaloniki (Greece) for the 7th Urgenci International CSA network meeting, as well as the 4th European gathering and the 2nd Mediterranean Network meeting.
Launching today in Thessaloniki of Community Supported Agriculture Beyond Borders, a three- day conference on CSA bringing together Urgenci’s 7th International symposium, the 4th European Meeting and 2nd Meeting of the Mediterranean network.
Our 4th episode of #CSABeyondBorders is leading us to Palestine. The agronomist and agroecological farmer Saad Dagher is telling the story of his group, one of the first ones in the Middle East.
URGENCI has been able to organize a permanent working strand, aiming at developing modular training activities around the Mediterranean Sea Basin. Two “common training frame editing workshops” have been organized. The first one was held in Rabat, Morocco, in June 2018. The second one is scheduled to start on the 30th of October 2018 in Algiers, Algeria, and to last until the 2nd of November 2018.
A few weeks prior to the 7th Urgenci International Symposium (https://thessaloniki.urgenci.net), Urgenci is launching a #CSABeyondBorders series. Articles and essays written by CSA farmers and members,
Urgenci and 6 partners from 5 different countries in Europe are launching a detailed questionnaire on CSA and cultivated biodiversity
Awareness rising events will take place across Europe, culminating in the main Action Days on October 27-28th.
