EduAction Towards the CReation of Alternative Food neTworks

The idea of a joint project on Participatory Guarantee Systems and Community-Supported Agriculture was first coined in Beijing, in November 2015 at the Urgenci 6th symposium. We had had previous talks about working together with IFOAM (the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements) on this issue.

PGS is not only an innovation in certification; it is essentially a powerful pedagogical tool. PGS allows for interactive learning and expands the horizon including various stakeholders of the food chain in the process: producers, consumers, retailers, traders and others, such as NGOs. PGS as well as CSA build long-term trust-based relationships and accelerate learning processes through a more efficient and equal access to knowledge.

EATingCRAFT is a 26-month project, co-funded by the Erasmus + European educational programme, which main objective is to develop an innovative adult learning training program with 4 modules on PGS, with a specific focus on CSA . Indeed, there are many possibilities to appropriately combine the principles of PGS to bring together the stakeholders of farming projects and the CSA approach of a close relationship between consumers and producers. This could help farmers and consumers to build on the opportunities presented by the CSA and PGS to better achieve their objectives.

A first management meeting was organised in Prague, on October 9-11, 2018 with all partners:IFOAM (coord.), Nature & Progrès (France), MIRAMAP (France), TVE (Hungary), Pro-bio-Liga (Czech Republic), AgroEcopolis (Greece) and  Urgenci.

IFOAM released an informative post on the starting of the planning of these educative and cross-fertilization activities.

A specific website will be developed during the course of the project: EATingCRAFT.