Citizens & Communities for European Right to quality and local Food

ongoing

Agriculture, thanks to globalization, access to global free markets and improvement of industrial processes has become a profitable economic sector that often favours large-scale production and import and export of products on a worldwide scale. Unfortunately, the massive industrialization process that agriculture faced in the last century put food production in the spot of being one of the biggest contributors to environmental pollution and sustainability challenges, in Europe and at a global scale. There is now a need for a transition of the food system towards more sustainable production models. This transition is achievable through effective governance across policy sectors and active participation of citizens, farmers and other stakeholders as cogwheels of products’ life cycle. The willingness and ability of people, from farmers to consumers, to adjust everyday practices and habits to the new needs is crucial, since it’s through daily consumption and production choices that individuals can adopt a steering role function and, thus, make the difference. Alongside this behavioural change there is a need for local administrations and policy makers to act with policies that are up to the challenge. Our project aims to be a driver to a more conscious and empowering food consumption, while assuring the programme objective through active participation of citizens as consumers, by encouraging the consumption of local and sustainable food, and thus the shaping of a more conscious and fair food market, which can support local farmers who make use of environmentally friendly practices and fair treatment of their workers. This will contribute to strengthening food security and food democracy in the EU. This goal will be reached through the organisation of 5 events in Italy, Croatia, The Netherlands, Denmark and Poland able to actively involve citizens and local farmers in immersive and interactive activities carried out in symbolic places like local farmers markets.