The Sustainable Development Festival, promoted by ASVIS (Italian Alliance for Sustainable Development, https://asvis.it/ ), took place throughout Italy from 22 September to 8 October 2020. The webinar “Integrated educational approach to the sustainable canteen: a pilot project of the Lazio Mare Centro FLAG in collaboration with Albert Sas”, held on 7 October, was part of the Festival. The event focused on some good practices for introducing fresh local fish to school canteens.
"The sea in a room" is the project presented by the Flag Lazio Mare Centro (Fisheries Local Action Group, https://www.flaglaziomarecentro.it/ ), an organization promoted by the Lazio Region, the Mipaaf (Ministry of Agricultural, Food and Forestry Policies) and the EU, which has introduced fresh local fish in school canteens, replacing imported frozen fish, whilst implementing food education initiatives at the same time. The good practice encourages healthy eating and enhances the sea, its products and the maritime tradition. Albert Sas, co-organizer of the webinar (https://www.alberts.it/ ), is an organization that supports public and private institutions in the sectors of sustainable food and consumer education, offering advice to improve the agri-food and fish system on a regional, national and international scale.
What role did RU: RBAN play in this webinar? Claudio Bordi, project lead partner, highlighted the issues of food education, healthy nutrition, food safety and its links with agricultural areas as key points in the transformation of the food system. One of the ways to implement this transformation will be tested through innovative Living Labs. The test will be implemented through the FUSILLI project (Fostering the Urban food System transformation through Innovative Living Labs Implementation), which will be launched on January 1, 2021, taking as starting point also the experience and know-how of the RU: RBAN partnership. 12 European cities, 10 research centers, associations, cooperatives, NGOs and stakeholders in a network of knowledge sharing and learning that aims at facing in a more resilient manner the challenges of the food system transformation: from how food is produced to how it is processed, packaged, transported, marketed, consumed and recycled.
In addition, the webinar was also an opportunity to present the EFUA project (European Forum on Urban Agriculture), launched last November 1st. EFUA aims to unlock Urban Agriculture's potential by achieving better knowledge, better deployment and better policies in this field. The project involves the creation of a platform of urban and peri-urban agriculture practices in place in the EU to develop a new form of stakeholder engagement to better inform decision-making and turn Urban Agriculture into a European, regional and local policy domain. A key element of EFUA will be the experience of the RU: RBAN partnership, which will be actively involved in the implementation of the project.
The synergy between the three projects, RU: RBAN-EFUA-FUSILLI, towards common goals: planning an urban food policy, contributing to the fight against food insecurity, building a culture of healthy food, making urban food systems more resilient , strengthen the positive connections between food and the environment also through the multifunctionality of urban and peri-urban agriculture.
