Networks and cities' news

Getting to know each other: our City Visits

Between August and September, The Lead Partner's Team had the chance to visit the BioCanteens #2 Partners in their cities: Evora (PT), Wroclaw (PO), Gavà (ES), and Liège (BE). City Visits allowed us to get a bite of the reality of the territory, the political implication, the production and consumption patterns, and the functioning of the school procurement system. Most importantly, it gave us the chance to establish a relationship to perpetuate our fruitful collaboration for the next months.

With the following paragraphs, we want you to be part of our journey: sharing observations, places, and initiatives.

Tiny Practical Steps for change: TransNational Meeting in Wroclaw, Poland

The 2nd Meeting of the BioCanteens#2 Transfer Network took place in Wroclaw, from the 22nd  to the 25th of November, under the theme "Micro Good Practices". The meeting gathered the four project staff of the four Cities (Mouans-Sartoux, Liège, Gavà and Wroclaw),  their respective kitchen staff, and local stakeholders.

Why should we all eat organic?

Why should we all consume more organic products? Together with the French researcher and expert Denis Lairon, we have discussed the main benefits of organic on human health as well as its impact on climate and environment 

Mouans-Sartoux and its Food Project - Interview to Gilles Perole

"Every region, every city, every department, every household should be able to define its own food sovereignty." (Gilles Perole, Deputy Mayor of Mouans Sartoux)

How BioCanteens accelerated local food initiatives in Liège? 

The particularity of the Transfer of Good Practices, promoted in the URBACT Transfer Networks, is that they play a different role depending on the Partner City. In some cases, it kicks starts a transformation process and helps  set the basis of a resilient project. In other cases, it is an accelerator of a local dynamic with a long history behind it. This is the case of Liège, the civil society and political panorama was already shaping a food policy framework at the local level. "BioCanteens#2 arrived at the perfect moment for us, because we were ready to quickly learn and react to innovation", says the Coordinator of BioCanteens#2 from the City of Liège. 

We all have a good reason to distrust organic certification!

The visits to the 4 initial BioCanteens partner cities revealed different forms of reluctance towards organic certification... which is a bit strange for cities that have just embarked on a process of transferring a Good Practice whose main issue is to to emphasise local and organic food! Beyond this apparent contradiction, local actors are faced with critical difficulties. We take them seriously and have produced two sets of facilitation cards: one entitled "We all have a good reason to distrust organic certification", which brings together all the possible counter-arguments heard in the BioCanteens cities and other network partners.

And a second set of cards entitled "Everything we know about certification that we don't want to see!" providing all the knowledge and arguments that we have been able to gather to to combat stakeholders' distrust of certification. From webinars organised by BioCanteens #2 with 2 leading experts experts in the field, Denis Lairon, Director of Research at INSERN in biochemistry and nutrition and Lise Pujos from Ecocert for the certification process and an active teaching exercise with the students of students of the University Diploma in Sustainable Food Project Management from the University of Nice-Côte d'Azur have enabled to enrich and consolidate the two sets of cards.

Ready to challenge your colleagues and friends on beliefs and fears about organic food?