These are the planned events at the moment. Which ones do you wish to attend? Webinar: Localisation of Food - 30 October from 18:00-20:00
What is your name? Jasen Lakic
Are you part of a project or an organisation? What does the project/organisation do, and why? Well as of next year I will be back in Croatia as my main base. I will continue my work within the EU funded rural development structure there by helping the less informed or badly served locals. I just came from Croatia and a lot of people asked for help with their projects. Also, I will try implementing 2 bigger projects: one linked with education and the other with agriculture and sustainable development.
I was also approached by an association of local producers to help place their product abroad, as I have a company in Brussels too. I am thinking of starting an online shop with quality Croatian products and offering them to existing bio/organic smaller shops in Brussels.
Letās get to know each other. Which of the following topics is the most relevant to you? Sustainability in agriculture or food
Think about the topicā¦ and tell us: What is a practical problem that you have in your work/projects or personal life? The biggest problem I want to solve at the moment is: how to offer affordable quality food from local producers to LOCALS in Croatia.
Currently the system does not support something like that, driving the production cost of such goods so high that the average Croat OR BELGIAN cannot afford it.
I believe the solution is in efficiency (shared facilities/machinery) and growing smaller surface but higher yield goods in a more controlled environment. The climate change is real and farmers are seeing the direct impact of it.
Offering very affordable, quality food should be a priority because it is supposed to be a human right, not a luxury. Our health and our freedom depend on it. I believe the government implements a lot of laws which take away our freedoms, food is just step 1. Self reliance, sustainability, 0 waste, work/life balance, community cooperation through direct democracy etcā¦
How is your government helping this, or not helping? Well there are two sides to it, just like anything else. Government as an entity is influenced too much by private power (financially etc), so some decisions made are quite harmful for most of the population (like seeds standardisation laws). They argue it is for the protection of the end user but the current industrial agricultural model encouraged by seed producers is pure monopoly. It also leads both to degradation of our health and degradation of our environment, which will be most felt by our children.
The policies in place have both increased the price of food production and damaged the natural evolution of our plants, which naturally adapt to the soil and climate conditions wherever they are planted.
On the other hand, government is made of many individuals and organisations and a lot of them do work hard to help as much as they canā¦
Are you interested to co-host an event with EdgeRyders in the next months? If so, do you have ideas to engage others near you to participate? Hmmmm, canāt think of anything now and I am not sure I will have the time in the next 4 months.
It could be interesting as of March next year. If our activities align. I will be in Croatia for sure and working on agriculture and sustainability for sure.
Hi, we do more than 60 different projects in agriFood, some very big, like 35 million euro and more than 100 partners, some very small just with farmers,
It could be interesting maybe to talk about DjustConnect
Hi @dconvents, welcome on board! Can you give us an example of how the problem manifests itself in your life and how are you going about solving it?
Feel free to also read about others here and ask them questions - the more we get to know each otherās perspectives before we meet the better we can each prepare our contributions to the session.
These are the planned events at the moment. Which ones do you wish to attend? Webinar: Localisation of Food - 30 October from 18:00-20:00
What is your name? Milan Prastalo
Are you part of a project or an organisation? What does the project/organisation do, and why? I would like to start up agro tech company supported by EU Investment firms and agro tech projects focusing on innovations and sustainability growing micro herbs at controlled environment year around such as greenhouse for gastronomy and medicine, using natural resources, innovative technologies and sustainability.
Letās get to know each other. Which of the following topics is the most relevant to you? Work and employment
Think about the topicā¦ and tell us: What is a practical problem that you have in your work/projects or personal life? I am experiencing problem in rising capital for agro tech start up infrastructure and logistics, needed for investment to build greenhouse infrastructure with innovative tech solutions and logistics.
Iāve found that government and local investors are not interested in supporting start up agro tech companies which business plan is innovative and sustainable micro herbs food specifically produced for exports within EU market.
How is your government helping this, or not helping? Iāve found government not interested in innovative and sustainable agro tech investments, supporting small businesses based on innovative agro tech solutions, and sustainability of resources.
Are you interested to co-host an event with EdgeRyders in the next months? If so, do you have ideas to engage others near you to participate? I would be interested in participating EdgeRyders event next month, and willing to near me to participate.
These are the planned events at the moment. Which ones do you wish to attend? Webinar: Localisation of Food - 30 October from 18:00-20:00
What is your name? Liliana Carrillo
Are you part of a project or an organisation? What does the project/organisation do, and why? I work at the AgroFood&Tech department of the Flemish AgroFood institute ILVO (https://www.ilvo.vlaanderen.be). As an R&D Engineer, I support the data-sharing initiative called DjustConnect (https://youtu.be/GaB3jz_oGkoDjustConnect)
Letās get to know each other. Which of the following topics is the most relevant to you? Family/Work and life balance
Think about the topicā¦ and tell us: What do you see happening around you that is important for your communityās wellbeing? How is your government helping this, or not helping? My smallest community is my family. My family members have ASD.
I am not receiving support from the government as a care taker of people with cognitive disabilities. My personal wellbeing is important as I am the main care taker in my āsmallā community. Corona has made the challenges more visible.
Are you interested to co-host an event with EdgeRyders in the next months? If so, do you have ideas to engage others near you to participate? I would like to co-organize an event around Food Commoning, and around Agrofood Common data. How do we start?
Hi @Milan, welcome on board, happy to have you at the event!
Where are you based, where is your project planned to happen?
There is a trend for micro herbs and a few businesses here in Brussels where Iām based, and I see them struggling nowadays because their model is to deliver to the Horeca and chefs who use such herbs in their kitchens.
For those who do not yet know about micro herbs, why is this sustainable agro tech, could you tell us moreā¦? From what I know, they need a lot less water and are highly rich in nutrients (like concentrates), which means you get a high quality yield with no so much resources.
You should definitely connect to @jvangeyte and @lylycarrillo here, who are also focused on agri tech, and ask them for advice!
These are the planned events at the moment. Which ones do you wish to attend? Webinar: Localisation of Food - 30 October from 18:00-20:00
What is your name? Vlad bauer
Are you part of a project or an organisation? What does the project/organisation do, and why? Funding and scaling www.fermabauer.ro
Letās get to know each other. Which of the following topics is the most relevant to you? Sustainability in agriculture or food
Think about the topicā¦ and tell us: What is a practical problem that you have in your work/projects or personal life? Identifying funding opportunities to scale the business, matching production levels with customer demand
How is your government helping this, or not helping? Not helping
Are you interested to co-host an event with EdgeRyders in the next months? If so, do you have ideas to engage others near you to participate?
These are the planned events at the moment. Which ones do you wish to attend? Webinar: Localisation of Food - 30 October from 18:00-20:00
What is your name? PacƓme Elouna Eyenga
Are you part of a project or an organisation? What does the project/organisation do, and why? The EIP-AGRI Service Point acts as a mediator within the EIP-AGRI network, enhancing communication and cooperation between everyone with a keen interest in innovating agriculture: farmers, researchers, advisers, businesses, environmental groups, consumer interest groups and other NGOs.
Letās get to know each other. Which of the following topics is the most relevant to you? Sustainability in agriculture or food
Think about the topicā¦ and tell us: What is a practical problem that you have in your work/projects or personal life? Sharing knowledge, connecting people and tackling challenges
How is your government helping this, or not helping?
Are you interested to co-host an event with EdgeRyders in the next months? If so, do you have ideas to engage others near you to participate?
Hello @Vladb, good to e-meet you!
Very nice project, and seeing that you make āzacuscaā really made me crave it!
I hadnāt heard about your project but Iāve lost a little bit of track of initiatives in Romania ever since Iāve moved to Belgiumā¦ and I was born and bred in Cluj, a bit far from Dambovita where you are.
Could you explain a little more about thisā¦ ? How did you manage to stay afloat since you started in 2013? Mainly through selling the produce and no subsidies? Do you have any local trusted partners?
This will help us better understand your project and prepare materials before the event next week,
Are you part of a project or an organisation? What does the project/organisation do, and why? Iām a projectcoordinator at Agribusiness Service BV, a service providing company specialised in the animal feed sector (https://www.agribusiness-service.nl/ apologies, right now the site is only available in Dutch!). We provide our expertise in the sector, but also have secretarial and financial know-how to facilitate projects from start to finish.
Letās get to know each other. Which of the following topics is the most relevant to you? Sustainability in agriculture or food
Think about the topicā¦ and tell us: What is a practical problem that you have in your work/projects or personal life? Covid-19 related (work/personal life): Itās harder to establish a relationship with the people involved in the different projects and sectors I work in, as you have less opportunity for small talk and one-on-one conversations during online conference meetings. Iām a new employee and due to covid-19 measurements I feel less involved in the company (despite best efforts from my colleagues and teammanager, I must add!) and I have difficulties staying motivated working from home all the time.
How is your government helping this, or not helping? I support the governmentās covid-19 measurements such as work-from-home and forego physical meetings for online meetings, getting the virus under control is more important than the personal discomfort.
Are you interested to co-host an event with EdgeRyders in the next months? If so, do you have ideas to engage others near you to participate? I have no answer to this yet, Iād like to experience the online event first.
Hi @L.Nobel, how happy I am that you registered, welcome on board!
I hope you donāt mind a question, I am trying to support everyone to prepare for the event next week by reading about each otherās work:
In your experience, what is a key challenge to get more agri businesses in NL or Europe to collaborate with smaller scale/ organic farmers and promoting organisations? Are they part of your network too?
Are you part of a project or an organisation? What does the project/organisation do, and why? I am professionally busy with finding new business models for agro-entrepreneurs and rural development of regions.
Letās get to know each other. Which of the following topics is the most relevant to you? Sustainability in agriculture or food
Think about the topicā¦ and tell us: What is a practical problem that you have in your work/projects or personal life?
How is your government helping this, or not helping? I am working for a regional government, but it is very hard to stimulate sustainable economic prospects for the majority of business in the agro-complex. It is either the first to the market approach or just formulating policy goals, but the gap between strategy and execution is seldomly made.
Are you interested to co-host an event with EdgeRyders in the next months? If so, do you have ideas to engage others near you to participate? I will take that in consideration
Hi @EwaSJ
Itās true, Poland is in counter-tendency compared to other EU countries. Organic has been shrinking between 2012 and 2018 (Eurostat) The latest I have from local sources: small increase 2018-2019. As far as I understand from my sources in Poland, the decrease in organic land was due to changes in the national subsidies system for organic, after the decision of linking the organic certification to production. I mean, today in order to obtain the certification (and the EU subsidies) you have to cultivate something. This was not the case before - when people got subsidies just doing nothing, buying land and leaving it fallow. Other characteristics of the organic sector in Poland are in line with the EU ones: organic farms are bigger than the average, smallholders disappear as in the conventional and so on.
Hi @jasen_lakic
Actually, keeping the food affordable and provided with continuity is one of the biggest achievements for humanity. To be frank, in this aspect I think that in Europe we are far better off than other parts of the planet. The āsystemā has supported this. This does not mean we cannot improve the system. Just donāt think about that system, think bottom-up. Local farmers organizing is key. I know that this is difficult to do, especially in Southern Europe. One aspect missing in your argument. Decreasing the cost of local and quality food: what is the impact on the farmersā revenue and livelihood? Just to remind that this aspect must be part of the equation.
Hei @albow7, welcome back, glad youāre feeling better,
Yes, i just started a local food company in Belgium that makes a natural vegan protein food. The product, indeed with binded beans that you are referring to is called tempeh, itās made through fermentation with the help of a funghi that binds the beans (www.beanlife.be).
I still didnāt understand if you are practically involved in a food project? Tell us more
