{"id":13707,"date":"2022-12-15T16:37:17","date_gmt":"2022-12-15T15:37:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.fox-foodprocessinginabox.eu\/?p=13707"},"modified":"2022-12-15T17:14:52","modified_gmt":"2022-12-15T16:14:52","slug":"fox-at-the-universitat-politecnica-de-valencia-upv","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fox-foodprocessinginabox.eu\/fr\/fox-at-the-universitat-politecnica-de-valencia-upv\/","title":{"rendered":"FOX at the Universitat Polit\u00e8cnica de Val\u00e8ncia (UPV)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Exploring Synergies and Exchanging Experiences in Valencia <\/strong><\/p>\n

On the 30th of November and 1st<\/sup> of December, Tessa Avermaete (KU Leuven, project manager FOX, COCOREADO and RUSTICA) and Dioni Ortiz (project coordinator Visionary) met at the Universitat Polit\u00e8cnica de Val\u00e8ncia (UPV). They had been working together in the European FP7 project, TRANSMANGO<\/a>, 2014-2018, on the topic of food security in Europe. TRANSMANGO included the development of scenarios and pathways for sustainable solutions. Both the covid pandemic and the Ukraine crises demonstrate the relevance of studying unexpected shocks to our food system.<\/p>\n

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Both the covid pandemic and the Ukraine crises demonstrate the relevance of studying unexpected shocks to our food system.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Exchange on European projects\u00a0 <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Dioni invited junior and senior colleagues for this dialogue on opportunities and bottlenecks in our food system. Tessa presented several European projects in which the division of bioeconomics is: COCOREADO<\/a>, RUSTICA<\/a> and FOX<\/a>. These projects all deal with making the food system more sustainable, with a strong focus on the added value of circular food systems and short food supply chains. RUSTICA and FOX both deal with waste streams from fruit and vegetables.<\/p>\n

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RUSTICA and FOX both deal with waste streams from fruit and vegetables.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Valencia is a region with an important production of fruits including kaki, mandarins and oranges. Fruit farmers in Valencia face similar issues as in Flanders such as high energy prices, rising fertilizer costs, changing weather conditions and low prices for their final products. In that sense, the RUSTICA project (with a focus on the development of biobased circular fertilizers) as well as FOX (with a focus on valorizing fruit through fruit processing) are highly relevant for this region.<\/p>\n

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UPV coordinates the Horizon Europe project VISIONARY, which had its kick-off in September 2022.\u00a0 VISIONARY wants to make a difference in food system transitions, by identifying what factors underlie the path dependencies and \u2018lock-ins\u2019 in current unsustainable food systems, and showing how these can be overcome. VISIONARY will tackle policy and business shifts as drivers necessary to make a change at the system level. The project aims to improve the sustainability of agriculture by promoting practices in food production systems that are more environmentally friendly, economically viable and socio-culturally appropriate. VISIONARY focuses on existing initiatives, practices and (policy) interventions (case studies) that are still a niche or small-scale, and investigates the barriers to scaling up and out.<\/p>\n

Both in terms of content and from a management perspective, these meetings facilitate the efficiency of ongoing work and potential future cooperation between consortia.<\/p>\n

Local Food Strategies in Leuven and Valencia <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Both Valencia and Leuven have introduced a food strategy. In Leuven, the food strategy was launched in 2019 as \u2018voeding verbindt<\/a>\u2019 [‘food connects’]. Valencia has had a Food Strategy and a Municipal Food Council since 2018, under Consell Alimentari Municipal de Val\u00e8ncia (CALM<\/a>). Moreover, both cities were selected by the European Commission from 400 cities for the mission ‘100 Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities by 2030’. With this mission, Europe supports the selected cities with expertise and (financial) resources in their journey towards climate neutrality by 2030. Tessa, who is also chair of the food and farming advisory board in Leuven, met with Gloria Bign\u00e9, coordinator of the Cat\u00e9dra Tierra Ciudadana and filiated to UPV.<\/p>\n

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It is interesting to see synergies and differences in food strategies across cities. The challenge of hearing everyone\u2019s voice in society when developing and implementing a food strategy is a common point of attention.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

It is interesting to see synergies and differences in food strategies across cities. The challenge of hearing everyone\u2019s voice in society when developing and implementing a food strategy is a common point of attention. There are many nice ideas to be shared as well. Leuven recently had the next round of land plots that are made available for an innovative project in the region that contributes to its strategy. In Valencia, a nice practice is the development of a city map allocating the places where you can buy local foods.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>