18 October 2021
CLEVER Cities joins the #EdibleCitySolutions campaign to raise awareness about green urban food innovation
18 October 2021
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Whether it’s in the form of urban agriculture initiatives, underground or rooftop farms, community gardens or healthy cooking workshops, millions of city dwellers around the world are bringing the food they eat closer to the cities they live in, and bringing people together at the same time.
How can we make sure that this kind of interventions, products and services - that are contributing to the development of sustainable, green, healthy and liveable cities - get the recognition they deserve, flourish, and multiply around the world?
In the run-up to this year’s World Cities Day on October 31st, we’re doing that with a hashtag: #EdibleCitySolutions
#EdibleCitySolutions is a month-long social media campaign organised to celebrate World Cities Day 2021 and raise awareness for the positive ecological, social and economic impact of green urban food system innovation. Want to join us? It’s easy! From October 18 to November 12, share an image of food system innovation in your city on your Twitter or Instagram profile using the hashtag #EdibleCitySolutions.
The #EdibleCitySolutions initiative is organised by the following projects, that are all working together to make cities more sustainable:
· proGIreg
· UNaLab
· IN-HABIT
How are they doing that? By designing and implementing concrete examples of food system innovation in cities around the world.
Many of these food system innovations are green, nature-based solutions – such as urban food forests or green walls equipped with edible plants - inspired by and working in harmony with nature. As well as strengthening local food provision in cities, they also help tackle a whole range of ecological challenges, including improving air quality, boosting biodiversity, reducing the risk of flooding and lowering temperatures by fighting the heat island effect.
Many also have an inclusive and participatory nature – like school gardens and community kitchens – and thus help tackle social challenges too, by improving well-being and social cohesion, generating opportunities in socially marginalised communities and fostering a sense of belonging in cities.
And last but not least, food system innovations can also help tackle economic challenges and support a local green economy, by creating dynamics for new green businesses and jobs –with businesses selling products grown in urban farms, offering composting services or even organising events in community garden spaces.
Follow the hashtag #EdibleCitySolutions on Twitter and Instagram to discover some of the sustainable food systems innovations being implemented by these different projects and explore how they are not only making our cities greener and healthier but also more socially resilient.
EdiCitNet, proGIreg, Network Nature, UnaLab, IN-HABIT, CLEVER Cities and CLEARING HOUSE have all received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme.
