Terralimenta: accompanying Local Action Groups towards the systemic transition in food

This spring a new initiative is flourishing and, together with Red2Red, we are opening the selection process for a new programme. We want to promote in Spain those Local Action Groups (LAGs) that want to move towards a new approach to food production, marketing and consumption. We start from the work experience of the Territorialized Agri-Food Systems (SAT) to apply the lessons learned by the Foundation in recent years to the rural environment.

The crisis caused by covid-19 has made the need for a paradigm shift in food production, marketing and consumption even more visible. These adverse times have also provided an opportunity to rethink the rural environment as a key element for the systemic transition.

In this scenario, we are filled with hope by the possibility of launching, together with Red2Red, a new project that was born with a vocation for continuity. This is the Terralimenta initiative to support the transition of Local Action Groups (LAGs) towards Territorialized Agri-Food Systems (SAT).

The call will remain open until 29 April and with it we are looking for eight LAGs that can become key driving agents towards the transformation of the agri-food sector.

In Spain, this network is made up of 253 LAGs spread across all the autonomous communities. These groups, some of them with a work history of more than 30 years, have a great deal of experience and a deep knowledge of the territories in which they work, bringing together the different interests and visions of their regions or regions and being better acquainted than anyone else with their needs.

We launched this innovative programme from the conviction that it is possible to achieve a diverse agricultural production model connected to the territory. To achieve this goal, we believe it is necessary to support the transition of LAGs to EWS that connect all these areas.

In this sense, Terralimenta’s objective is to help LAGs to detect and energize the agents in their territories interested in these approaches. From there, they will be able to establish a common roadmap for action that will allow them to position themselves more strategically to promote sustainable food.

In a post-pandemic context, the eight LAGs participating in this process will be able to enrich the design of their future Participatory Local Development Strategies (LDS) and thus begin to work on actions aligned with the major challenges of the present in a broader framework such as the Recovery and Resilience Funds or the work scheme foreseen in the European Green Deal for the integration of the objectives of the “From Farm to Farm” strategy. the Bureau”.

Multiplying the SAT

experienceFor the Foundation, Territorialized Food Systems have been at the center of action in recent years as an approach that we have supported since 2014, both in France and in Spain.

We work from the conviction that territorial approaches favour the agricultural and food transition. These experiences, known as “short channels” or “territorialized food projects,” reconnect the people who consume with those who produce and facilitate cooperation. In addition, they often rely on agroecological production models as job generators.

In this sense, in addition to the accompaniment of SAT projects through our calls, we have been carrying out systematization work, the fruits and lessons of which we now want to put at the service of the LAGs. The Carasso Notebook entitled “Territorialized Food Systems” was the result of the analysis of 22 projects in France and Spain, through which it was possible to mobilize all actors towards a new governance and consolidate socioeconomic models, with growth without renouncing values.

Likewise, in 2019 we published together with CERAI the research “Territorialized food systems in Spain. 100 local initiatives for responsible and sustainable food”. Thisproject mapping shows how EWS are initiatives with a high transformative value, but that are limited in their potential by fragmentation and lack of articulation, a common problem, in some cases, with LAGs that see their capacity to scale their activity and replicate themselves limited.

These lessons learned will be put into practice at Terralimenta through training and mentoring, as well as the promotion of networking and the implementation of sustainable practices.

Photo credits: EcoComedores de la Biosfera / Subbética Ecológica