Let’s rebuild our Food Distribution System!

In recent years community-supported agriculture and alternative food distribution systems have spread all over Europe, but there was no European Platform which brought together these initiatives. Throughout Europe people from different cultures and backgrounds work towards the shared goal of redefining the way our society organises the production, processing and distribution of food, and get together to achieve Food Sovereignty in their local communities.

From 10-12th of October 2012, a European Meeting with participants from more than 20 countries was organised in Milan, Italy as part of a follow- up process to the Nyeleni-Europe Forum that took place in Krems, Austria in August 2011. This meeting, organised by a decentralised steering committee with the coordination of the International Network URGENCI, aimed to identify a shared vision of these alternative food systems, define future thematic focuses and develop an organisational structure for a new European Platform.

The meeting was structured into sessions which dealt with the following topics: communication platform, alliances and advocacy, forms of organisation and action plan. In spite the fact that alternative initiatives across Europe are on a different development level, there are some common problems, for example: homogenisation of global food systems destroys local small-scale producers, producers getting older and rural areas are abandoned.

On the last day of the meeting, the possible organisational structure of a new European Platform was discussed. Therefore, participants analysed already existing organisational schemes, and shared their position in a final discussion. Participants from European countries where these alternative initiatives are already established networks (e.g France, Italy or Belgium) had different expectations from a European Platform than the ones where these initiatives are just started to formulate and mainly individuals or NGOs representing the movement (e.g Hungary, Greece or Romania). The discussions pointed out that the new platform should fit to these different needs. Considering the participants’ opinions, the form of an umbrella organisation could satisfy the different expectations, so a voluntary committee in a decentralised form will work on this issue. In addition, it was also agreed that the European Meeting should be repeated in 1-2 years, because face-to-face meeting are necessary for building up a diverse and well-functioning network.

Further information on the URGENCI website.

Information provided by Zsófia Perényi, Association of Conscious Consumers
Photos were made by Asociatia C.R.I.E.S., Romania