Many individual food growing initiatives operate in the city of Birmingham and the whole conurbation. This case study aims to create a spatial vision to help bring synergies between the different food growing networks. Working in collaboration with these initiatives, including the Social Farms and Gardens network, Ryton Organics and the International Traditional Knowledge Institute, this pilot case study will develop a narrative help broaden the appeal of urban agriculture, change local perceptions about the quality of food from the region as well help existing organisations to re-establish local food growing traditions in the context of the WMNP, the need to address food security for the UK post Brexit and the impoverishment of natural resources including soil and water.

The case study would frame this work in the national and international position of urban agriculture as part of the response to the climate emergency and biodiversity loss and the SOEC’s emphasis on the significance of changing the way of local food production.

The critical part of this programme for Birmingham is to explore, identify, trial and test (if possible) and hopefully make proposals for a national standard methodology for health benefit assessment.

This would build the economic case for change and political re-prioritisation. The case study work seek intensive learning and sharing opportunities with both Trento and Gothenburg; particularly seeking local circular economy opportunities for social entrepreneurs and local food markets.

Entrepreneurial opportunities and exchange of knowledge between the different networks will create a new mentality of food growing in the area.

Naturally Birmingham is a cross-council – transformation-strategic project, testing new approaches. Essentially it tests a new governance model for public parks and urban greenspace. This new model is drawn from new measures and new values. The project is for 2 years as a national exemplar for other cities. It seeks to identify the hidden beneficiaries of urban green space and connect those with the key strategic outcomes sought by Birmingham- to address its 21st century challenges. The project will demonstrate the natural environment has a key role in addressing global and local challenges. In so doing it provides a very valuable physical asset to the city.

This asset is therefore not just there to be maintained- at a cost; but must seen- going forward as a key strategic asset worthy of protection, enhancement and investment.

The project is so structured to operate two parallel but inter-dependent elements of work. A comprehensive strategic assessment across the city and its services and four local neighbourhood pilots where new delivery methods and approaches can embrace and support local citizen engagement. This will then inform totally new policy and budgetary arrangements to provide a sustainable future for urban green space; based on a new comprehensive understanding of value.

For more info about the project visit:

- https://bosf.org.uk/projects/naturally-birmingham-future-parks-accelerator-project

- https://www.birmingham.gov.uk/news/article/431/birmingham_wins_share_of_multi-million_pound_parks_fund

The Tame Valley is one of several case studies for the West Midlands National Park proposal.  It is under major development pressure for new housing, industrial and infrastructure projects and is therefore of great interest to many of the authorities in the region, including Birmingham City Council, North Warwickshire Borough Council, Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council, Tamworth Borough Council, Warwickshire and Staffordshire County Councils as well as the cross-authority groupings, such as the Combined Authority, the Midlands Engine and the Local Economic Partnerships.

The Tame Valley is an unknown asset for the United Kingdom (UK). Rich with wetlands, sites of special scientific interest, ancient woodlands and with great biodiversity, it contains several areas of outstanding natural beauty (AONB). It is a highly important migratory route for birds. It is believed to have a great potential to provide a substantial ecological, cultural and economic role in the future of the region. The valley is on the eastern periphery of the towns and cities of the West Midlands. Hidden from view by the many routes that pass along it as they encircle the uplifted West Midlands Plateau, it is significantly undervalued as a territorial resource for local populations and the UK.

The Tame Valley Landscape Vision (TVLV), a landscape led, spatial and conceptual vision was adopted by the Tame Valley Wetland Partnership and its partners, including the Wildlife Trusts, the Environment Agency and local authorities in 2016.

Through the SATURN project and with the help of these partnerships and stakeholders including Birmingham City Council, the Warwickshire Wildlife Trust, local landowners and the boroughs of North Warwickshire and Tamworth, this project will examine what progress has been made to adopt and develop the Tame Valley Landscape Development (TVLD) over the last 5 years and establish how it has been used to contribute to regional resilience, socially, economically and environmentally. It will evaluate what works, what didn’t work and what could work more effectively sharing knowledge with the SATURN partners. It will explore if and how the vision has been developed through policy, principles and guidance and how this in turn could inform the delivery of the principles that underpin the West Midland National Park.  This will be explored in the context of a wider application of the approach to ensure scalability on a European level.

For more info visit this page of prof. Moore investigation.

Stadsbruk’s Incubator aims to increase the number of local/ecological farmers in Swedish Cities. This is done through agripreneurship training (agricultural entrepreneurship) and with a strong collaboration with the Gothenburg municipality who offer access to land.

The aim is achieved by gathering, creating, testing and sharing successful business models relevant to the farmers context: low investment, small surfaces, direct sales and high sustainable values. It consists of a winter training program where 10 new entrepreneurs per year get access to the network, training, workshops and support throughout the farming season. At the end of each season, a feedback is given to the municipality to help in the selection process for land access.

Through increasing number of entrepreneurs, we believe in boosting the number of farmers, make a better use of empty and/or farming land in and outside of the city and contribute to reduced transport and packaging, furthermore increase consumers knowledge about the environmental impact of the food system.

The area of the cross administrative programme including four municipalities and other public organisations, called LAB 190, is situated along the road 190 that stretches along four municipalities from Gothenburg via Lerum, Alingsås to Essunga. The area encompasses urban to rural landscapes including Gothenburg region’s largest continuous agricultural landscape. The area faces big challenges with urban exploitations, underutilized farmland and great need of generation change within the agricultural sector. Several farmers along the road have or is about to abandon their farming activities for other jobs. Both large and small farms are thus increasingly abandoned, and the trend is that this will continue unless actions are taken. The Gothenburg hub, through its forth pilot case in the SATURN project, has the aim to join the forces of the concerned municipalities in order to map underutilized and abandoned farmland and to investigate the ownership status. The project will meet planners and other relevant expertise at the four municipalities and at the Region of Gothenburg during spring and autumn 2019 to start this process.

LAB190 is a long-term collaboration platform to create a model area for the sustainable development of the countryside along national road 190 between Hjällbo and Nossebro. National road 190 is about 70 km long and cuts through four municipalities: Gothenburg, Lerum, Alingsås and Essunga. It is part of one of the green wedges that has been pointed out as important for the sustainable development of society in the Structural Plan for the Gothenburg Region (GR). LAB190 was started in 2013 with a preliminary study. Västarvet invited representatives from Gothenburg, Lerum, Alingsås and Essunga (as well as the Gothenburg Region Association of Local Authorities and the County Administrative Board of Västra Götaland) on a bus journey along road 190, with a seminar afterwards. The participants agreed at the seminar that FOOD, TOURISM and INFRASTRUCTURE were three important themes in which to focus collaboration. A working group was set up which produced a collaboration agreement describing the intentions of the parties involved. The coordination group forms a developing plan. The plan is then decided by the politicians in the steering group for each year.

By initiate a process and model among civil servants at the municipalities alongside road 190, the project will be able to collect the present status and future plans for transitions, land leases and other measures for both private and public farmland. The historical use of the land will be investigated as a support to illustrate future potentials of the land.

The outcome of this pilot project will be to map available land and its future potentials. This mapping will be a valuable interface for municipalities, but also private land owners, to make land available to new entrepreneurs within the green sector. Further, a cross-municipality action plan in order to connect green entrepreneurs with suitable land will be developed. The expected results are to stimulate new job opportunities, support a generation gap, increase local food production, increase self-sufficiency in the area, trigger new business models which includes the dynamic between urban-rural and to create a platform for a greater demographical and ethnical/cultural integration in the peri-urban/rural landscape.

The Model Farm is a highly productive small-scale farm unit, providing food and education. By showcasing a business model behind a sustainable and successful small-scale farming enterprise run within a municipality, the Model Farm will serve as a driver for the integration of regenerative farming practices in the continuous evolution of urban and rural multifunctional landscapes.

For more info visit this webpage.

The object is to combine low entry levels with essential infrastructure and focus on developing knowledge required to successfully run a commercial business using sustainable farming practises.            

The test sites Angered and Skogome were initiated in order to increase urban food production and further green entrepreneurship in and around the city centre. Arable land owned by the municipality is currently underutilized and focus is often on recreation rather than food production. The test sites offer a starting ground for developing small scale agricultural businesses with minimal investment needs and allows for incremental growth within the test sites as well as the possibility of relocating to larger plots of land within the municipality. The test sites offer basic and essential infrastructure including fencing, water distribution and lockable tool sheds. In addition, the city can provide financing for polytunnels and greenhouses with long term payment schedules added to the rent, enabling investments that are especially hard to finance using traditional bank loans among green entrepreneurs. The test sites are one out of three foundations for successful green entrepreneurship, the other being the model farm offering a mix of hands-on examples of best practise and the third the incubator with focus on viable business models.

The territory of Arco is located on the northern shore of the biggest Italian lake, the lake Garda. Its peculiar climate influences the main landscape features and the variety of environments of the area. The main urban centre is located at the bottom of the Sarca valley and features a typical Mediterranean climate, while the highest part of the municipality’s territory is located at around 2.000 metres above the sea level and present an Alpine climate. These characteristics make the landscape as a paradise for outdoor sports’ lovers and tourism plays a pivotal role in the socio-economic development of the territory together with some high-end factories producing mechanical components. In 2018, a territory with less than 30.000 inhabitants hosted more than 1.000.000 tourists. Yet, after many years of boisterous development, the municipality and the main stakeholders are looking for more sustainable and balanced development of the territory. Therefore, in the Arco pilot mapping and knowledge on the landscape will be combined with visioning and engagement activities to develop a long-term strategy. The mapping activities will be focused on finding the most important ‘socio-ecological’ spots to support a biodiversity and connectivity plan aimed at recovering traditional landscape practices as pastures or terraced agriculture (olives or vineyards), boosting the renewal of abandoned buildings or shepherd’s cottages. Before developing the plan, local stakeholders will be involved in visioning activities (built on previous experiences from EIT and other projects) to cast and define the most important actions to be taken for effective deployment. Moreover, contacts with local stakeholder will also support the implementation of funding schemes for start-ups or innovative managing practices. 

Feeding Trento: countryside, produce, city

A project promoted by the Trento City Council and the University of Trento, involving producers, various sectors of the economy, schools and associations

In recent years food has once again become a central topic in political and public debate. Food scandals have caused people to pay more attention to the healthiness of what is on their plates, and there is a greater awareness of issues linked to the agri-food supply chain.   The way in which foods are produced, distributed and consumed has significant consequences for the environment, affecting the fertility of the soil, the quality of the water and air, the state of the climate, and the loss of biodiversity, as well as impoverishment of the food culture and of the landscape.

Many people have pointed out that food production has three great paradoxes that future food policies need to resolve.  The first paradox has to do with food waste.  An estimated 1.3 billion tons of edible food, equivalent to a third of global food production, is wasted each year. The second paradox is that despite the widespread hunger and malnutrition in the world, a large percentage of what is grown is used for animal feed or biofuels. The third paradox is that for every person suffering from malnutrition there are two who are obese or overweight.  

The idea for the Feeding Trento (Nutrire Trento) project grew out of this discussion, with the aim of identifying ideas and solutions to these problems that might improve the quality of the food for the city, providing healthy food that adequately remunerates all actors in the food supply chain.  At the same time, the project aims to develop and restore a local economy based on new relationships between city and country and between farmers and consumers.

The project formally began as one of the activities under the Unicittà memorandum of understanding between the Trento City Council and the University of Trento in June 2017 and was preceded by a series of open meetings involving people already in working in this area, such as producers, citizen groups and associations (including cooperative purchasing groups), researchers and administrators.

The project’s first objective was to set up a working group to look at the challenges of sustainability in agriculture, in the belief that possible solutions can only be found by involving all the actors in the food system (producers, consumers, retailers, experts, associations etc.).

Inspired by the experiences of cities in North America and Europe in recent years, the working group’s task is to share initiatives and continue to identify new objectives with the various actors in the food system.

Operationally, the contribution of the University was fundamental in facilitating the early stages of the project.  The University of Trento is active in the area of sustainability and was able to bring not only knowledge, but also national and international connections that provided useful support to the project.  It is also important not to underestimate the University’s role as an important actor due to its cultural stature and its capacity for mobilization and for dialogue with so many people.

To coordinate and highlight the visibility of initiatives already under way in the region, the working group has designed a digital platform that allows people to simultaneously visualize the actors and the places in the Trento short supply chain: producers, markets, shops, cooperative purchasing groups and urban or community vegetable gardens.  Trento is an active and proactive city and there are already many initiatives around food; what was missing was a coordination that could pull them together and create links among people who are interested in these issues.

The platform, now online at www.nutriretrento.it, has been designed to allow anyone who is interested to sign up or to consult the site.   Actors in the local food supply chain can indicate directly on the site that they would like to join the platform, and this is followed by a check that they meet the membership criteria.  

The working group currently involves producers, businesses, researchers, professionals, schools, and citizen associations and groups, and hopes to expand to include others who are interested.  In addition to the website, the group has produced informational material and press releases regarding the project.  The logo of the project is the result of a competition for students.

Feeding Trento aims to help relaunch urban and peri-urban sustainable agriculture by facilitating contact between producers and consumers, though short food supply chains and direct sales.  The project also aims to become a tool for information and awareness-raising on natural foods and healthy lifestyles, on protecting the health of producers and consumers, and on the use of quality local products in schools and in the tourism sector. Other objectives include the use of currently unfarmed land to create new employment opportunities and to develop an agriculture that values social inclusion, the promotion of community gardens, and educational visits to farms and programmes for schools so that students can learn about the role of the farmer as a producer of economic value and as a custodian of the landscape.

The aim of the case study is to analyse the ecological, social and economic dynamics that changed and influenced the present landscape by mapping and valorising the abandoned or not well-governed agro-forestal territories in the municipality. Together with Pergine municipality the project analysed the main problems and issues and the loss of former agricultural areas occurred since 1954 was highlighted. With the help of Pergine’s officers it was decided on a procedure to collect data and map the changes. The open areas invaded by forest were mapped using GIS, orthophotographs (from 1954 to 2015), field work and surveys. In 1954, landscape was more agricultural with lower urbanization level. 49 % of the former 1954 agricultural areas are now covered by urban areas or industrial/agricultural buildings, 43 % remains agriculture and 7 % is now forest.  This means that around 14 % of the present agricultural area is now colonized by forest. The importance of these former agricultural areas is tied to their traditional cultural, social and landscape value (e.g. dry-stone walls) as well as to their role of local biodiversity (e.g. ecological connection of urban with agricultural areas and forest environment). Investigation is planned for to detail the connection among the different landscape patches and their dynamics. A better knowledge of past dynamics together with a in-depth analysis of socio-economic factors are crucial to identify and design future planning strategies and policies to couple local needs with ecological resilience of the territory.  Stakeholders involvement will be crucial to identify areas of particular interest that could be used as example cases to develop specific guidelines that can be used elsewhere.

Piana Rotaliana is renowned for its supreme wine production and other fine agricultural products (apple, asparagus, etc.) and for its fine traditional rural and historical location. The area is placed at the crossroads of different valleys and many infrastructures. Rivers Adige, Noce and Avisio, the Motorway from Pianura Padana to Germany (Verona-Munich of European Relevance), International and Regional railways, 2 national roads, many others local or rural roads, water channels and cycling paths are fragmenting the plan land with an evident impact of ecological connectivity and land use.

In recent time the main local Institution defined new planning and infrastructure documents and strategies. Among others it has been conducted a study towards the creation of an “Agro-District”. The aim is to find alternative and innovative models and governance tools to enhance the various ecological, agricultural and cultural elements in the Rotaliana plan area. In particular to valorise the “minor” productions (namely vegetables) and smallholder farmers, ensure the ecological connectivity, protect from extreme events (namely flash floods into the area and to the nearby city of Trento), valorise local products and landscapes (easy reachable by bike, train or cable car).

Despite what is ensured by the regional Law (which can support the creation of “Rural parks”) in accordance with the Comunità di Valle, the municipalities and the key stakeholders have started a process of dialogue. The process is necessary in order to define what are the common aims, the spatial limitation and all the financial and juridical framework of support. Until now the process allowed for different meetings among the municipalities, citizens and key stakeholders that showed that although the agricultural producers are doing many efforts to reduce the negative impact of the production (pesticides, water management, new varieties, efficient transformation systems….) they are still scared by the “park” idea. This short-vision of agricultural producers remains a concrete obstacle to further advancement in the process. The involvement of young population could help to tackle this issue.  In a later stage, when an appropriate economic legal entity that may define the park will be individuated, some further pilot activities should be implemented with productive, social, protective and recreational aims.