ENG

EAT WISELY, KNOW WHAT YOU EAT
or how to increase the contribution of short food chains to sustainable development of rural areas and to implementing the European Green Deal in Poland

The goal of the project is to prepare and carry out an All-Poland Eat Wisely, Know What You Eat campaign which draws attention to opportunities and provides examples of how to organize markets for locally-produced food and develop shorter food chains at larger scale. As part of the project, an investigation of the potential for markets for locally-produced food will be carried out in 4 voivodeships.

The Campaign will raise awareness of the benefits of developing markets for locally-produced food based on shortening food chains among food producers,, consumers and other food system stakeholders. We want to draw attention to promising examples of scaleable solutions in Poland and other EU countries. We want to explore in what ways local markets based on short food chains can contribute in practical way to implementing the priorities of the European Green Deal and its “Field-to-Fork” strategy.

The Campaign is a response to a lack of knowledge and understanding of the potential of making better use of small farms for small-scale food production as an important contributor to the growth and development of locally-produced food. There is also local of appreciation among consumers and potential organisers as to the potential benefits of local markets based on short food chains that bring producers and consumers together. Our campaign seeks to answer the 3 following questions:

1. What is the potential of small farms for the development of local markets for locally-produced food (based on short food chains and direct sales)? How to achieve greater scale and impact?
2. What is the potential on the part of consumers for development of local markets and buying directly from farmers? How to achieve greater scale in terms of scale?
3. In what ways can the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, local governments and other institutions support the development of local markets for locally produced food and development of short food chains, so that they become part of the mainstream?

The Campaign is built around 12 specially produced films for screening on national TV and in the Internet. We will explore how organisational innovations can increase the scale and impact of direct farmer-consumer sales, pointing to interesting and promising initiatives and solutions from  Poland and abroad. Our experts will respond to questions.

We will identify initiatives to strengthen and develop local markets for locally-produced food and recommend local and regional food producers, who practice environmentally-friendly and traditional methods.

The project is being implemented by Iso-Tech with partners: Polish Innovation Foundation and the Malopolska Agricultural Chamber

The project is financed by the National Rural Network.

All-Poland Multi – Media Campaign promoting Short Food Chains  

EAT WISELY, KNOW WHAT YOU EAT

EAT WISELY, KNOW WHAT YOU EAT  – SHORT FOOD CHAINS ARE A SOURCE OF INNOVATION FOR AGRICULTURE AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT

The goal of the campaign is to increase awareness of healthy eating among consumers and to draw attention to the benefits of organising and participating in Short Food Chain initiatives (farm to fork) for food producers (mostly rural), for consumers (mostly urban) and for those supporting direct selling. Consumers can access fresh, natural, nutritious and tasty food, which is affordable thanks to the elimination of intermediaries.

The Campaign will involve producing 12 short films for screening on the TVP3 national TV channel and in the internet as a basis for information and promotional activities. We will present good practice examples with respect to organising Short Food Chain initiatives and discuss the positive and negative aspects of recent regulatory changes and the need for innovation in organising direct sales more effectively at scale. Our experts will respond to questions.

Our ambition is to identify and recommend the most interesting local initiatives, regional products and food producers, who use traditional production methods.

The project is being implemented by te Polish Innovation Foundation with partners: Polish Environmental Partnership Foundation, Polish Rural Forum Association, Kujawsko-Pomorski Agricultural Advisory Centre in Miników.

The project is being implemented and is financed as part of the KSOW partnership (National Network for Rural Areas)

All-Poland Multi – Media Campaign promoting Short Food Chains  

EAT WISELY, KNOW WHAT YOU EAT

ALL-POLAND MEDIA CAMPAIGN ON SHORT FOOD CHAINS SHORT FOOD CHAINS

The goal of the all-Poland media campaign is to present the benefits for small food producers (mostly in rural areas), for consumers (mostly in urban areas) and for rural development organisations resulting from organising and participating in Short Food Chain initiatives based on direct farm to fork sales (based inter alia on Agricultural Retail Trade and other regulations, which now allow farmers to process and sell the products from their farms directly to consumers).

The Campaign will involve producing a series of 10 fillms and 5 spots, which will be screened on TVP3 channel of national public TV and also in the internet as a basis for information and promotional activities. These will also include preparation of 9 reports describing different aspects of the Short Food Chain movement in Poland and internationally. English summaries of the reports can be downloaded below.

The Campaign will draw attention to the opportunities – for both consumers and for farmers, as well as for organisers of Short Food Chain initiatives – that can result from the that that we have 1.4 million farms in Poland, which are mostly small and producing for their own needs. Our country has considerable resources for small-scale food production, which have not been used to date, but which are ideal for the development of Short Food Chain initiatives.

The project was implemented by the Foundation for the Development of Podhale Podhale (renamed the Polish Innovation Foundation) with partners: Polish Environmental Partnership Foundation, Polish Rural Forum Association and the ‘Our Kaszów’ Association.

The project was implemented and financed as part of the KSOW partnership (National Network for Rural Areas)

This series of 10 short films was produced as part of the “Eat Wisely, Know What You Eat” Campaign to promote Short Food Chain initiatives in Poland. The Films were shown on national public TV (TVP3) in the period August to October 2018. They draw attention to the many individuals and groups undertaking Short Food Chain initiatives in Poland

Film trailers produced for emission in TVP3 (08-10/2018)

WERSJA POLSKA/POLISH VERSION ONLY

Short Food Chain (SFC) systems, also referred to as local food systems or farm to fork schemes are organizational arrangements which enable consumers to buy food  directly (i.e. without intermediaries) from producers in a systematic and ongoing way.

SFCs include farmers’ markets, on-farm sales, shops run by farmers, farm boxes, buying clubs, food cooperatives, automated shops, internet sales and other schemes. The common feature is that consumers connect directly and more personally with food producers when buying their products. The idea is to link people, places and products in new ways.

A European Commission EPI-AGRI Focus Group on scaling up short-food chains in terms of impact, defined them as follows:

A food chain describes the distance between a food producer and a food consumer. In contemporary agro-industrial systems, food chains are complex with numerous intermediaries.

Short food chains have as few links as possible between the food producer and the citizen who eats the food. Agreeing on a maximum number of links (or intermediaries) is difficult because the number of intermediaries needed varies for different products, in different places.  For example, there is a debate about whether ‘service providers’ such as abattoirs should be counted as part of the chain.

The reasons for having reduced links in the chain are the most important factor when considering whether a food chain is ‘short’ or not.  ‘Short’ food chains are not simply reducible to the number of links in the chain, because they are concerned with a set of values and principles and address societal demands:

• The citizen who eats the food knows exactly where the food comes from and can contact the producer directly for information – in other words the food chain is transparent [addressing citizen demand for food that can be trusted]
• The producer is able to retain a greater share of the value of the food that is sold [addressing producer need to sustain or expand their income]
• The ‘social proximity’ between producers and citizens is of more importance than the ‘physical distance’ [addressing societal demands for a better, more equitable and sustainable food system].

Whilst SFCs are often part of local food systems (in which food is produced, traded and eaten within a defined geographical area, respecting seasonality and procuring territorial added value), they are not restricted to locally based exchanges. They can also be spatially extended to enable products from different climates to be sourced as directly as possible. SFCs can be built in many different forms, according to circumstances. The concept of SFC is dynamic and evolving as societal actors engage in a range of innovations and experimental food chain structures in their efforts to build sustainable food futures.

For the full Focus Group report, see

http://ec.europa.eu/eip/agriculture/en/content/innovative-short-food-supply-chain-management

In Poland and in other countries, in which there is a significant small farm sector producing mostly for its own needs. Direct selling and shortening food chains has become a public policy issue because it promises a pathway to increasing farm incomes while also providing consumers with access to quality food systems. This require an active public policy focused on supporting small and traditional farms as distinct from public policy targeting larger commercial farms concerned with large-scale agricultural production and international trade.

But to realise the potential of shorter food chains connecting producers and consumers, there is a need to develop new organizational forms for local agricultural markets, that take into account small farms and small food producers in food supply chains. For government, the need and opportunity is to see small farms as an opportunity for rural development and for reforming the food economy. But it is important to note that the key driver for developing and ‘growing’ short food chain systems comes not from public policy or its shortcomings in this regard, but from changes taking place on the part of consumers. In recent years, consumers are concerned increasingly with food quality, although cost considerations continue to dominate.

Scaling up impact of short food chain solutions demands effective partnership action of all the stakeholders participating in the system in order to:

1. increase the number of participating producers and consumers,
2. expand the range and diversity of products offered for sale,
3. increase sales volumes,
4. increase the contribution of local (food) markets to rural development

How to effectively support and develop appropriate partnering represents the most significant barrier and opportunity for the functioning and development of short food chain systems not just in Poland. The most significant barriers and opportunities for the development of short food chains requiring partnership action have been identified follows:

1. organisational forms that nurture a sharing economy open to participation of the many;
2. forms of financing food producers and the short food chains systems in which they are participating;
3. actions aimed at product innovation meet the needs of consumers, and vice-versa;
4. small scale food production and processing, including decentralised water and energy solutions;
5. assuring quality and authenticity, including food safety and traceability;
6. gaining market access and competing in the market-place;
7. many-to-many logistical solutions;
8. building greater awareness among consumers concerning the value of locally-produced food.

Public policy and support instruments for joint or collective direct selling by small farms and small food processors who are associated with them and operating also as  part of a short food chain system. Public support should be directed in particular to small farms (eg. less than 5 ha) in order to help them become actively involved as partners in co-creating the short-food system in ways that exploit fully local resources and opportunities.

Here, we highlight publications which provide insights on Short Food Chain initiatives in Poland and on how these are being developed and how they could be supported.

Collaboration is key to scaling up local food systems, but what does it take to collaborate effectively. Rafal Serafin shares experience on brokering shorter food chains in Malopolska (Poland)…….
DOWNLOAD: 2019-Challenge-of-Partnership-Brokering

An important future development lies in initiating effective international collaboration on scaling up short food chains internationally in order to share Polish experience, but also to access relevant experience from other countries. Rafal Serafin provides an overview of short food chain developments as seen from Poland, identifying promising avenues for future collaboration.
DOWNLOAD:  2019-Short_Food_Chains_4_rural_development

A key question relates to who should be providing support for short food chain initiatives – both to individual farmers and food-processes wishing to participate in or organise such initiatives and to organisers of SFC initiatives – be they business, NGO, local government or other types of legal entity. There is no support system currently in place in Poland in this regard and no obvious organisation and entity that has the capabilities to provide relevant support. One institution that could and (probably) should be doing more to support SFC development in Poland is that Agricultural Advisory Service, which is now undergoing reform. Ryszard Kaminski provides information and insights as to how reform of Poland’s Agricultural Advisory Service is progressing and sees it as having the potential and mandate to play a key role in mainstreaming local food in Poland.
DOWNLOAD 2019-Agri-Advisory-Reforms

Here we highlight innovative initiatives in which our Foundation is involved, which seek to scale up and speed up the development of Short Food Chain systems in Poland and internationally. Our ambition is to make buying directly from farmers and small food producers a mainstream reality. We are looking for ideas and partners to take these initiatives forward.

Financial and financing challenges are key to scaling up local food systems. Such financing needs to respond to the needs, circumstances and opportunities of individual farmers and businesses operating as part of short food chain systems, as to also those of those organising, animating and otherwise promoting scaling up of short food chain systems. The LOAN FUND initiative seeks to develop innovative financing for scaling up short food chain systems in Poland.  For details…
DOWNLOAD: 2019-Loan Fund Initiative

Logistical challenges have been identified as a key barrier to scaling up local food systems through engagement of geographically dispersed smallholder farmers. New IT-supported approaches to making better use of existing logistical resources in the control of producers and consumers participating in a local food systems could solve the logistical challenge. The COLLABORATIVE LOGISTICS initiative seeks to develop and test IT-solutions in Poland for replication and adaption internationally.
DOWNLOAD: 2019-Collaborative_Logistics_Initiative