Yolda is a nature conservation organization established in 2015. From the beginning, Yolda’s focus has been on traditional cultural practices and production systems that benefit both biodiversity conservation and climate crisis mitigation and adaptation. Engin Yılmaz, Yolda’s executive director, tells us more about the importance of the traditional ecological knowledge and the value of relationships between consumers and producers.

Mobile pastoralism

Working at an international level, Yolda is collaborating with  mobile pastoralist communities in different regions to understand and disseminate the benefits of the practice to biodiversity and climate action. The lands of one of these communities called Sarikeçili has recently joined the Foodnected project as a pilot site. They are traveling around a geographical area of 300 km across Turkey, wintering in the pastures of southern shores and summering in the highlands of Taurus Mountains.

‘Pastoralism, explains Engin, is a form of animal husbandry, of raising livestock (mostly herbivores species) and, most importantly, it is entirely different in essence to intensive livestock production systems. We use the word mobile to encompass the many ways the people move with the livestock, as opposed to sedentary pastoralism. Thus, mobile pastoralism refers to the many ways when people move through landscapes with livestock.’

The definition of mobile pastoralism can vary as it greatly depends on the topography of the area along which these communities travel, the climate, the socio-economic context, etc. Yet in all scenarios, this traditional production system holds benefits for biodiversity conservation and climate crisis mitigation and adaptation efforts.

‘Through their mobility, these nomadic communities ensure the connectivity between different habitats and, therefore, support other species regarding functional and structural connectivity. Let’s take the role they play in seed dispersal: The animals eat plants, they carry the seeds of these plants via their coats, fleeces, hooves and droppings. In a scientific study conducted in Spain, it was proven that a herd of 1000 transhumant sheep carries almost 200 millions ingested seeds over 1,500 km. On top of that, the carbon footprint of these communities is very low, especially because of their mobility. They use very low levels of fuel. Their life is adapted to the climate. When they leave a site, they allow the vegetation to regenerate. And very importantly, they play a role in preserving the cultural heritage.’

Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK)

The preservation of traditional knowledge is one of the valores fundamentales of the Foodnected and it encompasses here various interactions between the communities and nature, as well as the interactions within the community itself. This, for instance, includes herd management, animal and human well-being, knowledge of fauna and flora, knowledge transmission, etc.

To illustrate the importance of this knowledge, Engin takes the example of the interactions between the communities and wolves. ‘In the French Pyrenees, there were no wolves left. So, the government took measures to reintroduce wolves in the mountains. This created a conflict between transhumance communities there and the French government. One of the important aspects of this conflict was that the communities were no longer holding as much traditional ecological knowledge as in the past in terms of confronting and mitigating the conflicts against these predators, resulting in the experience being very traumatic for them. In Turkey, there are 7000 wolves and none of these are seen as traumatic by the nomadic communities, because they have been living like this for centuries. They use particular tools against it, like dogs. They also have dogs in the French Pyrenees, but the knowledge in Turkey on how to pick the right breed, do the right training, manage the dog pack and how many dogs should be in a pack is still very rich. All of this of course will vary depending on the region and the environment. So, we believe that this kind of knowledge needs to be kept. These communities have been living in uncertainty for centuries and their daily lives are adapted to respond to changes. There is also  wisdom in that knowledge that can help develop responses to crises such as a pandemic.’

The relationship between producers and consumers

Since its foundation, Yolda, just like Foodnected, has been trying to reduce the distance between producers and consumers. ‘In our case, shortening the value chains doesn’t mean selling and buying locally, since the communities are moving long distances. It means trying to avoid any other actors along the chain and make consumers and communities share the same vision of producing and consuming food.’ 

Yolda sees humans as an essential part of the ecosystem and the relationship between consumers and producers as crucial in order to achieve more sustainable and fairer food systems. ‘We can’t rely on a dichotomy between nature and culture. Nature provides benefits for culture, but culture also can provide benefits for nature. And, that’s what we’re expecting of consumers: to reach this same way of thinking. This will help us in advocating a proper legal framework to support sustainable producers instead of industrial production systems, and, then, we can have an impact at regional, national, and global levels. This has to start with the relationship between consumers and producers.’

Similar to the Foodnected project, Local Catch is a North American network of fishing families/businesses/communities, researchers, non-profit organizations, technical assistance providers, and decision-makers. We had the great opportunity to speak with Jordan Richardson – the network coordinator and Brett Tolley – the national programme coordinator for the Northwest Atlantic Marine Alliance (Nama), which provides backbone support to Local Catch.

Local Catch was founded at a time where different seafood networks were forming as an alternative to industrial fishing models. 

It all started around 2009, Brett Tolley tells us, when small-scale fishers in Maine realized that the current sea food supply chain was forcing them into scenarios where they either had to catch a really high volume in order to make a decent living, which they knew was not sustainable, or not be able to make a business. They decided to unite in order to get a better price and thus reduce the pressure on the species they were catching, and it was a success! At the same time, the exact same thing was happening in North Carolina, in British Columbia and in Massachusetts. The global nature of the supply chain was getting so extreme that selling prices were getting lower and lower and reached a tipping point. In that moment, these groups realized that solidarity and sharing best practices with one another was key to be more in control of their catch. I also think the success of the whole initiative was due to the fact that it wasn’t driven by the wish to make money, but by the fishers’ livelihoods.

The Local Catch network, just like Foodnected, is guided by a number of core values thanks to which the network maintains trust among its members but also with consumers. 

The values are the lifeblood of the network, Jordan Richardson insists, it couldn’t work without very clear and meaningful core values because they allow accountability and trust. For a network to thrive, there must be trust. Feeling like you are connecting with other members who also adhere to these core values is what fosters collaboration, teamwork and engagement within the network.

Collaboration and connection with like minded people is the strength of the network. Jordan explains : One of the biggest perks of being part of a structure like this is to have this network of seafood producers, businesses, technical assistance providers, researchers and being able to connect directly with them. We organize workshops and we have an internal communication tool that our members can use when they have a business question, when they’re looking for somebody that’s purchasing a certain type of product or even just to discuss the core values (for instance: what does ‘local’ mean?). It’s a great way for our members to connect with people who understand what they are going through and an opportunity to learn from one another. The network is also them giving visibility, for instance we have a seafood finder that helps consumers find fishers who directly sell their catch. 

Initiatives like Foodnected and Local Catch promote fairer and more sustainable food systems that work for people, but also for nature. Industrial food systems and supply chains are messing with the environment everywhere, says Brett. Our ecological footprint is just outrageous. What we’re building here is an alternative that honors scale and the rhythm of the ecosystem with shorter supply chains. 

He also stresses the importance of support coming from consumers : It’s about moral support. It is so important for people who fish. Part of what industrial fishing does is make the fisher invisible, it takes a catch and exports it outside of the country, so that the people living here don’t know what kind of fish swims in their own waters. It doesn’t mean they don’t care, it’s just that they don’t know what fishers are catching. When there’s a development coming to town threatening the livelihoods of fishers, they don’t get local support because people don’t know. So there is responsibility for consumers to get to know these things : who are the fishers, what do they catch, how do they do it? 

For consumers it’s really important to understand the practices and the values that businesses are embodying, Jordan adds, and for them to know what values they are looking for when they are buying food and if these values align. The ability for our members to be transparent about where the fish is coming from is crucial for consumers to get a better understanding. It really comes down to trying to have the most direct connection possible – for instance being able to ask questions at the market or getting an explanation about where the fish was caught if it is bought online.

More info about Local Catch : https://localcatch.org/

More info about Nama : https://www.namanet.org/

July 29, 2021 was Earth Overshoot Day. This marks the date when humanity’s demand for ecological resources and services in a given year exceeds what Earth can regenerate that same year. For ensuring a thriving future for our societies, we have to move that date and to this there isn’t one-single magical solution but rather a mosaic of solutions widely implemented, altogether.

Except for the inverted trend seen last year, when Earth Overshoot Day fell on August 22nd and mainly by disasters (due to COVID-19), the Earth Overshoot Day has come earlier and earlier every year, approximately about a month earlier every decade since its first manifestation in 1970s. This is indicative of a growing human demand (for plant-based food and fiber products, livestock and fish products, timber and other forest products, space for urban infrastructure, and forest to absorb its carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels) on the planet’s resources, which is now equivalent to about 1.7 planets worth of resources and ecological services.

Countless solutions exist and this need for many different answers is well represented by the ‘100 days of possibility’ campaign, promoted by Global Footprint Network, offering a solution a day from July 29 to the beginning of the COP26. The idea was to highlight alternatives to the current ways of operating our societies in the days leading up to what was going to be the most important event this year. Many of the solutions collected for the campaign are proof that alternatives are available and could be scaled-up if the political willingness to do so was present. Since the political powers seem to underestimate the climate crisis, it is more important than ever to bring such projects up and give them visibility to as many people as possible.

The way we produce and consume food has a great impact on the environment and a key role in this fight.

As our recent past has shown, about 50% of such human demand on the planet’s resources is due to our food systems, meaning the way in which we produce, transport, distribute, consume and, unfortunately, waste food. Shifting our approach to more sustainable food systems would thus help move the date on which us humans surpass what global resources can sustain in a single year. Here again, there are different ways this can be achieved, such as eating locally, cultivating in a sustainable way (e.g., via agroforestry practices) or reducing food waste.

This is exactly what the Foodnected project aims to achieve.

The short-chain, fair and sustainable food systems we are realizing via the Foodnected Community of Practice is one of the solutions. Practicing an ethical code of environmental and social values, utilizing low-impact production systems, and reconnecting producers and consumers (by reducing the distance between them) helps disrupt the prevailing food market mechanisms. And indeed, a Community of Practices (CoP) connects small-scale food producers and consumers under shared values to facilitate the development of short-chain and sustainable food systems that work for nature and people, starting in the Mediterranean region.

The livestock sector is certainly one of the most important given its contribution to GHGs emissions as well as land and water use, worldwide. It is thus an obvious place to start.

On October 29, the solution was the promotion of beef production methods that focus on integrating cattle with a local mixed landscape, like the smallholder farms of Menorca’s Custòdia Agrària programme, part of the Foodnected programme. These farms take advantage of the heterogeneous landscape (combining arable land with areas of wild vegetation) for agricultural production. The cattle feed partly on wild pasture and walk among wooded areas. This allows for significant amounts of carbon dioxide to be captured. In addition, the type of management practiced does not exhaust biodiversity, but promotes it.

The Ecological Footprint is a tool used to measure how much nature we have, and how much nature we use. Food consumption across the globe contributes to about 26% of humanity’s Ecological Footprint. As they work with the local environment and apply beneficial management practices, eating fair and local meat produced in the farms of Custòdia Agrària would help reduce the Footprint of consuming beef by up to 64% compared to beef conventionally produced. Applied worldwide, the production methods of Custòdia Agrària would move the date of Earth Overshoot Day by 5 days.

Such practices foster local development in their territories with new models of governance that involve and hold all local stakeholders accountable with a community-based and participative approach. This encourages small-scale producers to become actors of change for the necessary transition to sustainable and fair food systems. Creativity and networking promote knowledge sharing, collective understanding, and mentorship needed to build a better future, leading to innovation, creativity and social entrepreneurship.

We can all do something to combat climate change and resource overuse, and ultimately postpone Earth Overshoot Day. We can start with becoming aware of our own environmental impact. Want to measure yours here?

El proyecto Foodnected comienza a compartir su enfoque de los sistemas alimentarios locales, justos y sostenibles.

Un proyecto conjunto de Slow Food, Global Footprint Network, Low Impact Fishers of Europe (LIFE) y GOB Menorca, apoyado por la Fundación MAVA, Foodnected presentó su estructura fundacional: la Comunidad de Práctica (CoP) de Foodnected, un grupo organizado de pequeños productores, consumidores y otros actores clave del sistema alimentario, con puntos de vista compartidos sobre la sostenibilidad.

Italia, 30 de junio de 2021.

Durante el seminario web Foodnected: la importancia de la comunidad de práctica, organizado el 30 de junio durante el evento internacional Slow Fish 2021, el Comunidad de Práctica de Foodnected (CoP) se introdujo mediante la presentación de sus valores fundamentales y su ámbito de aplicación, su gobernanza y su estructura de funcionamiento. El debate se centró en las relaciones y estructuras sociales que permiten a las personas mejorar sus capacidades y aprender de las experiencias de los demás.

La CoP está formada por un conjunto diverso y amplio de partes interesadas (y sus redes), incluidos los consumidores, en las cadenas de valor cortas. Su objetivo es generar y compartir experiencias y buenas prácticas, buscar soluciones viables a los retos comunes y crear sinergias que faciliten la transición hacia sistemas alimentarios justos y sostenibles con una baja Huella Ecológica, empezando por la región mediterránea.

En este contexto, los miembros de la CoP coinciden en que la sostenibilidad implica reconocer la estrecha interdependencia de los distintos aspectos de la producción y el consumo de alimentos: económico, medioambiental y sociocultural. En consecuencia, cada objetivo debe establecerse y perseguirse como parte de una estrategia que tenga en cuenta todas las demás dimensiones.

Todos los coproductores

"Que nuestros estilos de vida ya no son sostenibles es un hecho constatado. Como todos comemos, todos compartimos la responsabilidad de avanzar hacia la sostenibilidad: agricultores, pescadores, procesadores, responsables políticos y miembros del público pueden influir en el sistema alimentario a través de las decisiones que toman. Pero este sentido de corresponsabilidad no existe en los sistemas alimentarios actuales. Esto se debe en parte a que las políticas se diseñan con un enfoque descendente. Además, el sistema está realmente fragmentado. Los sistemas alimentarios actuales tienden a separar a los agricultores de los pescadores, de los queseros, etc., cuando la realidad es que todos ellos están interconectados. Falta la visión holística", afirma Paula Barbeito, coordinadora de Foodnected en Slow Food.

Para identificar los valores centrales de la CoP, el equipo de Foodnected realizó una búsqueda de ejemplos pertinentes de iniciativas que apoyaran el objetivo de mejorar los sistemas alimentarios de cadena corta que funcionan tanto para las personas como para el planeta.

Tras revisar más de 100 proyectos de 15 países diferentes y realizar talleres con las partes interesadas, la definición de Foodnected de sistemas alimentarios justos y sostenibles se construyó en torno a cinco pilares y diez valores fundamentales.

Estos sistemas deben garantizar:

- acceso a alimentos de alta calidad nutricional

- rendimientos económicos justos para los pequeños productores

- desarrollo local y reconocimiento de las mujeres y de las generaciones más jóvenes

- respeto a la estacionalidad y a la interconectividad de los ecosistemas

- preservación de los conocimientos tradicionales locales.

Además de dar forma a nuestra cultura, los alimentos son un aspecto fundamental de la seguridad nutricional y representan una importante fuente de ingresos y empleo, apoyando los medios de vida en muchas regiones. Sin embargo, factores como la intensificación de la producción, la concentración del sector alimentario en menos manos o la comercialización y distribución de un número reducido de variedades, han llevado a una mala gestión de los recursos y a métodos de producción perjudiciales para el medio ambiente. Todos estos aspectos afectan a nuestra salud y a la de los ecosistemas y, al mismo tiempo, provocan la pérdida de los conocimientos tradicionales y de la capacidad de recuperación de las comunidades. Los sistemas alimentarios del futuro deben incorporar relaciones sociales de producción, comercio y patrones de consumo que proporcionen dietas saludables y, en última instancia, determinen prácticas justas y sostenibles. Las comunidades y las personas conectadas a la alimentación se comprometen así a contribuir a cambiar el sistema alimentario siguiendo estas pautas valores fundamentales:

- Soberanía alimentaria, calidad y salud

- Precio justo mediante cadenas de suministro cortas

- Garantizar la justicia y la equidad

- Gobernanza justa e inclusiva

- Mayor transparencia y responsabilidad

- Creación de empleo y desarrollo local

- Agroecología y pesca de bajo impacto

- Honrar la naturaleza

- Potenciación, creatividad y colaboración

- Apoyo científico a los conocimientos ecológicos tradicionales (TEK)

En los próximos meses, basándose en los valores fundamentales y en los debates constructivos con las partes interesadas, el proyecto proporcionará directrices para ayudar a los productores a ponerlas en práctica en los lugares piloto (Menorca, Ibiza y Sicilia) y hacer un seguimiento de los avances. El proyecto también ofrecerá una mayor visibilidad a las iniciativas de sus miembros, apoyará la colaboración entre profesionales y ampliará las experiencias entre los agentes de la cadena de suministro corta para facilitar la transferencia de conocimientos entre profesionales.