Looking Back at “Making Cities Edible” – the first Edible Cities Network Conference
On the 16th + 17th of February 2022, the EdiCitNet project organized the first Edible Cities Network conference, bringing people from around the world together for two days of discussion, exchange and inspiration on urban food innovation, edible nature based solutions & sustainable cities.
The conference focused on exploring three major questions:
– What are the opportunities & challenges facing urban food communities today?
– How can policy makers better support them?
– How can we join forces to enhance our impact?
The first day kicked off with keynote presentations from Mary Clear – one of the co-founders of the hugely successful and world-famous urban gardening initiative “Incredible Edible Todmorden” – and Jörg Niewöhner, the director of the Integrative Research Institute on Transformations of Human-Environment Systems – who explored both the practical and theoretical aspects of building edible cities of the future. Over the next two days, participants explored the latest updates and findings from the EdiCitNet Living Labs, inspiring theoretical insights on human-food connections, how cities around the world are integrating edible city strategies into their urban development plans and what networks, like EdiCitNet, can do to enhance the impact of small scale urban food initiatives from around the world.
The second day also saw the announcement of the EdiCitNet Award winners and conference participants taking part in an interactive meet & greet session where they could connect to others, share experiences and pose their questions to edible city experts.
We were very happy to welcome participants from over 58 countries to the EdiCitNet Conference, and would like thank all of the participants and all of the panelists who took part, for their dedication and insights throughout these two truly inspiring days. We are already looking forward to the next edition of the EdiCitNet Conference in 2023! Sign up for the EdiCitNet monthly Newsletter to be informed as soon as registration is open for next year’s event.
