In 2020 the Norwegian social enterprise Nabolagshager hosted, in collaboration with the County Governor of Oslo and Viken and other EdiCitNet partners, an online interactive workshop called “Growing Jobs in Urban Agriculture”.

This workshop aimed to facilitate exchange among practitioners working on urban agriculture, researchers, policy-makers and aspiring entrepreneurs on a major challenge urban farmers are facing: the need to develop business models that are tailored to their community’s needs and the wants of their customers.

An interactive space was provided for more than 40 participants to explore business models for urban agriculture, with 8 different sessions of 30 minutes each. The sessions were highly interactive with short sessions of knowledge transfer from experts in the field accompanied by space to work in groups through real-life cases. The goal was for participants to gain an in-depth understanding of how to develop their own business model for an urban agriculture enterprise.

This collaborative work paved the way for the creation of a new practical playbook called “Growing Jobs in Urban Agriculture”, a publication designed to allow existing ECS initiatives – and aspiring ones – to identify the necessary and sufficient conditions for economic and social success, and equip them with a tool to explore solutions and address the needs of their organisations. This playbook is available now for download at the EdiCitNet Marketplace: www.edicitnet.com/biz

The EdiCitNet Project held its latest Annual Meeting online at the end of March, bringing together many project partners from around the world for two days of exchange and discussion.

The 2-day meeting was very interactive, with partners using both zoom and Wonder to meet and move around from group to group to discuss different topics. After hearing updates from the EdiCitNet partner cities, insights from the Living Labs, the Masterplan process and discussing problems, solutions and future challenges, there were topic-based discussions in the afternoon. The main topics up for discussion on the first day were:

• Sustainability of City Teams
• Implementing the Transition Pathway Methodology
• Circular systems within public green spaces (Natural Resources, water, biodiversity)
• Education – educating across generations, within schools, and kindergartens
• Access to land for urban food projects

To end the day there was also a discussion about the upcoming Visit the Lab events and the planned city exchanges, where project partners will travel and meet their colleagues from around the world, to learn from their experiences, best practices and challenges with edible nature-based solutions.

The big overarching theme of this meeting was the Edible Cities Network itself and the question of how can we build a network that continues after the project ends and makes the world a better place? The EdiCitNet partners reflected on this question many times during these two days and will continue the discussion after the meeting.

The highlight of the second day was a talk and workshop on gender. Dr Jess Halliday from RUAF gave the EdiCitNet partners an insight into the topic of food and gender, after which we discussed problems and goals with the gender and intersectionality lens in different groups, according to fields of work. The learnings and exchange in this session will also be followed up over the next few months to ensure that gender aspects are adequately reflected upon and integrated into future work within the project moving forward.

We thank all speakers and partners for the active participation and exchange and are already looking forward to the next meeting! The next EdiCitNet Annual Meeting is organised for September 2022, and will hopefully be held in presence, in Ljubljana, where it will be hosted by project partner the University of Ljubljana.

Experiencing and enjoying nature, human connection, education, biodiversity, stress reduction, clean air, delicious food… How do we make the complex set of values visible that green initiatives create?

This is what we did in our most recent EdiCitNet workshop in Rotterdam. On Tuesday, March 23, seven representatives from different local initiatives in Rotterdam came together at the Fabriek van Delfshaven for a workshop using the Diamond Model. Ranging from a community park to allotment gardens and from peri-urban agriculture to a social green route, the set of values created by each initiative is as diverse as the perspectives each participant has on their initiative.

(De Stad Uit https://www.destaduit.nl/, Essenburgpark https://www.essenburgpark.nl/, Groene Oase op Zuid https://www.degroeneoaseopzuid.nl/, Groene Connectie https://degroeneconnectie.nl/, Herenboeren https://www.herenboeren.nl/, Voedseltuin https://voedseltuin.com/, Volkstuinvereniging Blijdorp https://www.vtvblijdorp.nl/)

Is it possible to even compare those values? Does the value lie in the eye of the stakeholder or the participant? And how can we use these valuable insights to sustain and strengthen our initiatives?

For now, the Diamond gave us insight in the strongest values per initiative. We discussed each other’s strengths and how to ‘utilize’ these for the best.

We are looking forward to the next workshop in April – details will follow!

The workshop was initiated by the local working group “Visibility and Values” of green initiatives with Nienke Bouwhuis (Groen010/Groene Connectie), Paul De Graaf (Groen010/Coöperatie Ondergrond) and Alice Bischof (Wageningen University) who organized the workshop together.

City Team Meeting 3rd of December 2021 – Masterplan content and first scenario drafts for Berlin

Our December meeting started with a warm welcome to new city team members: a representative of the Berlin Gardener’s association (Kleingartenverband), members of the administration and a representative from the private sector.

The structure of the Masterplan, drafted during November’s meeting, was further developed, and presented to the City Team. Remarks and additions to different chapters were discussed among everyone and a small group was formed, which will continue to work on the structure.

Based on the Social Challenge for Berlin, City Team members had written down early last year, the later developed fields of action, and their respective system elements, December’s City Team brainstormed on possible scenarios for the TPM process. A total of 20 drafts for scenarios was the outcome of a just 15 minutes brainstorming session in small working groups. In order to continue this good work, the working groups gathered again in January.

City Team Meeting 12th of November 2021 – Scenario Development and Masterplan for Berlin In a very dynamic meeting, the City Team discussed the different already existing edible city strategies in Berlin to kick off the scenario development (TPM). These strategies and their relevance for the Masterplan will be further analysed. As part of the co-creative process in developing the Master Plan, the City Team decided in this meeting to agree on the content and structure of the Masterplan for Berlin.

As an outcome of a fruitful discussion, a possible structure of the Masterplan was drafted.

This structure was discussed in the next City Team Meeting in the beginning of December. Furthermore, the City Team gained new members and will hopefully continue to do so in the next meeting

Berlin City Team Meeting 8th of October 2021 – Masterplan EdiCitNet

During this City Team Meeting BOKU Wien gave a short presentation on TPM with a focus on system elements. The City Team discussed the description of the system elements and developed critical elements that should form part in every description:

• a definition of the system element,
• followed by a short description of the current situation in Berlin as whole,
• as well as the current situation in areas of the Berlin Neighbourhood Management Programme,

both might be accompanied by data and should focus purely on the system element. Moreover, the City Team agreed on a responsible for every topic and set a schedule for the co-creative work with the goal to finalize the description of the system elements. The defined system elements will be presented and discussed during the next City Team Meeting which will take place in November.