The EdiCitNet Advent Calendar is Live!

You can get to know our EdiCitNet partners in a fun and interactive way this December. Starting 1^st December, each day will be dedicated to a special partner and the wonderful work they have been doing to make Edible City Solutions successful.

Don’t miss the opportunity to discover these organizations this festive season!

Click here to know our featured partner of the day.

Wishing you a joyous holiday season,
Your EdiCitNet team and partners

Following the City Team Neukölln Kick-Off meeting in October, and the workshops I and II in November on co-creating Edible City Solutions took place. Together with representatives from the communal administration, local social and culture institutions, the neighborhood and nature conservation, we explored relevant topic clusters for the development of adapted Edible City Solutions. With the help of a pre-test the City Team identified key areas to develop further activities in. The areas read as follows:

The Living Lab as a place for active neighborhood participation for a vital and participative neighborhood and cemetery development.

The Living Lab as an environmentally sound and low threshold educational space for sustainable and climate friendly urban nature and urban agriculture.

The Living Lab as a space for co-creating a gentle cultural change of a cemetery considering the fostering of biodiversity and conservation as a green commemorative and recreation place.

On this basis the City Team collected potential activities and projects to be developed in the Living Lab of Prinzessinnengarten. In Workshop III, which will follow in the first half of December, these activities will be specified into further Edible City Solutions. An update on these will follow soon.

Our member Dr. Ina Säumel published a study about traditional medicinal plants in South Tyrol in the Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine:

“Worldwide mountain regions are recognized as hotspots of ethnopharmacologically relevant species diversity. In South Tyrol (Southern Alps, Italy), and due to the region’s high plant diversity and isolated population, a unique traditional botanical knowledge of medicinal plants has flourished, which traces its history back to prehistoric times. However, changes in rural life and culture may threaten this unique biodiversity and cultural heritage. Our study aims to collect and analyze information on native plants used in traditional folk medicine, focusing on the preservation of botanical and cultural diversity.”

The results revealed a strong association between food and medicinal uses of the plants, including 128 aromatic or food related species (46.5% of all mentioned species) from over 50 families.

Find the study here: https://rdcu.be/cbodX

We are pleased to introduce to you the cooperative Andes Bioenergy BDA (Alivio), which is part of the Edible Cities Network.

Alivio is a cooperative start-up with a unique and own technology that can convert agro-residues (e.g. husks, shells, parchments) currently hoarded and decomposing in agroindustrial facilities/farmers cooperatives, into biochar and renewable thermal energy.

With a design and cost adapted to middle-income countries, BDA´s multifunctional facilities promote the bioeconomy, citizen science, gender equality, carbon sequestration, replacement of fossil fuels with renewable energy and the creation of technology jobs in the rural sector.

Find more information on their website: https://www.alivio-ecuador.org/

Become part of the EdiCitNet Marketplace along with many exciting initiatives like Alivio and register here: https://www.edicitnet.com/biz/

Last Saturday, our member Thomas Wachtel presented the EdiCitNet project at the autumn meeting of the Slow Food movement with around 60 participants from the regional Slow Food working groups. In the online meeting, future possibilities of cooperation between EdiCitNet and SlowFood were discussed. In the evening, there was an interesting online seminar about the production and quality of regional products including a tasting of these products. An informative and at the same time delicious event!

We congratulate our partner Nabolagshager who won a silver medal at the annual Norwegian Honey Championship in the category “honeydew” for the honey produced on their rooftop.

Nabolagshager is part of our Living Lab in Oslo and does a job program for high school students to explore green jobs of the future – including beekeeping. Through that, social challenges like social exclusion and unemployment can be solved.

It is important for the mentors that the youth develop a curiosity for and an understanding of sustainability and biodiversity through their tasks. They also want to build networks with other beekeepers, so the youth can learn more about the professional opportunities in beekeeping, and help the youth see this as a viable and exciting career path.

Find the original article here (in Norwegian): https://www.dagsavisen.no/nyheter/summende-suksess-fra-gronland-med-medalje-i-honning-nm-1.1797614