Rome Living Lab reaches major milestone with 1st Plenary Assembly

The FUSILLI Living Lab in Italy’s capital Rome went in full swing on December 13, 2021 with its first Plenary Assembly. Sabrina Alfonsi, Councilor and delegate for the Environment, Agriculture and Waste Management Cycle, introduced the newly elected city government’s guidelines for a more sustainable food system to 65 participants, complimented by a lively and fruitful discussion. The guidelines are based on the Rome Food Policy Resolution 38/2021, developed with a bottom-up approach, that had been approved earlier in 2021, already 3 months after the FUSILLI project had started. “It’s quite a result achieved, we believe”, pointed out Risorse per Roma, the co-organizer of the Plenary Assembly.

(Credits for both images: Risorse per Roma)

 

The guidelines cover many different aspects of Rome’s urban food policy. Amongst others, they include the following innovative ideas:

For producers, the creation of at least one public hub for tasting, experimenting, distributing and education on food issues and also for promoting the excellence of  Roman food – a so-called “Citadel for the food policy” is envisaged.

It should be easier for consumers to find the right products for the famous Mediterranean diet. Therefore, a map showing all farms, livestock farms and urban gardens in Rome where purchasing (or growing) the right products is planned. Building a network of local green markets can give producers a unified voice.

The waste management can be transformed by promoting small-scale compositing and redistributing the surpluses of recycling actions to charities. As for governance issues, it was highlighted that there is a need for a more systemic transformation – as Rome’s number of inhabitants amounts to 3.5 million.

It was highlighted by the Administration’s representatives that numerous active citizens, Start Ups, SMEs, apps, associations and borough sub-administrations have been piloting many solutions for a better food system in the past 10 years. It is key to learn from these experiences.

The exchange will continue in more meetings to come between the City of Rome, the coordination team of the FUSILLI Roma Living Lab and the Promoting Committee of the Resolution 38/2021. Learning from others will be crucial as well. Therefore, more exchanges will take place with other EU projects that Rome is involved in (EFUA, Ru:rban, GardeniserPlus and Capperi).