We from FUSILLI Rome definitely have had a busy time this fall. Since we could not avoid letting colleagues from other projects participate in the great work that our LL’s stakeholders and City administration have done and are doing in Rome, nor could we remain in the dark about other cities’ and projects’ strategies and achievements, we planned our participation in 2 milestone events, in Brussels and Turin. Although we probably could have found less tiring ways to do it… instead we wanted to travel in a sustainable way: mainly by train.

From Rome to Brussels: Sustainable Travel and Urban Agriculture

So, taking advantage of errands to run in Lille, we flew from Rome to Lille and then sustainably (and carrying a truly heavy backpack) reached Brussels by train, to the Final Conference of the EFUA project for Urban Agriculture, hosted by the EFUA partner Boerenbond Projecten. At the wonderful location of Les Ateliers des Tanneurs, on 25-26th September. Apart from the fact of having witnessed a mugging, in the very center of the capital of Europe, we were warmly welcomed in Brussels.

The “ACTION!” conference format ensured numerous formal and informal networking opportunities with the chance to meet other Urban Agriculture enthusiasts and professionals from across the EU. Urban farmers, city and regional representatives, civil society groups, policy makers, researchers, national and international associations, the scientific community, professional experts and media representatives participated in the interactive event featuring lively field visits, discussions, ‘ready-to-implement’ insights, knowledge exchange and stimulating workshops.

Collaboration for Food Systems Change

FUSILLI project was directly involved in one of the conference workshops, “Collaborating for food systems change: uniting food policy councils and urban agriculture”, facilitated by Zoe Heuschkel (Fachhochschule Sudwestfallen University of Applied Sciences), Lucie Sovová (Wageningen University and Research) and Lenneke Vaandrager (Wageningen University and Research).

Elisabetta Luzzi (Project Coordinator for Risorse per Roma SpA) and Piroska Kállay (Member of the EESC and President of the Permanent Group on Sustainable Food Systems) geared participants’ involvement in trying to answer questions such as: “Do UA and food policy councils need separate representation on the EU level?”, “What about a Quality of Life council?”, “Do we find a good link between urban and rural agriculture?”, “How to link local and European level?”, “How fast to change food systems?”, “How to link local and European level?”, “Local councils can serve as consultants for the city. EU as a Forum for exchange”, “What are the actions required?”.

The workshop revealed significant potential for collaboration between urban agriculture communities and food policy councils to drive systemic change in food systems. Participants emphasized the need for joint action, such as aligning their goals, establishing shared platforms for exchange, and leveraging their combined influence to advocate for policy reforms at the EU level. The networking activity was HUGE.

The Journey to Terra Madre: Adventures and Delays

Then, immediately after “ACTION!”, FUSILLI boldly decided to reach Turin by train. Therefore, due to the insane railway time-schedules, planning to stop for a night in Paris (at private expense), which meant sleeping IN a bistrot as it was the only cheap place in Paris halfway between the arrival station (Gare du Nord) and the departure station (Gare de Lyon). Not mentioning the shabby state of the mini-size room and the smell of fries coming from the kitchen downstairs, silver lining we can confirm the bistrot dinner (at private expense, too) was truly excellent, the wine even better.

The following day, we embarked on a train ride that we didn’t know would take a full 12 hours… guiltily forgetting that the high-speed line is not connected to Italy due to protests by environmentalists, and naively ignoring that a landslide in August had even interrupted the 1950 rails where the train should have passed…! Long story short, we traveled as migrants on a cattle wagon, in sequence: on a dirty and late French train; then crossing the border at night in a French “replacement bus” featuring anti-migrant police checks on passengers and luggage, and finally on a slow slow but very slow Italian train, which dropped us off, hungry and thirsty, in Turin in the middle of the night, 3 hours late, at a different station than expected. And always carrying the heavy backpack. Though, we must admit we had lot of fun!

Terra Madre: Presenting FUSILLI’s Innovations in Turin

In Turin our collegues from the City Office for the Food Council and from the National Network for the Local Food Policies were waiting for us at TerraMadre, the international event on food and food systems organized by Slow Food, this year from 26-30 September. Under a still summer sun, thousands of visitors were able to listen to the testimonies of more than 700 speakers from the many conferences and about a thousand meetings dedicated to bringing healthy, clean and fair food for all back to the centre of the public agenda.

In front of an audience coming from all continents, on 29 September Laura Ribotta for the FUSILLI city of Turin, Elisabetta Luzzi for Risorse per Roma S.p.A., and Line Tveiten for the FUSILLI city of Oslo presented the trajectories followed by their cities to foster the transition towards sustainable food systems in the focus event “FUSILLI: Implementation tools for urban food policy”.

FUSILLI Rome’s Achievements and Impact

It was worth to remind that what has been sown: in previous EU projects, Rome coached 10 EU cities – plus Barranquilla in Colombia – through a ‘learning-by-doing’ methodology to enhance decision-making, trust-building, communication and conflict-management, innovative actions, citizen training and fighting social exclusion. And in transferring the good practice for cooperation in urban regeneration and resilience, social inclusion, circular economy, FUSILLI fully interpreted the spirit of the Terra Madre festival.

As per Rome, in engaging, enabling and entitling a multi-stakeholder Living Lab of 250 subjects – embedded in and endorsed by the City government – while embracing hundreds of activities on the field enlightened through a three-years-long weekly Newsletter and an active Facebook page, FUSILLI was strategical in creating the City Food Council (established within the City Assembly as a stable consultancy body in October 2023) and the City Food Office, plus accelerating the approval of the Municipal Regulation for Urban Community Gardens: paving in gold the way of the Rome Food Policy.

Once back home, not sparing us another short trip to Barcelona as Food Design Innovation Committee member in EFood event (which we will tell you more about another time) for FUSILLI RC&RPR team it was exciting, thrilling, and almost touching, to be officially thanked by the President of the Food Council, and publicly applauded by the Food Council Assembly of 156 delegates, plus Councillors and Public Officers, gathered in the gorgeous Council Hall of the Metropolitan City last November 3rd. In that occasion, to ensure that the Delegates would remember that FUSILLI sowed, and disseminated like pollinating insects, the foundations of Rome’s food policy, as a gadget we gave everyone flowering meadow seeds.

It is precisely this closure of our tiring and beautiful journey that we want to show you in photos: