EMPOWERING EDUCATION THROUGH RESEARCH AND INNOVATION: UNIFG PARTNERS PRESENT THE CORENET PROJECT
Students discuss the ins and outs of short food chains at workshop held at the University of Foggia
Melania Riefolo, Anna Romagno, Daniela Iannuzzi and Fedele Colantuono (UniFg)
The University of Foggia (Italy), coordinator of the COREnet project, held a workshop on short food supply chains for students in order to: “make all young people aware of the meaning and importance of the Short Food Supply Chain, including inclusiveness and sustainability aspects, with concrete examples from the Capitanata area and Apulia Region”. The students of the UniFg Area Nuova Association helped organise the workshop held on 10 May 2023 at the Department of Economics of Foggia (Italy).
The discussions ranged from the short food supply chain (SFSC) to the best-representing forms of inclusive and sustainability processes associated with it, thanks also to external experts sharing their experiences.
Representatives of the UniFg team involved in the SKIN (concluded) and CoREnet projects (Prof. Mariantonietta Fiore, Prof. Francesco Conto’ and Dr. Fedele Colantuono) shared technical information about short supply chains and gave details about the Horizon projects dedicated to SFSC managed by UniFg.
Prof. Fiore argued that “The short supply chain can be understood as an example of a model capable of countering any form of discrimination, because it is linked to the concept of being together, growing together and exchanging values, as in terms of proximity”. It can thus well be seen as a moment of sharing between citizens, farmers, and producers. It refers to the idea of the direct use of local and fresh products, useful in times of energy crisis.
Dr. Fedele Colantuono firstly explained the result of SKIN, which is the precursor of COREnet. ” The SKIN project was one of the first projects in Europe linked to the short supply chain, presented by the Department of Economics of UNIFG in 2015″. SKIN (Short Supply chain knowledge and Innovation Network) saw the participation of 15-16 European countries and about 20 partners with different skills in the European perspective of the ‘multi-actor’ approach, i.e., involving not only the academic world but also farmers, companies and trade associations. Therefore, over three years a series of 160 good practices were collected and shared within this project being replicated in about 26 countries throughout the world: “A remarkable result, I would say”, F. Colantuono underlined, “compared to the 100 best practices that we had foreseen at the project beginning. We have reached around 200 stakeholders and organised various events with key players to share and pass on skills, such as maintaining product freshness, the concept of quality and how to improve local product marketing, visibility and meet consumers”.
After that, the COREnet coordinator, Professor F. Contò, also went through the concept of the SFSC underlying the oxymoron of competitive cooperation. “An interpretative model of the supply chain would be needed which accepts cooperation without changing it into competition at the expense of the weakest, and which asks the regulators, i.e., the State, the region, or the European Union, to formulate regulations which turn cooperation into a positive competition”.
Prof. Conto’ then explained that the COREnet project has been funded by the EU’s Horizon Europe programme to promote the integration of “SFSC advisors” in the agricultural knowledge and innovation systems (AKIS). This AKIS model will play a strategic role in the next programming of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).
Therefore, COREnet aims at creating a network of expert advisors, to support and assist farmers with good practices and knowledge on SFSCs. All partners have therefore now started to map advisors across the EU.
Prof. Enrica Iannuzzi, from the Department of Economics – UniFg, also expressed the importance of regional laws on territorial governance to promote a dialogue without competition that crushes the weakest actors in the supply chain. She underlined “The word that summarises all this” and that she found in many studies is “Co-opetition” which arises from merging “cooperation” and “competition”, and which corresponds to a “strategy to encourage associations more than anything else in those aspects of one and the other that can represent advantages for all”.
A concrete contribution about local SFSC initiatives carried out in our territory was given by Leonardo Fiore (Coldiretti). He explained the role of the national farmers’ association Coldiretti, under which the farmers markets, local shops and networking initiatives are organised and managed by the farmers’ association “Campagna Amica Foggia”. That is where local producers have a direct role on presenting and selling their products with a common interest to bring together consumers, citizens and agricultural producers for a shared trust value.
Finally, Professor Stefania Menduni brought to the workshop the concrete example of an effective supply chain created in terms of inclusion and sustainability, in which the experience of the local food bank (Banco Alimentare F. Vassalli) was presented. The commitment of such initiative is to accompany the organisations involved in growing a network based on social and environmental values. This supply chain brings food to those who cannot access it, collecting the unused food in shops and restaurants. It also involves disadvantaged people in new projects, social inclusion programmes and promotes their access to the labour market.
At the end of the workshop, the students donated some food products to the local food bank, and they received a copy of Reasoning for local development: a “new” reading of “ancient” themes, edited by Francesco Contò and Mariantonietta Fiore, and which includes some of the SKIN project results.
The event offered the academic community a good opportunity to discuss SFSCs and social and environmental values. Indeed, the students are our future stakeholders and potential operators of food supply chains.
Here is the flyer of the event
Photo Credit: Università di Foggia
