It has been an intense three years, but they have gone fast! The project eTOMATO comes to an end, and it is time to look back at the achievements and think forward in the future. How can we exploit and keep the legacy for the results of these years? We invite you to explore the “Results” section on our website to keep making use of the tools developed during the course. If you are a project University, you [...]
Our social farm Gebroeders Vercammen, in Belgium has had a successful summer! After some setbacks due to the Corona-crisis, the luck we’ve had with our summer camps was more than welcome. During those camps, we provided activities for a 30 few children with and without mental or behavioral disabilities. We focused on creativity, fun and games and learning about life on a farm. It was a relief to see the registrations flowing in and to accept to positive [...]
A new project is starting in La Junquera to become more circular and to increase our short supply chains. We do this through a vermicomposting business that increases our soil fertility and reduces our need for pallet fertilizers. Soil fertility is a major challenge in the area, and available local organic humus is usually at a too young stage to increase notably the soil fertility, as well as too expensive considering the farm size. In collaboration with Bioagricultiva, [...]
Masseria Redenta, in Italy, has organized in October days of Didactical Farming. The initiative takes the name of “Masseria Didattica”; it is a school of outdoor ecology and active rural pedagogy, which proposes experiences of agricultural life in a real traditional farm with all the works that characterize it. The Didactic farm can also be a center of experience on man and nature, memory, landscape, rurality, listening, reading, in direct relationship with the Earth. And it is precisely [...]
The outbreak of, and the last two years of the COVID-19 pandemic disease showed more than ever how crucial it is to create and maintain food system’s sustainability and equitability. But how to do so? During the pandemic, one in three people have gone hungry. Agriculture and land use take around one quarter of the total greenhouses emission, having devastating effects on biodiversity and climate change. This while considering that our demand for food is expected to rise [...]
On June 2021, the European Parliament, the European Council and the European Commission agreed on the reform of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). This provisional political agreement paves the way for the formal approval of the necessary legislation by the European Parliament and the Council in the autumn of 2021. The new CAP aims to foster a sustainable and competitive agricultural sector that can support the livelihoods of farmers and provide healthy and sustainable food for society, as [...]
In the middle of the Euganean Hills, specifically in the municipality of Montegrotto Terme, the “Museo del Termalismo antico e del Territorio” has recently been opened. As its name indicates, its main objective is to join: hydrotherapy, as a millenary tradition in the Eugene area; and the space, because the museum allows to know other highlights of this geographical space. On the one hand, the thermal water lake with health benefits has distinguished this space since ancient times. [...]
Biodynamics is a holistic, ecological, and ethical approach to farming, gardening, food, and nutrition. In Bulgaria the beginning of biodynamic agriculture is set by a family that grows their plants according to the principles of biodynamic agriculture. These are Maria and Dimitar Stoyanovi, who in 1998 inherited from their parents 0.35 hectares of agricultural land in the village of Bachkovo and began to grow fruits, vegetables and grapes, following the rules of biodynamic agriculture. In 2010, their average [...]
15 candidates for the Business Model Competition are now racing to be graded with the highest score to attend the one month internship at Masseria Redenta. Indeed, the best two performers will access the practical pilot phase to put into practice what they have learnt on Multifunctional Agriculture during the eTOMATO course. The candidates have outlined their own Multifunctional organization by making use of the eTOMATO tools for assessing the Readiness to become a multifunctional entrepreneur and organize [...]
Step by step we are getting closer to the summer. The sun shines more often, the temperatures are rising slowly, and the days consists of more sun hours. It has been a turbulent winter at social farm Tallaart (Belgium). The Pandemic has forced us to change our way of working. We had to adjust both our daily routine and the organisation of our camps to keep the farm going. And we did it with great success! The camps [...]