"COACH Collaborative Agri-food Chains: Driving Innovation in Territorial Food Systems and Improving Outcomes for Producers and Consumers"

Geographical location	United Kingdom
Main geographical location (NUTS3)	Warwickshire
Keywords	Agricultural production system Supply chain, marketing and consumption Farming practice
Main funding source	Horizon 2020 (EU Research & Innovation programme)
Project type	Research project
Starting date	2020
End date	2023
Project status	Ongoing
Website	COACH Project Website

Title (in English):

COACH Collaborative Agri-food Chains: Driving Innovation in Territorial Food Systems and Improving Outcomes for Producers and Consumers

Objective of the project (native language):

"see objectives in English"

Objective of the project (in English):

COACH is a 3-year, EU funded project focusing on collaborative agri-food initiatives anchored in territorial food systems. The project facilitates collaboration between farmers, consumers, local governments and other actors to scale up short agri-food chains which rebalance farmers’ position, create win-wins for producers and consumers and drive innovation in territorial food systems.

Description of activities (in English):

The project delivers training, capacity-building and knowledge-exchange activities, including coaching and mentoring, to support farmers and small operators in the food chain to build their capacity to connect with consumers. Key project outputs include: an online ‘Living Library’ of 30+ good practice case studies; a farm-to-fork public procurement toolkit; 11 multi-actor dialogues; 7 training events, and new insights and guidance on costs and margins in collaborative short food supply chains. Project resources are disseminated through an online Communications, Learning and Innovation Platform (CLIP).

Project coordinator

Contact person:

Professor Moya Kneafsey

Address:

Coventry University, Ryton Gardens, Wolston Lane, COVENTRY, CV8 3LG

E-mail:

moya.kneafsey@coventry.ac.uk

Phone:

07974984850 (c/o Project Manager - Amy Arnold)

Partner category:

Researcher

Practice summary

Practice abstract 1

Short title (native language):

COACH Spotlight – Public Food Procurement

Short summary for practitioners (native language):

Enabling small-scale food producers to access public sector contracts can have a positive impact on the food quality served in public institutions, its accessibility and consumers’ healthy eating habits. Based on data generated via workshops attended by COACH Beacons, and feedback provided by them, COACH identified the following barriers hindering small-scale farmers’ desire to participate in Public Food Procurement (PFP):
• Volume of produce – individual small-scale producers alone can't deliver the minimum required quantity to access the tender
• Logistical issues – collaboration with small-scale producers requires more advanced organization (e.g., food hubs) to smoothen the delivery process, etc.
• Extensive digitalization – not all individual producers are technologically advanced; they don't know required software thus cannot access the PFP
• Financial risk for the supplier – small-scale farmers can't afford to be paid days after delivering products, which is often how public institutions pay

To enable small-scale farmers to access PFP, one solution is to use relevant procurement criteria focused on the quality of food, the production’s impact on the environment and more, rather than price alone. Public food demand should be divided into smaller lots and be informed by market dialogues.
To learn how City of Copenhagen implemented 90% organic food across all administrations serving public meals in a cost-effective manner, listen to an interview with Betina Bergmann Madsen, chief procurement officer in Copenhagen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6CCkUOztoCE&ab_channel=OnePlanetnetwork
More info: https://coachproject.eu/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/D2.4-COACH-Spotlight-...

Practice abstract 2

Short title (native language):

COACH Spotlight – Gender Equality and Equity

Short summary for practitioners (native language):

Women stand for approximately half of the global agricultural labour, and as consumers, they are more likely to experience food insecurity and barriers to accessing productive resources and services. At the same time, women remain significantly underrepresented in public institutions and governance mechanisms, and they have less decision-making power. While improving collaborative short agri-food chains, it’s crucial to opt for gender-sensitive solutions.
Based on the material collected during COACH workshops, these are the recommendations for practitioners:
- Address forms of power and privilege within agricultural production and supply chains by including more diverse human voices and addressing structural issues.
- Invite women to the policymaking process.
- Listen to the podcast “A journey through Feminist Agroecology” co-created by COACH partner – Coventry University – and find out “What does feminism have to do with the food you eat?” (https://open.spotify.com/episode/0GPlXjkOYT4ZQgXhwIzVVa).
- Recognize that each person does not begin in the same place in society. Identify markers such as race, class, disability, gender, and sexual orientation in order to distribute resources and opportunities based on the needs of recipients to reach an equal outcome.
Read the COACH Spotlight Analysis to learn more about gender equity in collaborative short food supply chains: https://coachproject.eu/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/D2.4-COACH-Spotlight-...

Practice abstract 3

Short title (native language):

COACH Spotlight – Education and Information

Short summary for practitioners (native language):

Education and Information are essential to transform food systems in the long term. To raise a new generation of agroecological farmers, assist chefs with serving sustainable meals, and educate consumers about the social and environmental impact of food and its real cost, EU policies should address issues raised by COACH Beacons and:
- Fight with prejudices about the inferiority of the farming sector and opinions that only 'unskilled’ people work in agriculture.
- Promote initiatives engaging CSA people with tactile spaces and experiential practices (e.g., attending food distribution, cooking more) which are proven to increase participants’ understanding of farmers’ reality. Practical activities related to food create compassion for its producers and thus reshape environmental ethics.
- Implement adequate and transparent labelling informing consumers about all food “ingredients” – those eatable but also those tasteless aspects of food (e.g., working conditions of food producers, its environmental impact and relation to human rights). E.g.: Our Food, Our Future (https://ourfood-ourfuture.eu/about-the-project/).
- Reshape consumers’ understanding of food production by opportunities offered by CSAs (e.g., farm tours, classes, newsletters, recipes and cooking utilities).
- Encourage students and adults to practise farming skills in the field during short-/long-term internships, learning-by-doing training on sustainable farms.
- Incentivise updating national school curriculums to create space for traditional but also more flexible, agroecological farming driven by permaculture principles.
More here: https://coachproject.eu/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/D2.4-COACH-Spotlight-...

Practice abstract 4

Short title (native language):

COACH Spotlight – Digital Innovation

Short summary for practitioners (native language):

Digital Technology (DT) enables small-scale farmers to scale up the short food supply chain by breaking new ground in logistics, communications, accessibility, and more. Through DT, one can raise awareness, educate, advocate, mobilise human capital, create a space for farmers’ interactions and general sharing of ideas and experiences. Unfortunately, if not well-regulated, DT can allow big tech companies to exploit users’ data.
Based on lessons learned from COACH workshops, these are the recommendations for practitioners:
- Incentivise use of non-proprietorial digital tools in order to protect the freedom and rights of individuals and improve their quality to provide an ethical alternative to the smooth mainstream solutions.
- Provide training explaining how to use DT.
- Support data interoperability to provide a greater operational coherence between the various existing Free-Libre Open Source Software (FLOSS) platforms, which give users the freedom to run, study, modify and redistribute the program. For example, the COACH Beacon, Open Food Network provides a software platform enabling farmers to sell online (https://openfoodnetwork.org/software-platform/).
- Use FLOSS solutions that emphasize equity, democracy, accessibility, save time through standardization of file storage and increase the work efficiency through digital project management.
- Build communities around compatible and widespread technologies to avoid the burnout of small-scale farmers not specialized in running digital innovations.
- Protect farmers from becoming “data providers” and digital colonialism led by Big Tech companies.
More here: https://coachproject.eu/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/D2.4-COACH-Spotlight-...

Practice abstract 5

Short title (native language):

COACH Spotlight – Innovative Governance

Short summary for practitioners (native language):

Territorial governance is the basis of European Regional Policy. Its innovation, both on the internal level (the internal process of decision-making) and on the external level (initiatives engaging with other actors at the territorial level) can improve:
- Transparency in food provisioning.
- Consumer trust.
- Food literacy.
- Food citizenship.
- Localised market opportunities.
- Overall resilience for producers.
Based on the lessons learned from COACH case studies policymakers are encouraged to:
- Develop a holistic food policy informed by public food procurers, market dialogues, civic food networks and academia, that would engage with 5 main dimensions of food systems: politics, economy, environment, health, and society.
- Choose regulations proportionate for all actors, recognizing that small-scale farmers have more limited financial capacities than big-scale producers, and can be forced to close their businesses as a result of imposing on them disproportionately high burdens. Example – Piper’s Farm (more info here: https://pipersfarm.com/blogs/journal/the-survival-of-local-abattoirs).
- Promote governance mechanisms inspired by a local food policy approach designed by public authorities (e.g., municipality, province).
The above information comes from the COACH Spotlight Analysis available here: https://coachproject.eu/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/D2.4-COACH-Spotlight-...

Further details

Links to other website(s):

Communications, Learning and Innovation Platform (CLIP)

"@COACH_EU" Twitter Profile

Description of the context of the project:

Farmers and small operators are often in a weak position in the value chain. They lack bargaining power, face barriers to accessing markets, and struggle to achieve a fair income. At the same time, due to growing public awareness of the environmental crisis, and the rise of diet-related ill-health, many consumers want to conveniently access high quality, healthy and sustainable foods. In response, many innovative consumer-driven opportunities for farmers to access markets are now available.

Territorial food systems have existed for a long time and in many different places, yet have only just begun to gain recognition for their potential for developing more just and sustainable food systems. There are many experiences and projects to learn from across Europe, but there is much work to do to coordinate strategy and develop best practice on how to strengthen territorial food systems, including to fully harness the potential of sustainable/green public procurement.

COACH seeks to coordinate strategies and disseminate good practices on how to strengthen territorial food systems and collaborative agri-food chains based on three building blocks: 1) ‘Short Food Supply Chains’; 2) ‘Sustainable Public Food Procurement’ and 3) ‘Civic Food Networks’.