Periodic Reporting for period 1 - FAIRCHAIN (Innovative technological, organisational and social solutions for FAIRer dairy and fruit and vegetable value CHAINs)
Periodo di rendicontazione: 2020-11-01 al 2022-04-30
A sustainability transformation of the current food system is a large and ambitious endeavour that FAIRCHAIN will address by focusing on the development of competitive intermediate food chain alternatives adapted to small and mid-sized actors. Relying on the drawbacks and advantages of currently existing short and long value chains, FAIRCHAIN will:
- Foster the emergence of innovative Intermediate Food Value Chains (IVCs) that support the scaling-up of the small and mid-sized actors facing the unsustainable conventional dominant agri-food system. The scaling up is not limited to individual enterprises increasing their size but is also achieved through the coordination and connection of complementary small-scale and mid-sized initiatives to offer a large range and volume of products. Both options require the development of specific technological, organisational and social innovations, regulatory and policy adaptations to widely deliver food in a fair and sustainable way.
- Inspire and encourage larger actors to down-scale conventional food value chains and better address the growing consumer demand to consume local high quality and safe products. The underlying belief is that the emergence of the intermediate food value chains involving small and mid-sized actors puts pressure on the dominant actors, forcing them to move further and faster to align with best practices to offer opportunities to local suppliers and ensuring equitable distribution of the costs and benefits of delivering more sustainable value-based food supply chains.
The goal of FAIRCHAIN is to test, pilot and demonstrate recently developed technological, organisational and social innovations, realising a shift up to TRL7 and enabling the small and mid-sized farmers and food producers to scale-up and expand the production of affordable nutritious food through competitive IVCs.
- Foster the emergence of innovative Intermediate Food Value Chains (IVCs) that support the scaling-up of the small and mid-sized actors facing the unsustainable conventional dominant agri-food system. The scaling up is not limited to individual enterprises increasing their size but is also achieved through the coordination and connection of complementary small-scale and mid-sized initiatives to offer a large range and volume of products. Both options require the development of specific technological, organisational and social innovations, regulatory and policy adaptations to widely deliver food in a fair and sustainable way.
- Inspire and encourage larger actors to down-scale conventional food value chains and better address the growing consumer demand to consume local high quality and safe products. The underlying belief is that the emergence of the intermediate food value chains involving small and mid-sized actors puts pressure on the dominant actors, forcing them to move further and faster to align with best practices to offer opportunities to local suppliers and ensuring equitable distribution of the costs and benefits of delivering more sustainable value-based food supply chains.
The goal of FAIRCHAIN is to test, pilot and demonstrate recently developed technological, organisational and social innovations, realising a shift up to TRL7 and enabling the small and mid-sized farmers and food producers to scale-up and expand the production of affordable nutritious food through competitive IVCs.
FAIRCHAIN defined and validated within the consortium the IVCs and identified their features and the challenges in the transition from short or long to IVCs. Existing technological, organisational and social innovations to strive towards IVCs were mapped. These first major results formed the basis for a holistic assessment framework developed to monitor the progress towards the transition and to assess the results and outcomes of the project. This framework will cover the economic, environmental and social dimensions of sustainability, business models and co-creation on case study, project and regional/sectoral/societal level and will be made available for the assessment of the 6 FAIRCHAIN case studies implementing and demonstrating 9 anticipated innovations.
The FAIRCHAIN consortium made a significant effort to develop a multi-actor co-creation approach to tailor the innovations and their implementation to the needs of key actors in IVCs. All case studies recruited the key stakeholders for their planned innovations, carried out goal-defining and implementation co-creation workshops and collected opinion on the planned innovations, pointed key challenges and suggestions for improvement. By summarizing and sharing all this information, the stakeholders’ workshop discussions guided the development and implementation of innovations in each case study value chains and made it possible to identify cross-fertilization between case study innovations.
Simultaneously, a first set of technological, organisational and social innovations was adapted to small and mid-sized actors. Fermentation of by/co-products was investigated for producing new valuable high added-value products: vinegar, obtained from F&V by-products can be applied as a mild but green disinfectant; the first fermented whey-based drinks were successfully developed. A Blockchain-based solution was developed to provide more standardised services among actors throughout the entire chain (information flow management) and enhanced trust of the consumers / citizens (traceability, transparency). The first version of the ICT tool for local berry inventory was developed and tested. A Food Innovation incubator was successfully launched. Other innovations are still under development: innovative filling machine using green packaging material meeting hygienic requirements; “Zero waste” distribution mode (returnable bottles or bulk); innovative sharing of equipment or infrastructure and innovative funding system based on philanthropic income streams.
While the scientific activities were progressing, FAIRCHAIN partners also initiated dissemination activities to raise awareness of the project. A public website was set up and a video was produced. A Sustainable Food System innovation platform was co-developed with 4 sister projects to share innovations demonstrated in food systems. Also, the project was presented during many national and international events in the field of food systems.
The FAIRCHAIN consortium made a significant effort to develop a multi-actor co-creation approach to tailor the innovations and their implementation to the needs of key actors in IVCs. All case studies recruited the key stakeholders for their planned innovations, carried out goal-defining and implementation co-creation workshops and collected opinion on the planned innovations, pointed key challenges and suggestions for improvement. By summarizing and sharing all this information, the stakeholders’ workshop discussions guided the development and implementation of innovations in each case study value chains and made it possible to identify cross-fertilization between case study innovations.
Simultaneously, a first set of technological, organisational and social innovations was adapted to small and mid-sized actors. Fermentation of by/co-products was investigated for producing new valuable high added-value products: vinegar, obtained from F&V by-products can be applied as a mild but green disinfectant; the first fermented whey-based drinks were successfully developed. A Blockchain-based solution was developed to provide more standardised services among actors throughout the entire chain (information flow management) and enhanced trust of the consumers / citizens (traceability, transparency). The first version of the ICT tool for local berry inventory was developed and tested. A Food Innovation incubator was successfully launched. Other innovations are still under development: innovative filling machine using green packaging material meeting hygienic requirements; “Zero waste” distribution mode (returnable bottles or bulk); innovative sharing of equipment or infrastructure and innovative funding system based on philanthropic income streams.
While the scientific activities were progressing, FAIRCHAIN partners also initiated dissemination activities to raise awareness of the project. A public website was set up and a video was produced. A Sustainable Food System innovation platform was co-developed with 4 sister projects to share innovations demonstrated in food systems. Also, the project was presented during many national and international events in the field of food systems.
With the development of IVCs, FAIRCHAIN will contribute to delivering more local, affordable and nutritious products to help to secure agricultural and agri-food employment, by sharing more knowledge, data and tools with the farmers and food producers (the main disadvantaged actors of the value chains) as well as testing, piloting and demonstrating newly developed technological, organisational and social innovations.
FAIRCHAIN’s innovations will positively impact the agri-food value chain at social, economic and environmental levels and will impact all actors of the dairy and F&V value chains and even beyond. FAIRCHAIN has made it a priority to support farmers and small F&V and dairy producers for higher share of revenues by establishing long-term relationships between actors, promoting the value chain approach and defining relevant eco-innovative business models thanks to a trans-disciplinary case study-based methodology. Their economic situation will be significantly impacted by leveraging their capacity to develop in a sustainable way and reach a stable financial position, while inspiring the large actors. The position of farmers will be strengthened in the IVCs through blockchain technology that enhance transparency, information flow and management capacity.
FAIRCHAIN will develop a portfolio of innovative sustainable business models relevant to IVCs and well-functioning in real conditions and provide it to existing and future small and mid-sized actors to encourage them to carry out projects in favour of resilient IVCs while increasing job opportunities all along the value chains. FAIRCHAIN will also contribute to reduce environmental impacts by reducing food losses using adapted processing technologies for the valorisation of by/co-products and reducing plastic packaging. The development of short, more sustainable and more transparent food value chains will increase citizen’s demand for more sustainable food production, allow farmers to maintain production diversity, avoid monocultures, improve arable crops biodiversity and participate in the protection of the ecosystems.
FAIRCHAIN addresses behavioural changes by producing relevant policy recommendations and a portfolio of solutions to support the implementation and replicability of sustainable IVCs. FAIRCHAIN will develop a sound and suited dissemination strategy to effectively raise awareness on different actors’ perspectives and raise interests about each other. The innovation platform will play a major role in broadcasting results and constitute a key tool to enhance exchanges and understanding.
FAIRCHAIN’s innovations will positively impact the agri-food value chain at social, economic and environmental levels and will impact all actors of the dairy and F&V value chains and even beyond. FAIRCHAIN has made it a priority to support farmers and small F&V and dairy producers for higher share of revenues by establishing long-term relationships between actors, promoting the value chain approach and defining relevant eco-innovative business models thanks to a trans-disciplinary case study-based methodology. Their economic situation will be significantly impacted by leveraging their capacity to develop in a sustainable way and reach a stable financial position, while inspiring the large actors. The position of farmers will be strengthened in the IVCs through blockchain technology that enhance transparency, information flow and management capacity.
FAIRCHAIN will develop a portfolio of innovative sustainable business models relevant to IVCs and well-functioning in real conditions and provide it to existing and future small and mid-sized actors to encourage them to carry out projects in favour of resilient IVCs while increasing job opportunities all along the value chains. FAIRCHAIN will also contribute to reduce environmental impacts by reducing food losses using adapted processing technologies for the valorisation of by/co-products and reducing plastic packaging. The development of short, more sustainable and more transparent food value chains will increase citizen’s demand for more sustainable food production, allow farmers to maintain production diversity, avoid monocultures, improve arable crops biodiversity and participate in the protection of the ecosystems.
FAIRCHAIN addresses behavioural changes by producing relevant policy recommendations and a portfolio of solutions to support the implementation and replicability of sustainable IVCs. FAIRCHAIN will develop a sound and suited dissemination strategy to effectively raise awareness on different actors’ perspectives and raise interests about each other. The innovation platform will play a major role in broadcasting results and constitute a key tool to enhance exchanges and understanding.