Carbon Removal governance Outline and Periurban agriculture for Sustainable food system

Introduction

CROPS4LIFE aims to reduce the environmental/climate footprint of the agrifood system in Vitoria-Gasteiz by steering the local food choice through a data-intensive, digital, and adaptive governance structure.

Pilot Initiative

A pilot initiative will be launched, setting the foundations for a short-circuit based territorialized agrifood system. This system will entail:

1. Highly productive regenerative agroecological farms.
2. Generational change incorporating new agricultural agents.
3. Trading of local products.
4. Analysis and improvement of the regulatory framework.

Fields of Knowledge

The project sets its grounds on different fields of knowledge:

Farming

• Identify and adapt to the local climate highly profitable, agroecological, and regenerative productive systems.

Social

• Propose the necessary legal framework to enable a capacity building structure that fills the current gap between farming schools and entrepreneurship.
• The so-called “test spaces” offer a mentored learning experience in a given production model, a necessary step to provide the full itinerary for any new entrant attracted to the sector.

Market

• Create a digital km0 food aggregator to commercialize food items with amplified traceability.
• Incorporate the footprint on several environmental variables of the entire production and supply chain.
• This information will be available to consumers through a simplified attribute system, triggering a desired shift in food choice, ultimately leading to an increase in the commercialization of locally produced products.

Institutional

• Develop a digital platform for adaptive governance to monitor the reduction of the carbon footprint applicable to the regenerative agriculture practices implemented.

Innovation

The innovation resides in identifying the changes required in the current regulatory and normative framework, as well as the necessary governance structures and public policies that will align regulations to enable the flourishing of a carbon neutral, profitable, and socially fair short-circuit-based agrifood system.