Living lab presentation and activities

Living lab objectives

• Enlarging agricultural land
• Creating conditions for securing agricultural activities
• Facilitating cooperation
• Developing common tools
• Facilitating access to healthy food for all
• Connection producers and consumers in deprived areas
• Reconnecting citizens with food

Food insecurity

• Important disparities between areas on access to food
• Certain areas with almost no local commerces with healthy and sustainable food
• Considerable differences in food habits depending on income and wealth
• Health issues related to eating habits more important in deprived areas
• 4,9% depending on food aid
• A variety of initiatives and potential for collaboration between actors from different sectors (social centers, producers, distribution)

Challenges

Communication plan

Media
La Cité de l’agriculture’s communicaton and dissemination will rely on different elements that are part of our regular activities. We are attached to allowing the broader public as well as partners and experts to get an insight of our different projects. Hence, we use our website as well as social media (facebook, instagram) to communicate on our activities. Interviews with local, national or specialised media are also part of our communication strategy. In addition, we participate in the elaboration of scientific documents, by contributing to studies or sharing the results of our own research with the academic world. All of these communication and dissemination channels will be used to cover our living lab’s activities. 

Events
In addition to the communication and dissemination that will be done via different media channels, we will organise a variety of public events to create awareness for the issues tackled by Cities2030. These events include public manifestations such as the 48h de l’agriculture urbaine (48h of urban farming) that take place every May on a national level and that promote the diversity of urban farming projects, as well as professional targeted events such as the Journées des agricultures urbaines en méditerranée (JAUM - mediterranean urban farming days), a conference based event in Marseille that unites actors from politics and science as well as professionals from the urban farming sector. 

These already existing events will be completed by other initiatives, aiming at promoting the living lab’s activities as well as issues of the CRFS in general. For instance, we would like to organise a regional event that aims at promoting the development of urban farming and sustainable food programs in other cities of the region. 

Stakeholders

CITAG has organized both individual and collective meetings with potential stakeholders. These include local urban farming actors such as Le Talus and Terre de Mars, other actors of the production and supply chain (Pépins production, les Alchimistes), as well as officials of the local authorities (city of Marseille, metropolis, region) and research labs such as Avitem. CITAG also had meetings with partners of the social and sustainable food sector (réseau Cocagne, social centers, association Le Village for the Cueillettes solidaires project). So far, although numerous of these actors can be considered as partners of CITAG’s activities, they have not yet been registered as stakeholders. With the launch of the different living lab and policy lab related activities, formal stakeholder engagement should be achieved. 

Below is a  more detailed but not exhaustive list of meetings with local actors, considered as potential stakeholders. At the same time, these meetings helped identifying the characteristics, and more precisely the needs and ideas of the local actors that will contribute to the development of activities within the living lab : 

• 14/10/2020 meeting Intermade (LR)
• 20/01/2021 meeting with local urban farming network (MS/LR)
• 21/01/2021 meeting with le Talus (MS/LR)
• 17/03/2021 meeting with Terre de Mars (LR)
• 18/03/2021 meeting with LICA (LR)
• 01/04 meeting with AMAP de Provence (LR)
• 14/04/2021 meeting with Avitem (LR)
• 27/04/2021 online meeting la Sauge (LL)
• 04/05/2021 meeting La Ruche (LL)
• 25/05/2021 meeting Ernest (LL)
• 25/05/2021 meeting ferme du Roy d’Espagne (LR)
• 01/06/2021 meeting Secalim (LL)
• 03/06/2021 meeting with Paysan Urbain (LR)
• 07/06/2021 meeting with Intermade (LR)
• 17/06/2021 Metropolis meeting (LL, LR)
• 08/07/2021 large stakeholder meeting on sustainable food (LL)
• 08/07/2021 meeting with Merci Raymond (LR)
• 19/07/2021 Metropolis meeting - departement for urban farming and sustainable food (LL, lR)
• 20/07/2021 urban farming network meeting (LR)
• 08/09/2021 call with social center Bel Air
• 23/09/2021 meeting with Terre d’entraide et partage (LL)
• 27/10/2021 meeting with Tables de Cana (LL)
• 10/11/2021 meeting with Tables de Cana (LL)
• 16/11/2021 meeting with local organizations of Castellas and state representative Laurent Carrié (LL)
• 29/11/2021 meeting with chamber of agriculture (LR)
• 15/12/2021 Meeting with state agency and Metropolis (LL) 
• 15/02/2022 urban farming network meeting (VK, LR, MS)

During the first project period, CITAG has met a huge variety of actors. These include local businesses, urban farmers or social structures, but also researchers, national organizations and public authorities. Meeting these different actors has mainly two functions : 1) exchanging on the challenges of CRFS related topics (especially food justice and urban farming which are at the core of CITAG’s activities and thereby developing a better understanding of the CRFS challenges, and 2) exchanging with potential stakeholders on the development of potential common actions and other forms of cooperation. 

However, CITAG has not yet proceeded to formally engage a lot of actors. Indeed, stakeholder engagement for a project as ambitious as Cities2030 demands for solid partnerships and a good knowledge of the actors present in the CRFS. Once an actor is fully engaged in partnership and willing to join the living lab, CITAG will ask them to engage formally as a Cities2030 stakeholder.