Faced with the climate and ecological emergency, and rural depopulation, young women play a key role in building a fairer and more resilient future, with people and the earth. On this day we will get to know the "Ruralization" project closely. Based on the experiences interviewed, we will discover generational agricultural relief initiatives through agroecological projects, and we will discuss the difficulties and challenges faced by young people in accessing land.
In addition, the Ecomuseu del Blat will offer us a practical workshop on making artisan bread with a wood-fired oven, and we will take a tour of the organic vegetable garden. Finally, the UVIC-UCC Rural World Chair will present the second prizes for Rural Innovation, highlighting innovative projects from Lluçanès and Central Catalonia that can provide a local response to the great global challenges we face.
For this Grassroots event Kulturland organised the workshop “The village as an airstrip for newcomers”, which was held within the annual conference of the Young Eco-Farmers(Ökolandwirte-Tagung). The two-hour session was structured in three parts:
a) introduction to the topic and project presentation,
b) discussion round and identification of measures to improve interaction of newcomers and existing population and
c) elaboration on selected measures in three small groups including presentation of results.
This Grassroot Event was focused on the topic of farm succession. Initially, De Landgenoten wanted to organise two regional events where successors and transferors of agro-ecological farms would be able to meet and exchange in an informal setting. However, due to covid restrictions, they were forced to organise an online event.
They switched between presenting information, leaving space for questions, storytelling through the 3 testimonials and actively encouraging participants to share their personal stories and needs. Participants were already quite familiar with the challenges rural areas face in regard to rural regeneration and generational renewal.
Initially, this dream inventory research would happen by organising physical events. Due to Covid-19, the physical events had to be cancelled and were replaced with an online survey and TU Delft organised a number of focus groups in which respondents of the online survey could further elaborate on their dreams. Moreover, this gave the researchers the opportunity to ask deepening questions and to disseminate the Ruralization project to relevant rural youth.
The events were organised in the Fall of 2020 and in early 2021. Initially, they were organised as physical events. However, a second Covid-19 wave made it necessary to organise the focus groups as Zoom meetings. Nonetheless, the first event was physically organised in the village of Bruinisse.
On 15th September 2020 the first grassroots event was organized: ‘Webinar – Impact of COVID-19 in EU rural and urban areas’ with a special focus on young people. This first webinar counted with the participation of EC representatives, EU networks like Rural Youth Europe and the European Youth Forum, and other H2020 projects such as RURITAGE and NEWBIE. At the same time, participants had the opportunity to hear directly from young people how COVID-19 impacted them and how they adapted and transformed their businesses and life to cope with the global health crisis.
The grassroots event organised by Terre de Liens was linked to RURALIZATION Work Package 6 on Access to Land. The event presented and promoted a novel land practice developed within this task, known under the name “Ferme de Sarliève”, which aims at transforming a large peri-urban industrialised farm into a citizen-led “territorial farm” hosting several new entrants, a farm incubator, and diverse agroecological activities. In addition, the event included discussions on the general RURALIZATION assessment framework as well as debates on how to best combine academic and practitioner perspectives to support social innovation.
This event helped make known the work carried out within RURALIZATION and enriched the local community through the co-construction of new knowledge on how to scale up innovative land work.
