Birmingham unveils inspiring short film on Horizon 2020 Food Trails project

Birmingham has proudly released a short film showcasing the Horizon 2020 Food Trails project (2020 – 2024). This engaging video highlights the city’s efforts to improve access to healthy and sustainable food, support grassroots food waste sorting initiatives, and encourage legume consumption among young people.

The film explores three innovative pilot projects:

• Who Said This Is Rubbish: This project aims at reducing food waste from farm to fork through policy campaigns, education, and public events. It places an emphasis on environmental and social justice centred around active citizenship and systemic food-waste management. We have saved 30189.05kg of greenhouse gases and diverted 43127.63kg of waste from landfill through the ‘Who Said This is Rubbish’ pilot.

• Full of Beans: A collaborative campaign aimed at promoting the consumption of beans and pulses as part of a healthy, planet-friendly diet. It shares information on the environmental and health benefits of beans; shares tips on how to grow and cook them more locally; and engages slots of different sectors and the public in its activities.
• High-Rise Harvest: A blueprint has been developed to show how urban agriculture project could transform underused spaces, like multi-storey car parks, into green urban farms. This initiative includes plans for greenhouses, community gardens, and education hubs, promoting sustainable agriculture and reducing food transportation emissions.

The Food Trails project is a four-year initiative led by EU’s Horizon 2020 program. It unites a consortium of 19 partners comprising 11 cities across Europe, tasked with the rethinking and development of sustainable, healthy, and inclusive food policies. The project will transform urban food systems through the development and implementation of innovative pilot activities in “living labs” within these cities. These “living labs” provide an environment where new ideas and approaches could be tried in real-world settings so that they can easily be scaled up and replicated by other cities.