Towards the Edible City is a practical guide aimed especially at entrepreneurs and producers in the food sector. The publication explains how businesses can act as pioneers in the sustainable and local food sector.
The Towards the Edible City guide emphasizes the role of entrepreneurship in the transformation of the food system and the significance of networks and ecosystemic business. In today’s markets, entrepreneurship alone is often no longer enough. The publication offers companies tools and perspectives on the power of collaboration, whether it’s about finding new customers, sharing resources, or joint product development.
The publication includes concrete case examples from pilots conducted during the project. For example, at Metropolia UrbanFarmLab, indoor farming technologies were tested with companies for growing wasabi and tomatoes. The guide also discusses new market events and a sales location pilot in Hakaniemi Market Hall, which helped the dumpling restaurant Tian Tian grow into a popular eatery.
Furthermore, “Towards the Edible City” delves into the opportunities of short food supply chains, agroecological local production, and artisan food, presents pioneers of direct sales in Uusimaa, and provides advice on becoming a public sector customer through the Dynamic Purchasing System (DPS). Nutrient cycling is highlighted, for example, in pilots where mushrooms were grown from coffee grounds at Restaurant Perho and where a new snack bar was developed from apple pomace.
All organizations and project pilots from the Urban&Local consortium participated in writing the guide, and it has been published as part of the Urban&Local project, co-funded by the European Union.
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Read more about the guide aimed at developers.
Urban&Local – the future sustainable food ecosystem project developed innovative solutions, operating models, products, and services for the local food and restaurant sectors, and created the framework for collaboration and sustainable business in the field. The project was coordinated by Forum Virium Helsinki, and the project partners were Metropolia University of Applied Sciences, Haaga-Helia University of Applied Sciences, Perho Culinary, Tourism and Business College, and the City of Vantaa. The project received its funding from the European Regional Development Fund.
