Category Archives: Research

Research

New EU project ROOTED is starting!

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Last month, the ROOTED consortium gathered in Brussels and Lille for its first in-person meeting, bringing together researchers, community kitchens, NGOs, food producers and public authorities to explore how Landed Community Kitchens (LCKs) can help transform Europe’s food systems.

LCKs combine access to food, social inclusion and community building. By connecting local food production with neighbourhood spaces where people can access, prepare and share food, they offer new opportunities to build more inclusive, sustainable and resilient food systems.

Through 8 Living Labs and a network of 50+ kitchens across 20 cities and 10 countries, ROOTED will explore how these initiatives can grow and become a lasting part of Europe’s food infrastructure.

The kick-off included visits to community kitchens, food gardens, social groceries and cooperative supermarkets, meeting the organisations already connecting food, community and place.

Together, the consortium will explore key questions:
>> How can community kitchens connect local food production, access to nutritious food and social support?
>> What policies, partnerships and governance models can help them thrive?
>> How can place-based approaches address structural inequalities in our food systems?

A big thank you to all the hosting partners and organisations who welcomed us and shared their inspiring work. And thanks to all ROOTED partners for bringing their knowledge, experience and enthusiasm to this journey!

Read more about this project and it’s kick-off.

Picture: ROOTED, Eutropian

Playing for change: games that bring people together around food

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How can games help people connect with their neighbours, share food, and create more sustainable communities? The CULTIVATE Library of Citizen Engagement, developed by partners including Wageningen University & Research, brings together practical tools, resources and games that encourage social participation in food-sharing activities.

From exploring the future of food sharing to caring for community gardens and discovering edible plants, these games offer creative ways to learn, exchange experiences and work together on local food-related challenges.

Exploring the future of food sharing

Food-sharing initiatives can strengthen social connections and contribute to more sustainable food systems. But how do these initiatives work in practice, and what challenges do they face?

The game The Future of Food Sharing invites players to explore these questions together. Using Quest Cards, Tool Cards and optional Risk Cards, players consider real-life challenges and discuss possible approaches to food-sharing initiatives. The game offers a practical way to exchange ideas and explore solutions collectively.

Finding common ground in community gardens

Community gardens bring people together around a shared space, but maintaining one also involves everyday decisions and challenges. The game Common Ground explores what it takes to care for a community garden.

Players consider topics such as teamwork, biodiversity, harvesting, climate pressure and soil health. By working through different situations, they can reflect on how to manage shared spaces, balance different priorities and care for the environment together.

Learning about food sharing through play

Food sharing can also be a way to introduce children to healthy eating, nature and community cooperation. In Grandma is Coming!, players work together to collect ingredients from a neighbourhood food forest and complete Grandma’s favourite healthy recipe before she reaches the end of the path.

Along the way, children learn about food forests, composting, healthy eating and the idea that food can come from places beyond the supermarket. The game combines cooperation and play with an introduction to more sustainable food practices.

Discovering edible plants and sharing food memories

How many edible wild plants do you know? The free print-and-play card game Let’s Eat invites players to explore the plants growing in their urban surroundings, share food memories and create recipes with their neighbours.

The game encourages players to get to know one another, exchange experiences and develop new recipes using wild plants found in the city.

Explore the Citizen Engagement Library

These games show how playful activities can open up conversations about food, sustainability and community life. They provide opportunities for people to share knowledge, explore different perspectives and consider how they can work together in their own neighbourhoods.

The games are part of the CULTIVATE Library of Citizen Engagement, developed by project partners including Wageningen University & Research. The library brings together practical tools, resources and games designed to support engagement and social participation in food-sharing activities.

Would you like to try the games yourself? Explore the CULTIVATE Library of Citizen Engagement and watch the tutorials to learn how to play and use the games in your own community.

The games were developed as part of the CULTIVATE project, funded by the European Union’s Horizon Europe programme (grant agreement No. 101083377).

From research to action: the new SWIFT Advocacy Tool for more gender-equitable agriculture

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How can research contribute to real-world change? The new SWIFT Advocacy Tool brings together research, evidence and experiences from the field to support advocacy for more gender-equitable agricultural policies.

Research projects generate valuable knowledge. But academic papers and reports are not always easy to access or use for people working on the ground, engaging in policy discussions or advocating for change.

This was one of the motivations behind the new SWIFT Advocacy Tool, launched on 30 September 2026 as part of the Horizon Europe project SWIFT – Supporting Women-Led Innovations in Farming and Rural Territories.

Rather than presenting research as a collection of reports and academic publications, the tool translates insights from the SWIFT project and beyond into an accessible, visual and story-driven format. It is designed to help users connect evidence and experiences with practical strategies for change.

Three entry points into the agricultural policy landscape

The tool is structured around three themes: Income & Subsidies, Generational Renewal and Access to Land.

These themes provide different entry points into some of the challenges shaping the present and future of farming.

Through each theme, visitors move through stories from the field, research findings and evidence. Along the way, they can explore how policies and structures affect different people and communities, and consider possible strategies for change.

The tool ultimately leads towards practical resources that can support advocacy and decision-making.

From knowledge sharing to advocacy

The SWIFT Advocacy Tool is primarily aimed at social movements and organisations engaging in policy discussions at EU level. Researchers, policymakers and others interested in gender-equitable agricultural and rural policies are also important audiences.

Its purpose is not simply to communicate research findings. It is intended to facilitate knowledge sharing, advocacy and decision-making in support of medium- and long-term gender-responsive strategies for farming and rural areas.

By bringing together evidence, lived experiences and practical resources, the tool aims to make knowledge more accessible and useful for those working towards change.

Explore the tool

The SWIFT Advocacy Tool is now available at: https://feministagroecology.com

We invite researchers, policymakers, social movements, farmers’ organisations and others working on agricultural and rural issues to explore the tool and share it with their networks.

The Advocacy Tool is one of the outputs of SWIFT – Supporting Women-Led Innovations in Farming and Rural Territories, a four-year Horizon Europe project working to advance the position of women and LGBTQI+ persons in farming and rural territories.

Upcoming PhD defence of Anna Roodhof

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We are proud to share that Anna Roodhof of the Rural Sociology Group will be defending her PhD thesis entitled “Reclaiming economic viability through food forestry: Entanglements of discourse, governance, and practice”
 
When: Friday, 9 October at 15:30
Where: Omnia Auditorium, Wageningen Campus

𝗔𝗯𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘁
This dissertation examines the economic viability of food forests in the Netherlands and the discursive and governance conditions through which such viability emerges. Food forestry – an agricultural practice that mimics forest ecosystem dynamics to integrate food production with ecological restoration – has become increasingly prevalent in the Global North. Despite its multifunctional logic, it is often evaluated through conventional economic frameworks that equate viability with financial profitability, positioning economic, ecological, and social value as separate and competing domains. Challenging this reductionist perspective, the dissertation develops a relational, multispecies, and more-than-monetary understanding of economic viability grounded in diverse economies thinking.

For those unable to attend in person, the ceremony will also be livestreamed via: https://wur.yuja.com. A link will appear in the “Event” section approximately 5 minutes before the start of the ceremony.

Upcoming PhD Defence of Paul de Graaf

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We are proud to share that Paul de Graaf of the Rural Sociology Group will be defending his PhD thesis entitled “Trying the impossible. Urban agriculture as an alternative planning reality”.

📅 When: 14 September 2026 at 15:30
📍 Where: Omnia Auditorium, Wageningen Campus & online streaming

𝗔𝗯𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘁
How can civic initiatives contribute to the spatial planning of the city? Reflecting on the rise and demise of the Rotterdam urban agriculture planning policy with planners and initiators, Paul de Graaf studied the planning processes surrounding the realisation of civic urban agriculture initiatives.

Focusing on the interaction between planners and initiators in these processes, the thesis shows that bottom-up initiatives can contribute to planning on different levels. They engage in an exchange of ideas with municipal planners and their departments that invokes innovative ways to plan and think of planning. However, this experimental ‘alternative planning reality’ exists parallel to regular municipal planning practice.

Persistent, structurally embedded ways of thinking in planning inhibit the transfer of lessons learnt to regular planning practice. A better understanding of the role and significance of civic initiatives in planning may reveal pathways toward a planning practice capable of addressing the challenges of our time in a complex and pluralistic society.

🔔 For those unable to attend in person, the ceremony will also be livestreamed via: https://wur.yuja.com. A link will appear in the “Event” section approximately 5 minutes before the start of the ceremony.