🗓️ November 2 – Chema Gil participates in the ‘Fòrum Eco Blava’

CREDA’s director attended the ‘Forum d’Economia Blava‘ in Portugal. The event was organized by Economia e Mar, Generalitat de Catalunya, the Departament d’Acció Climàtica, Alimentació i Agenda Rural and the Xarxa Marítima de Catalunya (BlueNetCat).

The event brought together Catalan companies and members of BlueNetCat in an event that revolved around the current situation of the blue economy in the Catalan territory.

Chema Gil: “We have to move towards the construction of a satellite account that qualitatively improves the use of this data“.

🗓️ November 7 – Celebration of the ‘XXVII Jornada de l’horta’ in Santa Susanna

Zein Kallas, Postdoctoral Researcher in CREDA, participated in the session dedicated to the recognition of the horticulture sector in Catalonia. The organization ran hand in hand with the SELMAR Federation, the Santa Susanna City Council and the Institute of Agri-Food Research and Technology (IRTA).

The conference dealt with two main topics that are of great interest to the Catalan sector:

• Biological pest control as an alternative to the use of plant protection products.
• The future digitalisation of horticulture as the only possibility for managing data that must be registered.

Zein attended on behalf of the European project LAB4SUPPLY and shared some of the proposals for improving value chains.

🗓️ November 8 (1) – Presentation of the ‘Diagnosi de les pèrdues i el malbaratament alimentari del lluç i el llucet: quantificació i econòmic 2022’

The biologist and research support technician at CREDA, Saray Ramírez, presented the study of hake in front of colleagues in the sector at the validation table in November.

During the day the current situation of the study that has been carried out by CREDA as commissioned by the Departament d’Acció Climàtica, Alimentació i Agenda Rural (DACC) was analyzed. In addition, attendees were able to make a visit to the fish market in Mercabarna.

The department will soon publish the analysis led by Saray on the website of the Generalitat de Catalunya.

🗓️ November 8 (2) – Omar Guadarrama participates in the ‘5º Simposio Internacional en Tópicos Actuales en el Análisis del Consumidor’

The Postdoctoral Researcher in CREDA, Omar Guadarrama, attended the session organized at the University of Sonora in Mexico, to give a conference under the title “LAB4SUPPLY, an Ecosystem of Innovation in the Agro-Food Sector“.

On November 8th, 9th and 10th, the university hosted sessions to share and learn from the experiences of colleagues in the agri-food sector.

In addition, Omar visited the Unión Ganadera Regional de Sonora to hold a workshop on the same European project and the use of Living Labs in the supply chains of the livestock sector.

🗓️ November 8 (3) – Workshops on the production costs of calçots

During the day on Wednesday, the farmers of the PGI Calçot de Valls (Protected Geographical Indication) organized a series of workshops together with the Departament d’Acció Climàtica, Alimentació i Agenda Rural and CREDA.

Cristina Escobar, PhD in Sustainability and Research Support Technique at our center, was responsible for carrying out the cost study on the production cost of a PGI calçot. This is a project that seeks to collect information on the costs of primary production to know and justify what the price of calçots should be so that farmers can continue their activity.

Thanks to this analysis, which seeks to provide economic sustainability to production systems, farmers have obtained a seal that allows them to face any price crisis or bad practices in the sector.

🗓️ November 14 – Celebration of the General Assembly of the NOVATERRA project in Bologna

Zein Kallas and Noah Larvoe, heads of the European NOVATERRA project, attended the General Assembly to share and learn about the main results of the different work packages.

The project, which ends in 2024, brought together more than 90 members of the different participating centers in a conference that lasted 2 days. The event facilitated contact between the partners, who shared their ideas for the coming months of the project.

In addition, attendees were able to visit experimental fields and the oil mill.

🗓️ November 21 – Getting to know the Law on Local Food Buying

The technician in Food Waste and Nutrition in CREDA, Amèlia Sarroca, participated in a working group organized by PEMB Barcelona, in which ideas and opinions about the law were shared, with the aim of creating synergies between the different members of the Joint Office for Sustainable Food of the Generalitat de Catalunya.

The attendees presented a series of proposals that the law should guarantee:

• Link of resources and needs.
• Public-private collaboration in purchasing centers.
• Identification of the cost price.
• Accompany processes of encounter between actors.
• Implementation of an observatory for the monitoring of contracts.
• Avoid surpluses: group fourth and third range products.

🗓️ November 23 – Djamel Rahmani talks about SWITCHtoHEALTHY at Ràdio Castelldefels

During the broadcast of the program ‘aixi Som’ of the local radio of Castelldefels, the postdoctoral researcher in CREDA and professor in the UPC gave an interview to explain the operation of the European project that began in April 2022.

SWITCHtoHEALTHY aims to promote consumption and increase adherence to the Mediterranean diet in families with children of school age, through the development of educational tools, methodologies and strategies, such as the use of mobile applications or the creation of healthy snacks based on vegetable foods.

🗓️ November 24 – Celebration of the 4th edition of the International Conference ‘Tomorrow Tastes Mediterranean’

Amèlia Sarroca, nutrition technician at CREDA, attended the conference organized by the Torribera Mediterranean Center (TMC) of the University of Barcelona and the Culinary Institute of America.

The event brought together a total of 38 speakers who divided their participation in sessions and workshops with the aim of presenting solutions to the different actors of the food sector, insisting on those who work to transfer the healthy, sustainable and cultural principles of the Mediterranean diet.

Sarroca participated in the first session as a representative of the European project SWITCHtoHEALTHY: “this project seeks to promote a change in the eating behavior of all family members toward a Mediterranean dietary pattern“.

🗓️ November 28 (1) – IRTA Conference: ‘Circular Bioeconomy and Water-Food-Energy-Ecosystems Nexus’

The Postdoctoral Researcher at CREDA, Ibtissem Taghouti, participated in the session organized within the framework of the European Union’s SureNexus project.

During the workshop, attendees shared different aspects that affect the NEXUS WEFE, such as the use of artificial intelligence tools, the perspective based on the circular economy or the application of solutions based on nature. The aim of the session was to present practices and solutions to boost the resilient future of Catalan agriculture.

In this context, Taghouti presented some of the actions being studied in the SureNexus project to achieve a just transition towards climate change adaptation and mitigation.

🗓️ November 28 (2) – Celebration of the ‘1st Forum of the Agro-Food Industry of Catalonia’

The director of CREDA, Chema Gil, attended the first day of the conference to present the report ‘The Agri-Food System in Catalonia (SAC) – 2023‘.

The event was divided into a total of 7 modules distributed between 28 and 29 November, which dealt with topics from the structuring of the sector and financing, to the improvement of digitalization and sustainability.

Chema Gil: “1 in 4 Catalan companies invests in R&D+i, and the Catalan agri-food sector invests 1.23% of the value added in R&D“.