CEMAS (Valencia): cooperating and sharing experiences toward ever more sustainable food

CEMAS, the World Sustainable Urban Food Centre of Valencia, opened in 2018. It is an initiative by the City of Valencia, which had signed a MoU with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) back in 2016. CEMAS’ main objectives are to highlight the numerous schemes aimed at promoting sustainable urban food supplies to cities around the world, raise awareness about food issues, climate change and sustainable local food systems, and spread best practices. Those priorities are in line with those identified by Commitment No. 7 of the AIVP 2030 Agenda for “Quality food for all”.Interview with Vicente Domingo, Director of CEMAS AIVP – Sharing knowledge and identifying the best initiatives are also among the reasons for AIVP’s creation. Can you briefly tell us how you go about sharing knowledge? @ CEMAS Vicente Domingo, Director of CEMAS - CEMAS is an organisation essentially based on the concept of communication in the broad sense, which means informing the public, taking account of public opinion, but also forging links with knowledge centres, cities, and two sectors which I believe are particularly active: city networks and civil society. As at AIVP, where there is a clearly defined common goal, a point of convergence, then collaborative actions are adopted, a clear example of a win-win partnership. We disseminate the vast quantity of knowledge that comes to us in 34 categories. Public procurement, food waste, climate change, sexual equality, urban-rural relations, big data, in other words fields of action or strategies that are sources of inspiration for us, and no doubt also cut across some of the other 34 categories during the process. We have just begun steps to launch a content localisation model with that in mind. The value of information and above all knowledge becomes greater as we add to them with new data and new experiences that confirm or improve concepts. What that means is that while there are already benefits to identifying and listing articles, experiences, practices, and so on, there is even more to be gained from the process of making them available to everyone with an interest in sustainable urban food systems, so they can develop, deploy, and share them. That fosters a positive ‘retroaction’ approach that confirms our raison d’être and usefulness, not just for cities but also for the FAO and all the research centres working on these issues. We constantly use all kinds of networks. In almost every part of the world, ordinary people access dozens of networks every day. Knowledges spaces are platforms that, in themselves, allow unprecedented access to information and knowledge. But that phenomenon leads to another, larger still: the ability to disseminate, manage, and apply that information all around the world,…