1st Press Release

Climate change is a global problem that poses a significant risk to the environment and all forms of life on Earth. As such, there is a growing need for flagship initiatives and a common intervention framework to address this issue. According to the 2021 Eurobarometer, one out of every five European citizens have into consideration the carbon footprint of the food they purchase and sometimes adapt their shopping patterns accordingly. This shows a growing interest among consumers in choosing carbon-neutral food products.

The Carbon Farming Awareness Hub (CarboFarmHub) project is an Erasmus+ initiative, co-funded by the European Commission. The project intends to increase awareness and skills, specifically among young citizens and farmers, in order to prepare them for the new challenges that will arise from the growing demand for sustainable food systems especially in Europe, due to the Green Deal, the Farm2Fork Strategy and the Soil Mission for reduced climate footprint of the agricultural products.

The project aims to establish a network of awareness hubs across four partner countries: Greece, Italy, Portugal, and Spain. The project is led by six partner organisations from four EU countries, including NEW AGRICULTURE NEW GENERATION (NEAGEN) from Greece as the coordinator, along with three non-governmental organisations (ACADEMY OF ENTREPRENEURSHIP from Greece, ECOVALIA from Spain, and AGROBIO from Portugal), one scientific research center (Theophrastus Research Institute from Greece), and one Training Center (Centoform from Italy).

The CarboFarm Hub project’s first annual meeting took place in Athens on 25 and 26 January, where all partners gathered to discuss and organise current and future activities to take place within the next 2 years. The second day was dedicated to the project’s first workshop, which was opened by Dr. Dimitris Voloudakis, who welcomed the participants, put the background of the workshop into context, and presented the Carbon Farming Hub Project. “Carbon Farming in the EU: Prospects and Challenges” was the first lecture introduced by Iosif Botetzagias, a Professor at the University of the Aegean and member of the Theophrastus Research Institute, who delivered a detailed overview of the current situation of carbon farming in Europe and highlighted the opportunities mainly for farmers but also the threats of greenwashing. In the second lecture, entitled “Circular economy’s applications in agriculture”, George Vlachos, Assistant professor at the Agricultural University of Athens, reminded us that many farmers are already applying good practices but that much more can be done in terms of carbon sequestration. The final lecture of the workshop focused on “Estimating CO2 fluxes in Forest Ecosystems”, where Nikos Fyllas, Assistant Professor at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, presented his results from a study in a forest in Greece and discussed the different results obtained by different methods.