How to bring back human potential to rural areas - ‘we need to offer farmers more than just a plot of land’

The purpose of the event is to share new and ongoing initiatives which are contributing to rural re-development and support local farming.

Background

Continuous enforcement of policies that focus on attracting investment and building new markets in cities and urban towns result in depopulation of the countryside. It’s a global issue and those who continue to live in rural areas often feel a sense of being left behind.

So, how can we solve it?

At Edgeryders we want to learn about new initiatives that are helping to bring vitality back to regions that have been forgotten about. It’s part of a broader topic we have been exploring on food localisation and how smaller farmers need increased support. You can read more about our previous event on that here.

We want to answer some of the major questions that arose during that event. It’s apparent that despite the obvious support farmers need (when it comes to competing with larger scale farms) there is a need for more services in rural areas that help build stronger communities of producers and consumers alike.

The topics discussed during the event are:

• Rural areas are not attractive, not vibrant. How could we have more farmers or do more farming?
• The need to build new business models in rural farming
• What models of empowering citizens on different levels are out there to make rural living more viable and attractive?

If you are a farmer, part of a rural community, a policy maker in Europe, interested in how we can revitalise regions that were once full of life, we encourage you to attend our event on 23rd November at 18:00 CET.

Registrations:

Please send an email if you wish to attend. We will introduce you to other participants and dedicated online discussions before the event on our forum. We will send the link to the Zoom meeting one day before the event.