AGROECOPOLISLush Spring Prize 2018: Young Project
GreeceProject started: 2017 (formally)
Project Summary
AgroEcoPolis is the focal point
for the Agroecology, Food
Sovereignty and Community
Supported Agriculture (CSA)
movements in Greece, for theMediterranean Network for
Local Solidarity Partnerships
for Agroecology (MedNet
LSPA), and is an affiliatedpartner of the European Access
To Land network (EA2L).

Project Photo / Photos

7th International Community
Supported Agriculture Symposium,
Thessalonika, November 2018.

Movement building through campaigning linked to networking, events, basic
and in-depth agroecology training, impact-focused research and reports.

AgroEcoPolis Education Lessons

AroEcoPolis demonstrates the significant value of:• An organisation that provides a focus for organising andsupporting education activity that helps in building a national
movement within an international movement;• Using interactive and innovative methods to engage people;• Support beyond training is vital to increase the likelihood of
new endavours and enterprises being viable and long lasting.
• Our Perma-Caravan is effective for both disseminatingknowledge and gathering knowledge and information.

The Changes Achieved (High Level
Outputs & Outcomes)• Ongoing support for networking and skill-sharing amongst
agroecological practitioners; participating in research
projects with partners; helping establish practical landbased projects in Greece.
• Hosted and organised the 7th International Symposium,the 4th European CSA Meeting and the 2nd Meeting of theMediterranean Network for Local Solidarity Partnerships forAgroecology together with URGENCI in Thessaloniki.
• Collaboratively presented the report ‘Democracy Not For
Sale: The Struggle For Food Sovereignty In the Age ofAusterity In Greece’’ on the effects of austerity and thecrisis to the Human Right to Food of the Greek people,
which led to an international legal team being formed topursue the violation of these rights by those involved.
• Created a new social space ‘To PerivOLOI mas’, involving
groups working on young refugee housing and on refugee
induction and food waste management.
• Supported a solidarity exports initiative whereby citrus
fruits and olive oil are exported to food initiatives in the EU,
supporting small agroecological Greek farmers.

An IPEN Case Study

Key Project Information (at 2018):

Climate: Mediterranean, temperate.
Key words: Food Sovereignty; Access To Land; Community
Supported Agriculture (CSA); Solidarity Movement;
Networking; Participatory Guarantee Systems (PGS); Social
Solidarity Economy (SSE); advocacy; awareness raising;action research; participatory methods; systemic change
agents; perma-caravan.
Primary Beneficiaries: Producers & Consumers;
Agroecological / Organic Farmers.
Core Education Activity: empowerment of producers &consumers for CSA and PGS; skill-sharing in agroecology &food sovereignty; networking & knowledge transfer; action
research, participatory video; advocacy training.

Alexandra’s Story, a Beneficiary

Alexandra Tsianti is a biodynamic grower in central Greece.
She is a third generation (female) family farmer and runs
the first DEMETER certified Greek farm: “The Trinity Farm”.
She grows cereals, vegetables and animal feed in an areaof 40ha, just outside of Farsala - near one of Greece’s main
‘chemical agriculture seas’ in the Larissa basin. She also hasa small herd of about 100 sheep.
“I was very lucky to be invitedby AgroEcoPolis to participate
in a farmer to farmer training on
CSA in Italy in January 2018. It
was very interesting and usefulexperience... The important thing
was that I was able to meet with
farmers practising CSA already,and others who are making theirinitial steps.”

International Permaculture Education Network (IPEN)
IPEN Case Studies have been enabled by the Lush Spring Prize

Case Study date:August 2019

Alexandra’s story continued: “Interacting with people in various stages of CSA
development was very beneficial as is the fact that, with the help of AgroEcoPolis, I
am able to contact farmers in other parts of the country and in Europe to exchange
knowledge and experiences. I wish more such activities would be available forfarmers... The work AgroEcoPolis is doing is vital for a country like ours... to help
us set up structures like CSA and PGS for our collective well being as a society.”

Jenny Gkiougki, Director & Project Coordinator

Jenny Gkiougki, AgroEcoPolis Director
in Chief & Project Manager

ProjectphotoTraining workshops

Vision, Mission andValuesThe AgroEcoPolis Vision: A society
characterized by mutual help,
solidarity, (agro)ecological values
and social integration, in whichpeople have the right to healthy andculturally appropriate food and areable to define their own food andagriculture systems.
The AgroEcoPolis Mission:
Strengthening of small scale
farmers and consumers to develop
and try out collectivistic nutrition
strategies to bring food production
back into the hands of the people
and to get organised and work
towards social justice and a better
life in a meaningful and joyous
manner.
AgroEcoPolis Values: cooperation,solidarity, agroecology andhumanity.

AgroEcoPolis contributes to these
SDG’s (Sustainable Development
Goals) being achieved.

“When we created Agroecopolis I was quite elated! Almost three years down theline, I can say we have accomplished much more than I could have dreamt ofwhen we were starting. Nothing comes easy of course, and the ferryman always
demands his payment. This period has been very taxing for me personally... Would
I do it all over again? I have to say YES! Would I perhaps do things differently?
Probably! Do we still need to keep going? For sure! Agroecopolis is the voice thatneeds to be heard… so, unless you want to join us and add your voice to ours,
grab some ear plugs and stay tuned!”

The AgroEcoPolis Story and It’s TeamAgroEcoPolis is the product of collaboration with between formal and informalgroups, collectives and individuals over the past decade or so, working acrossthe areas of Food Sovereignty, Access to Land and agroecology. AgroEcoPolis
was formally established in February 2017 and is the first Greek grassroots NGO
focussing on these areas. One main task in the beginning was therefore mainly
networking and spreading information. Since before its inception, AgroEcoPolishas been promoting CSAs, organizing workshops on sustainability topics, PGS,
small scale farming and the connection between farmers and consumers.
“We cannot give high salaries, and what we do needs a level of social commitment
to our goals. We work with many people remotely, which requires familiarity withdecentralised tools and a work ethic that is responsible and proactive.” Volunteer
working is extremely valuable, but requires realistic expectations about what canbe achieved. “At times a high employee turnover has set us back in many ways,
however we have pulled through and now are at a better stage, with employeesthat are here to stay and ready to face whatever comes our way.”

Good Practise: What AgroEcoPolis Has DoneAt the frontlines of the Greek agro-eco-social movement: By focusing on
alternative ways to produce, distribute, procure and consume food AgroEcoPolisshows that solidarity is a two-way street. It supports both rural (Agro) and urban(Polis) and creates sustainable communities based on the ideas of the Social
Solidarity Economy (SSE) and resilience (Eco).
AgroEcoPolis has organized workshops, trainings & skill-sharing to support
producers & consumers on local-national level to create CSA and PGS initiatives.
November 2018: hosting and organising the 7th International Symposium, the 4th
European CSA Meeting and the 2nd Meeting of the Mediterranean Network for
LSPA together with URGENCI in Thessaloniki.
November 2018 in Brussels: formal presentation of the report ‘Democracy Not For
Sale: The Struggle For Food Sovereignty In the Age of Austerity In Greece’’ incollaboration with TNI (Transnational Institute) and FIAN (food and nutrition rights
organisation) on the effects of austerity and the crisis to the Human Right to Foodof the Greek people. This led to an international legal team being formed with theaid of Amnesty International, CADTM, Olivier De Schutter and others to pursue theviolation of these rights by the institutions involved.
Creating and adapting educational material in Greek (videos, webinars, moocs,
booklets, trainers guides, etc) on CSA and PGS has helped seed systemic change.
Created a new social space ‘To PerivOLOI mas’ (‘an orchard for all’), involving
the association “Ethos” working on young refugee housing, and the group“Pervolarides” working on refugee induction and food waste management(another LUSH donation beneficiary, aided by AgroEcoPolis), where activities likecomposting, and workshops on urban permaculture gardening, food processing
and agroecology will be realized, to help transcultural and generational exchange.

In September 2018 we started an Erasmus+ (EU funded)project with some of our partners from the European Access
To Land network, enabling us to commission a legal andhistorical survey of Greece as one of the outcomes of the
project. This first survey of its kind, has the aim of being
used to identify precedents that can help our advocacy
work. Though this project we aim to create a national coregroup that will set the strategy for the issue of protecting andsafeguarding farmland from grabbing, GMOs etc.
A training of CSA trainers / catalysts organised for thesummer of 2019.

AgroEcoPolis Ways of Achieving Good
Practise: How It Is DoneAs the focal point for Food Sovereignty in Greece, we aim to be
the hub for the movement’s growth. We actively network andsupport anyone working in relevant sectors around the country,
and are active at local, regional, national and international levels.
AgroEcoPolis uses effective models of participation in
decentralised workgroups, that are largely autonomous.
For everything AgroEcoPolis is doing, it consults with relevant
stakeholders from informal groups, cooperatives, activists andcampaigners to universities and local authorities, and continues
to expand the base. Research, networking and disseminationof knowledge is realized through workshops and skill-sharing byusing offline and online tools.
AgroEcoPolis has coordinators rather than managers - this has
a lot to do with the voluntary work that takes place. It offers aplatform and acts as a hub for interaction and exchange. As partof a movement it is always open and relies on constant feedback.
AgroEcoPolis dissemination, education and training activities
also reach out to rural areas, marginalised people like refugees,
youth and people on low incomes. The main issues are inclusion
and access to knowledge, community building and an alternativemodel of living.
The research results help to understand the context and provide
better solutions/tools, and also strengthen our advocacy work.
The connectivity and networking with other countries, areas andregions as well as the open source sharing policy, tools and skills
that are available across different regions, help self-sufficient
communities withstand the onslaught of tax-raids, fast-track
privatisation of commons and the dismantling of social state.
Strategy: If you are in a boat, you won’t go far if you’re only
paddling the oars on one side - similarly, achieving Food
Sovereignty means work on different levels at the same time.
So, on the one hand, AgroEcoPolis works to educate consumers
on matters relating to ethical consumption and how food relates
to climate crisis issues; and trains farmers on agroecological
techniques as well as the politics of food - aiming at making thementirely independent from the big players (like pharma companies,
intermediaries and the agrifood industry in general).
On the other, AgroEcoPolis creates directly connects producers
and consumers through forms of agriculture where the members
and farmers share the risk of farming, in order to build new formsof cooperation, economy and solidarity. CSA is creating strong
resilient communities while at the same time securing farmers’
income and making rural communities sustainable.
Using innovative, interactive methods has been essentiaal organising AgroEcoPolis’ first webinar has been a very different
approach, taking advnatage of a useful and convenient tool.

AgroEcoPolis has run (in 2014) and will revive the permacaravan: a strategy with a methodology and tools to disseminate
knowledge, whilst also collecting knowledge and information froma) agroecological farmers around the Med basin, and b) older
generation farmers and peasants who are the living link with ouragroecological past, when people worked together with natureand knew how to treat diseases in plants, animals and humans.
Introducing tools like Participatory Guarantee Systems (PGS)
and working in order to secure farmland from land- and debtgrabbing, together with advocacy and research work, we aim to
fulfil our vision and mission to achieve Food Sovereignty in ourcountry and our region. PGS are locally focused quality assurance
systems that certify producers based on active participationof stakeholders. They are built on a foundation of trust, social
networks and knowledge exchangeand offer an alternative tothird party certification, hat is adapted to local markets and short
supply chains. They can complement third party certification witha private label that brings additional guarantees and transparency.
Delivering our first training for CSA Catalysts with people from allover the country is helping create a network of activists who are
working in their local environments.
As a final step we envisage the creation of Food Policy Councils,
so that we the citizens play an effective and direct role in policy
making, thus truly enabling the systemic change we dream of!

OUTCOMES Achieved• Small farmers and communities have created more
resilient food growing systems, are more financially selfreliant and more self-organising to meet their needs.
• Farmers can apply and share experience of agroecology
methods effectively, improving their livelihood and that ofothers, and their families’ food security in so doing;• An international legal team formed to pursue violations of
the Human Right to Food in Greece;• The food sovereignty, agroecology and the CSA movement
has been expanded and supported in Greece, during atime of great need under conditions of extreme austerity.

Permaculture Principles & From Inspiration to Action The Difference arising
Design in Action
from the Lush Spring Prize
As its country’s first agroecology, food
AgroEcoPolis embodies the ethics ofEarth Care, People Care and Fair Sharefrom local and national to transnational
levels. While not currently involved inpermaculture education, we ran two
PDCs in 2014 and 2015 (before ourformal start), and the Permaculture
Caravan in 2014, which will be revived.
We plan to start free urban permaculture
courses in our social space ‘To
PerivOLOI mas’; and to collaborate
more with the PermaSchool Greece.
ALL perma-principles play a part in what
we do and how we do it. With limited
resources it means we are extra careful
about their allocation and the yields tobe created. To build resilient systems weneed all of these to be in place.
Small change for big effects: being a
hub for information and activity means
single actions or training events cancreate many benefits for many people.
Principles in Action: Design from Pattern
to Detail; Creatively use & Respond to
Change; Use Small Slow Solutions;
Use & value diversity; ‘The edge iswhere it’s at’; Observe & interact; Catch& store energy (mostly people’s energy
in our case); Obtain yields (ie. farmers
trained, initiatives created); Integrate;
Self regulate; Use and value renewable
resources (reduce dependencies).

sovereignty and community supported
agriculture NGO, AgroEcoPolis provides
lots of inspiration on how to build anational movement, as part of aninternational movement, in challenging
political and economic conditions.
They provide examples of how tosteadily build connections throughtraining, events and networking, whichhave multiplied and grown the diversityof beneficial impacts they produce.
What experience from AgroEcoPolis
could help your project, community or
network? For example:a) Helping to grow a national movement
through practical training and skillsharing in areas such as agroecology
and CSA methods?
b) By researching historical and legal
land issues to help inform campaigning
and activity linked to access to landissues and related advocacy work?
c) Using training in agroecologicalcultivation, food preparation andpreservation techniques to help
assimilate marginalised social groups,
migrants and displaced people?
d) Creating and developing yourown Perma-Caravan to disseminate
information and gather valuable dying
knowledge from farming elders?

2018 was an awesome year for
AgroEcoPolis! We achieved so muchand feel so grateful and honoured by
the trust placed in us from URGENCI
to organise the 3-in-1 ‘CSA Beyond
Borders’ meeting; from LUSH in
receiving the 2018 Young ProjectAward; and from TNI (Transnational
Institute) and FIAN for the productionof our report on the Human Right toFood in Greece. Collectively all thesehave brought us in the spotlight and it
is difficult to separate the effects of one
against the rest.
Having said that, whenever we mention
that we have received the Spring
Prize award, we are welcomed morepositively, with bigger smiles and anotion that we can be trusted at facevalue - particularly at the international
level. We are taking part in project
proposals with some serious European
organisations presently, and the award
has definitely helped our credibility andtrustworthiness!
We would also like to do more things
with the one and only LUSH shop in
Greece that happens to be in our city.
It is a pity we did not do anything withthem in 2018, but hope something canbe organised for the future.

Legal Status, Structure & Size: formal project start date: 2017

AgroEcoPolis is a Non Profit NGO, established formally in February 2017. It has 6 part-time employees, teams of volunteers,and follows a consensus based decision-making process, with Board members present at weekly staff meetings. We have aconstant feedback loop with the movements, collectives, assemblies, networks etc that we participate in.

Funding, Finance, Resources

Funding comes mainly from European Erasmus+ and one AMIF project. We received the Lush Spring Prize in 2018 (Young
Project Award, £20,000) and a small grant from the Guerrilla Foundation. AgroEcoPolis is a member of FundAction - afunding experiment that is run participatively by a community of activists. We need core funding to help us achieve our goals,
without the restraints of project-related funding. Until now donations have played very small role in our finances.

Potential Areas for Collaboration with Project (Local, Regional, National or International)

Local to Regional: producers & consumers who are interested in building CSAs; exchange between regional groups andinitiatives; creating PGS scheme; National to International: research; networking and skill-sharing with transnational
networks; advocacy for CSA, CAP, Agroecology, biodiversity; trainings;
Universally: agroecological / permaculture trainings; research; advocacy.

Contact Information

Website: https://www.agroecopolis.org/
Email: bethechange@agroecopolis.org
Address: AgroEcoPolis, Konstantinoupoleos 83, Thessaloniki 546 44, Greece
Phone: +30 2310 867602

International Permaculture Education Network (IPEN)
Increasing the effectiveness and coherence of permaculture education internationally
IPEN Case Studies have been enabled by the Lush Spring Prize
Website: https://www.ipenpermaculture.org - Case Studies via Education Resources page