The 7th Villarceaux Declaration

The 7th “Eating City Summer Campus” will invite 28 participants aged 22-30 coming from Euro-Mediterranean* countries working & studying around food sustainability: Chefs, Gastronomists, Nutritionists, Food Procurement Officers – F&B Buyers, Farmers, Fisherman, Foodies, young professionals… or anyone work or studying around food issues –  to participate in this challenging adventure.

The Eating City Summer Campus experience brings together young people, researchers, senior professionals working in the public and private sectors, opinion and community leaders and builds participants’ capacity for learning and leading in the 21st century.

Implementing food sustainability means a profound conversion of the whole food supply chain, largely based on replacing industrialized & standardized products by human know-how. Consequently, training is seen as one of the main tools to achieve this aim by the participants of all Eating City workshops so far.

Interestingly, many cooks and chefs working in Public food service share the idea that sustainability should be able to stimulate new professional vocations which have been sidelined as second-choice jobs for too long. The same vision should also apply to farming; especially because development of local food supply chains cannot occur unless more young people decide become farmers…

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We are pleased to announce the 6th “Eating City Summer Campus”, inviting 28 participants aged 22-32 working & studying around food sustainability: Chefs, Gastronomists, Nutritionists, Food Procurement Officers – F&B Buyers, Farmers, Fisherman, Foodies, young professionals… at anyone work or study ing around food issues – are invited to share this challenging adventure.

In collaboration with:

As usual this campus was open to youth interested in promoting sustainable food, including chefs, urban planner, farmers, fishermen, retailers, wholesalers, students and people from civil society working to encourage the use of organic & local food. However, due to the thematic of this year, focusing on Public Food Service, applications from young professionals enrolled by a public authority at local, national or European level, especially in jobs or activities related to food systems, have been encouraged.

“we were asked to produce a politically valid document – a declarations – that spoke for us all in one voice. During the first day of Campus we agreed however that yet another declaration would not be good enough, so we challenged ourselves even further to come up with a document with concrete and realistic action plans to reflect the measure we identified as most urgent in boosting the shift of paradigm. We sincerely hope our energy and creativity will be echoed in this text – the 4th Villarceaux Declaration.”

Download the document prepared by the participants

Get the document

Following the very exciting experience of last summer, we are pleased to announce the third “Eating City Summer Campus” with 43 young participants from all over the world, aged 22-28, involved any aspect related to food, invited to share this challenging adventure.

Implementing food sustainability means a deep conversion of the whole food supply chain, largely based on replacing industrialized & standardized products by human know-how. Consequently, training is one of the main tools promoted by the participants of all Eating City workshops so far. Interestingly, many cooks working in public food service have the feeling that sustainability should be able to stimulate new professional vocations for what has been for too long a sidelined, second choice job. The same vision should apply to farmers as well, especially because development of local food supply chains cannot occur unless more young people decide to work as farmers.

That’s why the Eating City platform has launched the idea to organize summer campuses open to youth working or studying any aspect related to food in order to increase their awareness and vision about sustainable food systems and also to create a new generation of decision makers able to take into account social, cultural and environmental value and to place people at the centre of economy. The Eating City Summer Campus experience brings together young people, researchers, senior professionals working in public and private sectors, opinion and community leaders, to build participants’ capacity for learning and leading in the 21st century.

Eating City will organize the 3rd edition of the summer campus open to youths from the 5 continents to look at the relationships between our food system and the four elements essential to life such as water, fire, earth and air, and to write together a common declaration that will be handed in at the Milan EXPO and shared in front of a panel of experts.

Applicants, aged 22-28, must be interested in promoting sustainable food. They can be chefs, farmers, retailers, wholesalers, urban planners, students, and people from civil society working to encourage the use of organic & local food.

This second edition of the Eating City Summer Campus has been organised in August 12th – 19th 2014 and has involved 23 participants from countries of the Euro-Med area, aged from 23 to 29:

Alen Mujčinović, Bosnia and Herzegovina, student in quality management and sustainable development
Andrea Aimar, Italy, researcher involved in the project Food Hub TO Connect
Anja Plut, Slovenia, student in medical science
Bruna Skapin, Croatia, student in nutrition science
Boucherba Hocine Abdelatif, Algeria, student in health economics
Enio Civici, Albania, journalist
Kaltsatos Stefanos, Greece, student in territorial dynamics and rural development
Leyla Doss, Egypt, journalist
Luca Bossi, Italy, student in sociology
Lucia Lopez Marco, Spain, student in veterinary
Marco Callegari, Italy, food science and gastronomy
Marijn Bowmeester, The Netherlands, working in EU parliament
Marina Ilusca, Republic of Moldova, student in environmental sciences
Nadhir Boulbair, Algeria, student in food science
Riham Bargouthy, Palestine, student in comparative law, economic and finance
Ruben Matias, Portugal, chef and farmer
Soumaya Merhi, Lebanon, entrepreneur
Tamara Milas, Montenegro, student in law
Valentina Ciappina, Italy, video maker
Vasilev Ljupcho, Republic of Macedonia, agronomist

Three participants of the 2013 edition have been involved in the work-in-group process:

Judita Peterlin, Slovenia
Natalija Lekić, Serbia
Guus Thijssen, The Netherlands

The Organization

This first edition of the Eating City Summer Campus has been organised in “La Bergerie de Villarceaux“, France, from July 28th to august 3rd 2013 and gathered 25 participants from all Europe.

It has involved 25 participants young male and female, aged 32 and less, farmers, cook, food designer and urban planner, from the 25 European countries were invited to share this adventure, according to their motivations.

Tarek Amin, Norway, Agroecologist
Sabina Braun, Sweden, Student Agricultural and Soil Science – SLU
Emilie Daugbjerf Christens, Denmark, Student Food Science and Nutrition, University of Copenhagen
Jorge Garza Guell, Spain
Anna Grosmanová, Czeck Republic, Student Food Quality, Agricultural School
Paula Kimmich, Germany, Student Food Management
Natalija Lekic, Serbia, Slow food Youth Network
Kaisa-Leena Liim, Estonia, Student Environmental Production – Euroacademy
Edvardas Makseckas, Lithuania, Head of Farmers Training Department and  Student in Agricultural Economy
Stephen Meredith, Ireland, Organic Farming Policy Advisor, Brussels
Oriola Alikaj Musa, Albany, MA in Sustainable Economy, Field Expertise and Food Policies
Judita Peterlin, Slovenia, Teacher and Research Assistant , Facculty of Economics, University of Lubljana
Lovro Pehnec, Croatia, Master Student in Economics, Zagreb
Ana Poças Ribeiro, Portugal, Research Assistant at the European Urban Knowledge Network
Denise Saliba, Malta, Student Chemistry and Biology, University of Malta
Michal Samaruk, Poland, Student English Language, University of Gdansk
Megan Saunders, UK, Project Coordinator for a European Funded Local Food Project
Sabine Sauprigl, Austria, Stuedent Food and Organic Business – Austrian Marketing University
Monika Sveltíková, Slovakia, Student in Political Science, Charles University of Prague
Dafar Tabet-Shaban, Bulgary, Partner in Mushroom Production Company
Zsophia Tarkanyi, Hungary, Student in Agronomy, Svent István University
Guus Thijssen, The Netherlands, Head of Production of the Youth Food Movement
Mariana Veauvy, France, Auto Entrepreneur at Biomundi Connect
Ella Weggen, The Netherlands, Euro Paliamentary Assistant
Eliana Zanin, Italia, Student International Relations, University of Venice

They got involved in a series of activities within a program that included plenary sessions as well as work in small groups and also bread making laboratories local visits etc…