From earth-friendly agri-culture to health-friendly food: a European trip from fields to plates.

"<< Background >>Our main motivation in this project was to address the need for students and citizens in general to realise the challenges agriculture faces in our different countries. We wanted to draw students’ and people’s attention on the issue of agriculture and the impact it can have on the environment, on ways to favour sustainable food production and also on the cultural aspect of agriculture, paying attention to agricultural and gastronomic traditions in the partner countries. This was at the heart of the European Green Deal, the EU’s sustainable and inclusive growth strategy, which was designed to boost the economy, improve people's health and quality of life, and care for nature.As school institutions, we thought it was important to offer our students the opportunity to play their role in this shift to a sustainable food system, which can bring environmental, health and social benefits, as well as offer fairer economic gains. At the same time the shift to distance learning during the COVID-19 crisis also highlighted the lack of digital competencies (in terms of digital literacy, safe navigation, technological awareness, etc.).<< Objectives >>The main concrete objectives we wanted to achieve in our project were:- integrating new information technology and communication;- ensuring equal opportunities for all participants, by including students who are disadvantaged for socio-economic reasons or students with special educational needs;- offering the students a reality-based connection to their acquired theoretical knowledge (through the activities carried out during and outside the meetings, as well as the contact among partners in between the meetings), thus raising the quality of the students’ education and promoting the acquisition of skills and competences;- allowing students to be taught outside the classroom, putting great emphasis on practical activities, motivating the students by offering them the opportunity to have a high level of initiative, autonomy and creativity;- improving the students’ linguistic competence by creating occasions where students must use their L2 to exchange information and ideas amongst peers from different cultures;- giving the participants the opportunity to play their role in the shift towards sustainable agriculture and food consumption as a part of the European Green Deal.<< Implementation >>All the activities that had been planned in the different work packages of our EFAC project have been successfully implemented. In our WP2 'Respect producing, reduce consuming' we had 2 physical LTT activities ('Agriculture 4.0: The challenges of modern farming' - meeting in Sicily in March 2023 and 'Innovative agriculture' - meeting in Belgium in February 2023) and virtual activities between the meetings (for 'celebration' days). In our WP3 'Good food stood' we had 2 physical LTT activities ('Health and Earth: green nutrition' - meeting in Portugal in November 2023 and 'Environmentally Sustainable World' - meeting in Sweden in April 2024) and virtual activities between the meetings (for 'celebration' days). In our WP4 'Dissemination' we had 2 physical activities ('Kick-off meeting"" in Portugal in November 2022 and 'Follow-up meeting' in Sicily in August 2024 and virtual activities (for Europe Days, Erasmus Days and Environment Days). Throuhout the project we also worked on the creation of the didactic packs ('Green and Healthy' and 'Green and Fruitful') and took part in additional dissemination activities (visits in other schools, lectures and meetings...).<< Results >>We created a website and worked on the creation of educational materials (didactic packs) linked to our Work Packages 2 and 3, namely the elaboration of lesson plan units linked to the main topics of these work packages, which can be used by other teachers and integrate the schools' curricula. We also created lists of digital applications useful to students in the course of their studies. Alongside these concrete outputs, the other results are strictly related to the objectives of the project: reduction of the digital division, awareness of the technological tools that are at the participants' disposal, stimulation of the use of digital services for school services, reduction of early school leaving thanks to a more efficient use of technologies, sensitization of the school population on respect for the environment, the careful use of resources, food education and health, encouraging ecological and responsible habits, recycling, reducing pollution and waste production, improvement of responsible behavior, the civic sense and local and global citizenship. Another result is a better knowledge about Eramus programmes, the opportunities offered by the European Union and what Europe tangibly represents for the citizen"