1st edition of the Winter School Agri-Food Choices in Kenya

(Baraka Agricoltural College, Molo, Kenya- 27/01/2020, Pia M., editor Giulia Z.) Day 7 of the WinterSchool on sustainable food systems starts with a short presentation of the group work conducted the day before. All groups have taken an effort to visualize their ideas and go into details on how to realize their first project ideas. Then there is an online lecture of Eduardo Occa, who has been working with malnutritioned children in Tanzania. He points out that there are two different stages of malnutrition- one is the chronic malnutrition, which is an insufficient supply of nutrients within the first 1000 days starting from the pregnancy of the mother until the 2 years of life of the baby. This way of malnutrition affects more than a third of the Tanzanian population and over 25% of Kenya's population. The second type of malnutrition is severe malnutrition, which leads to death if not treated in an hospital and 100.000 Tanzanian children are facing this threat - in Kenya the

(Baraka Agricoltural College, Molo, Kenya- 26/01/2020, Ann S. and Pia M.) Today is all about the future . The team starts with lessons at 9 o’clock following up the day before session and envisioning the future of the projects. Valentina Gritti, from SFYN, gives an insight on brainstorming and all the groups start thinking (more or less) feasible solutions of the projects. After this exercise every group needs to take the hard decision of choosing one main idea to follow for the next days. The presentation of one PowerPoint slide per group is scheduled for the class after lunch. Following the coffee break there is a lecture about “sustainable Agriculture: the future of agriculture” – held by Mr. Wilhelm N. Keyah, who is a professor at the Baraka Agricultural College. He is a specialist for rural development and was working as an extension officer before joining the college. Mr. Keyah starts with asking the team questions about their worries of future developments in the agri

(Baraka Agricoltural College, 25/01/2020 – Anna F. – Giulia Z.) The day starts with another exciting trip: the Baraka Agricultural College team gets ready to know a tea processing factory and meet small tea farmers. Trying to win against the time, we leave the Baraka Agricultural College earlier than the scheduled departure to make the most of the limited time available in these rich lands. After two hours of travelling on the college bus surrounded by green landscapes, the Winterschool team reaches the Kiptagich Tea Factory. A team of proud employers of the Kiptagich Factory is waiting for the students, so dressing them with a white coat and a mask, and divided them in two groups: the participants are now ready for the factory tour. The two groups get to see all the steps of the tea processing. The process starts with the collected leaves, 65% of which are coming from small and middle scale farmers and 35% from fields owned by the factory. The factory decides the price according

(Baraka Agricultural college- Molo - Kenya, 24 January 2020- Elisa B. & Marco B.) (Title translation from Swahili "Naesa kupanda miti?": Can I climb the trees?) At 9 o’clock in the morning, the Winter School team left Baraka College heading to Mariashoni, where the Ogiek community lives. The road from the college to the final destination passed through the city of Nakuru from where, after 40 kilometers, the team reached a small city on the slopes of Mau Forest (Elburgon). To finally reach the village of Mariashoni, others 15 km of a very bumpy road had to be tackled by the Baraka’s college super-bus. Challenge accepted, the bus did a great job overcoming the huge holes on that trail. After 2 hours, the Winter School Team finally reached the Ogiek community’s home. Ogiek people are a community of bee-keepers and hunters living near Mau Forest and Mont Elgon in Kenya. They are divided into groups, named “kop”, made up of lineages (30-50 members for each group).

(Baraka Agricultural College – Molo – Kenya, 23 January 2020 – Giulia Z. & Anna F.) How can psychological perspective help to understand and modify the perception, attitudes and behavior toward environmental resources? Simona Sacchi , associate professor of Social Psychology at the University of Milano Bicocca , suggests that there are two main directions which can guide attitudes, believes and values: a top-down approach which is based on three values that forge behaviors (biospheric, altruistic and egoistic value) or a bottom-up process in which behaviors could be forged by perception. Talking about enviromental dimensions, it is necessary to take into account the moral behavior and the moral dilemma which could be faced through two main processes: deontology (when an action is based on internal moral) and consequentialism (when there is analysis of costs/benefits). But which is the best way to communicate environmental change? Could we use moralization in order to persude

(Baraka Agricoltural College, 22/01/2020 - Ruth M. and Anita D.) Yesterday we listened to a lesson by Raffaele Matacena, who talked about the development of the global food system and the current challenge to sustainability and food sovereignty. In short we can say that food system is dynamic and it has changed over the years, driven by different factors. Three movements appeared over the years: Productivism was driven by the principle that every country should produce what is best at and import all the rest, instead of try to produce everything. These system is found in the fact that exist few companies with a lot of power which drive the system and suffocate the small producers. During the 1980s a new system appeared: the post productivism , based on control and regulation through the request for certification about the origin of food. During this period people developed the need to know and understand the production process and this lead to a more regulated food system esp

(Baraka Agricultural College - Molo, Kenya, 21 Juanuary 2020- Marta P.) "When it comes to the relevance of feeding and food habits, Kenyans are more open and aware, especially because of the impact of quality and clean food on their own health. Cancer, consequence of the fertilizers and agro-toxics heavy introduction in the last decades, is a great reason for the people to change habits and get back to a more traditional, small-scale and clean production. So, initiatives as ours (*Slow Food Kenya) are very much welcomed by the local communities", affirms Mr John Kariuki, coordinator of Slow Food Kenya, in the opening session of the the first " Winter School in Agri-Food choices: from field to plate, for the planet: building a better food system ", taking place from the 19th to the 29th January 2020 in Nakuru County - Kenya. Kenya, a country with a population of about 47 million people, of which 70% relies on agricultural, still faces big challenges in guarantee

Lecturers Paola Branduardi Paola Branduardi graduated cum Laude in Biological Sciences at the Univer- sity of Milano, Italy, and received a PhD in Cellular and Molecular Biology at the University of Milano, with an internship at the Vienna BioCenter, work- ing on the yeast cell cycle progression. She moved in 2000 at the University of Milano Bicocca as Post-Doc, where she started to work on Industrial Bio- technology where she is now full professor in Chemistry of Fermentation and Industrial Microbiology. Her research aims at the development of sus- tainable microbial-based bioprocesses, mainly valorizing residual biomasses as in the concept of biorefineries. She published over 60 peer-reviewed pa- pers, 7 book chapters, and she is (co-)inventor of 10 patent applications, 6 of which obtained the PCT status, and 5 subsequently licensed. She is co- founder and president of Galatea BioTech srl, a University spin-off company active in the production of bio-based biodegradable m

WINTER SCHOOL  DAY BY DAY  CALENDAR OF ACTIVITIES From 20 to 30 of January 2020 Baraka Agricultural College (Kenya) in collaboration with Scarica versione PDF

AGRI-FOOD CHOICES. From field to plate, for the planet: building a better food system ENVIRONMENT The First Edition of Agri-Food Choices Winter School is a collaboration between the Slow Food Youth Network and the University of Milan-Bicocca through the Best4Food (Bicocca cEnter of Science and Technology for FOOD ). The program will be held in Nakuru, Kenya. It will provide to participants 10 days of lectures, seminars, workshops, class assignments, discussions, real life scenarios, field trips and group exercises. The program will look into how, local and global actors, take into account the needs of the Youth, farmers and indigenous peoples (society), of the local economy (economy) and the sustainability of food production (environment).