After three years of Corona online meetings, all participants were finally able to meet and exchange ideas in person at the Felsenkeller in Leipzig on the 19th and 20th of September 2022. At the "Marketplace of Opportunities", all initiatives presented themselves, shared their results and synergies. There were also one or two good tips for the OLGA team. For example, in some federal states agroforestry systems can be implemented as a production-integrated compensation measure. Maybe also an option for Saxony?! One stand showed the steps needed to produce activated carbon pellets from green and landscape cuttings. That can also be done with agriwood, can't it? From other projects we learned how to carry out agricultural reallabs or how "tiny gardens" look like.

For the continuation of processes, cooperations and reallabs etc. in cities and regions, it is important to think about legal regulations, planning guidelines and horizons, and to find people who think regionally and are committed to their topics and projects beyond the boundaries of municipal or city administrations. During the implementation phase of OLGA, we will make sure to have a regular exchange with actors in Dresden and the surrounding area so that our pilot measures and agricultural reallabs can be continued.

Field trip about regional food value chains in the Leipzig region

On the second conference day there were four thematic excursions to choose from. We took the one dealing with regional products - of course - and spoke to people who are committed to regional food value creation in Leipzig and the surrounding area:

Thilo Egenberger sells mostly regional and organic food in the Plagwitz market hall - this is also where the refreshingly sour "lipz Schorle" was created. The City of Leipzig is currently developing a comprehensive cross-sector strategy for regionally sustainable food. Lots of municipal instruments are involved in this process, such as studies, leasing criteria, regional marketing, nutrition education, etc.

Johanna and Robert at the Lerchenhof in Jesewitz gave us an insight into a regenerative farm. Soon they will start up an organic mill for processing regional cereals and legumes (!). Lastly, we stopped at Wassergut Canitz GmbH to see an example of a valuable urban-rural cooperation for the production, processing and marketing of regional organic food (potato and onion!) in the drinking water protection area of Leipzig.

Four municipalities in the Wurzen region want to promote regional material and product cycles. To this end, they founded the Wurzener Landwerke. Here, four inter-municipal companies have already been established for the tasks of digitalisation, energy, service and regional food. Thank you to the WERTvoll project team for organising the excursion and to all the speakers! It was great fun with you!

Regional legumes as vegetable protein suppliers are a key component for climate-friendly nutrition and agriculture. On 5th of October 2022 from 13:30-17:30, the association Nahhaft e.V. and the OLGA project are offering a workshop for catering managers in school and daycare canteens in the Dresden region.

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This year we were part of this year's Kraftwerk Mitte Fest, the cultural festival in the centre of Dresden. With a joint stand with Europe Direct Dresden and Europa-Union Sachsen, two initiatives that are also based at the Umweltzentrum, we specialised in the topic of pulses at this festival, because we want more people in Dresden and the region to realise that peas, beans, lupins, lentils & co. are tasty, contribute to a healthy diet and protect the climate. 

At our stand, many people learned about the use of pulses and took away great recipe ideas for pea guacamole or field bean brownies, for example. We immediately offered the brownies for tasting, which were especially popular with the children compared to the soy and lupine tempeh samples we offered on behalf of Umani Kulturgut from Leipzig. It was rather the adults who stayed there and marvelled: that doesn't taste bad at all. The interest in pulses as a protein supplier and meat-free alternative in human nutrition is also growing in Dresden. We are happy!

Photos: Anke Hahn (links), Victor Smolinski

The OLGA test area at farmer Thomas Domin's in Peickwitz in southern Brandenburg became the setting for a mdr feature on agroforestry this summer. Manuel Wewer from the Institute of Hydraulic Engineering and Thermal Hydromechanics at the TU Dresden explains from minute 6:20 the technology installed in and around the Peickwitz millrace to measure water temperature, water level, air temperature, humidity and pressure as well as wind speed and solar radiation. The measurement results provide information about the shading effect of the adjacent agricultural wood structure on the watercourse.

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It has been talked about for a long time, now at the end of June it came to the first "Come Together": Stakeholders from the City of Dresden and the TU Dresden met at the latter for the workshop "What's sustainable in Dresden?" as part of the TUD Sustainability Week. The meeting was organised by the Green Office of TU Dresden and Zukunftsstadt Dresden, which has been funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research since 2015 and has so far produced a number of sustainable citizens' projects and initiatives. During the moderated exchange over coffee and cake, a number of synergies between TU institutions and the municipal departments emerged with regard to the sustainable development of Dresden and the overall social transformation in the city. Although both institutions have already worked together on individual projects in the past, the need for stronger and more permanent cooperation was felt again and again. Topics that were addressed in this context and could play a role in the future between science and administration were:

• Climate-neutral and smart city 2030
• Consideration of climate protection in the renovation of buildings, e.g. vegetation and photovoltaics on roofs
• Sustainable equipment for events
• Knowledge transfer in the development of sustainability strategies and integrated climate protection concepts
• Inclusion and participation
• Regional and climate-adapted agriculture and food system
• Education for sustainable development 
• Protection of biodiversity and development of urban nature

OLGA was also present at the exchange. We made contacts to promote research and development on sustainable approaches to land management and food habits (regional, seasonal, climate-adapted!) in the region and to raise awareness for regional value creation in agriculture and food in general. At TU Dresden, there are already initiatives in this regard for more regional communal catering in the TU canteens and the stronger integration of educational offers for sustainable development in the area of agriculture and nutrition for students, e.g. directly on a campus-owned agricultural practice and experimentation area. All participating projects and initiatives were able to present themselves in the form of a project stand. We didn't need to be told twice and turned our OLGA info point into a tasting stand for mini-breads made from regional field bean flour with at least locally prepared field bean and lupine hummus with lots of information about the nutritional value and the climate balance of pulses for the stand visitors. 

The networking process between administration and science will already be continued beginning of September at a second "sustainability" meeting.

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Food systems must ensure a balanced diet for all people. But how can we produce food in an environmentally and socially responsible way? What developments and innovations does the future hold? This is what the National Dialogue is about.

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In doing so, the partners will jointly explore new ways of local cooperation between science and practice. This is the aim of the cooperation agreement signed by Marc Wolfram, Director of the IOER, and Mayor Dirk Hilbert on Monday, 6 December 2021. 

The IOER and the City of Dresden are already working together in various projects on sustainable urban and regional development. Among other things, they are working on heat adaptation in densely built-up urban districts or the participatory design of processes of sustainable innovation. In the future, the partners want to orient themselves even more long-term and coordinate more strategically than before. 

The agreement aims at a new form and quality of local cooperation between science and practice. The aim is to take up and link different bodies of knowledge from politics, administration, business, science and civil society and make them equally useful for research and practice. The newly acquired knowledge should help to initiate, accelerate and perpetuate innovative processes and thus drive a profound change towards sustainability.

OLGA will actively contribute to the cooperation process with the strategies and implementation options for sustainable land use in Dresden and the surrounding area as well as a more regionalized agriculture and food economy in the region.

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