The overall aim of OK-Net EcoFeed is to help farmers, breeders and the organic feed processing industry in achieving the goal of 100% use of organic and regional feed for monogastrics, in particular pigs, broilers, laying hens and parents of broilers and laying hens. In the last two decades, the market for organic food has shown steady vigorous growth in most parts of Europe and this growth is still accelerating. A key objective of organic farming is the closing of nutrient cycles, but it is difficult to achieve. To a large extent, feed and livestock production, in particular of pigs and poultry, are concentrated in different regions, and animal feed (especially proteins) has to be imported from regions far away. In addition, organic organic farmers have difficulties in sourcing protein feed of organic quality. The lack of organic and regional feed threatens both the sustainability of organic agriculture as well as consumers’ confidence. In order to contribute to the goal of 100% use of organic and regional feed for monogastrics, OK-Net EcoFeed has 4 specific objectives: • The project will synthesize the scientific and practical knowledge available about organic and regional feed production for monogastrics; • It will create a European network of innovation groups to facilitate exchange and co-creation of knowledge among farmers, business actors, researchers and advisors; • It will collect end-user material and develop new tools adapted to the needs of farmers and business actors. All material and tools will be summarised in the EIP common format for practice abstracts. • Finally, the project will extend the OK-Net knowledge platform (farmknowledge.org) to include the topic of monogastric animal feed. The project will build on the experiences of OK-Net Arable, which is a thematic network addressing organic arable cropping. OK-Net EcoFeed is a logic continuation of OK-Net Arable, making the bridge between feed cultivation over feed processing to animal production.

InnOFoodLabs will advance 23 innovations in organic food value chains through 12 Living Labs across 9 European countries and a Community of Practice. By improving organic food processing and distribution, the project aims to transform organic value chains into pillars of local economies. The innovations focus on small-scale food processing, sustainable packaging, farmer-processor connections, and innovative supply and distribution models. Innovation roadmaps will be crafted, outlining activities, targets, and responsibilities, with progress documented in “innovation diaries”. The Community of Practice will facilitate knowledge exchange and capacity building via peer-to-peer exchanges, training, and study visits, operating both nationally and internationally. Sustainability impact assessments will be conducted on selected innovations through tailored assessment frameworks developed by Living Lab members, drawing on established sustainability tools and life cycle assessment. The project will also explore stakeholder attitudes, consumer acceptance, and develop tailormade business models. These efforts will culminate in scaling-out of selected innovations, facilitating their adoption in other regions and settings. Finally, the project’s findings will inform policy recommendations, addressing specific regulations as well as broader support policies. In line with the Farm-to-Fork strategy and the EU Organic Action Plan, the project contributes to the target to achieve a 25% organic farmland share by 2030, recognizing that growth in organic farmland requires parallel increase in consumption and market opportunities for organic farmers. The project will facilitate the shift towards more inclusive food systems, contributing to local innovation and responsible consumption. InnOFoodLabs is a transdisciplinary multi-actor project that engages all relevant stakeholders in the value chain, from farmers, processors, retailers, up to consumers as well as researchers and advisers.

With the aim to increase organic farming to 25% by 2030, the EU recognizes the potential of organic farming to contribute to a climate neutral Europe by 2050 and other environmental EU-targets. However, to achieve these targets, it is important to step-up the capability and the capacity of organic farms to reduce GHG-emissions and remove carbon through sequestration. The overall aim of OrganicClimateNET is to establish a pilot network of 250 organic farms to adapt, test, improve and implement climate and carbon farming practices. Key to this are the peer-to-peer learning and knowledge exchanges between farmers organised in 24 hubs in 12 EU countries and facilitated by trained advisors. Concrete outputs are individual carbon farming strategies of the pilot farms as role models for the entire organic sector; 120+ climate and carbon knowledge materials, improved, translated and adapted to organic farming feeding into a decision support toolbox and freely accessible via the highly frequented Organic Farm Knowledge Platform; the evaluation of carbon farming business models (including MRV and rewarding schemes); upscaling to EU level in a quantitative assessment of the emission reduction and sequestration potential of the EU organic sector based on the data set from the 250 pilot farms; engagement with other EU-Projects and organic AKIS actors outside the network; and a network sustainability plan to sustain the network and knowledge exchange activities on the long term. Project results feed steadily in policy briefs and policy dialogue workshops to support effective climate policy design. The 4-year project gathers 17 partners (extension, farming associations, research) from 14 countries allowing exchange between countries with a mature organic sector and countries where organic farming is less developed.

The mEATquality project aims to provide consumers with quality pork and broiler meat, by developing novel solutions that address societal demands, environmental concerns and economic needs on farm and in the chain. The ‘extensiveness’ of production is a key issue, and will be developed in a stepwise approach. The first step surveys extensive husbandry factors in relation to intrinsic meat quality, through data collection on conventional, free-range and organic farms, and through consumer expectation studies. The second will include controlled experiments on-farm to investigate intrinsic meat quality characteristics in relation to husbandry factors: genetics, forage, space and enrichment. It will also develop innovative techniques for automated meat quality assessment at high line speeds, and combat food fraud through authentication of the final product via ‘fingerprinting techniques’ and blockchain technology. The third step will check the novel farming practices against sustainability aspects: animal welfare, environmental impact and economic viability. Market acceptance of the new products and ways to communicate them to consumers will be studied. The fourth and final step will communicate and disseminate the results. Key outputs are an ‘Extensive Practices’ app, animated movies and EIP Practice Abstracts for farmers, educational tutorials for consumers, retailers and restaurants, and an EU Meat Database for authentication purposes. mEATquality is proposed and co-designed by organic sector representatives Ecovalia and Naturland, in collaboration with CLITRAVI, the Liaison Centre for the Meat Processing Industry in the European Union. They joined forces with academic partners (including 5 of Europe’s leading meat quality laboratories), Marel (poultry, fish, meat & further processing equipment) and poultry breeder Hubbard. Finally, Plukon Food Group supports the project in-kind. Collectively these partners span the chain from Farm to Fork

The EU is the leading region for the production of organic fruits, with a rapidly expanding production and a demand for organic products which grows every year. However, at the same time, the amount and value of organic imports from outside the EU is increasing. For organic fruit farmers in the EU this poses a challenge to succeed in an increasingly competitive market. In addition, organic fruit growing is a very demanding farming activity. This is because, the sector faces specific problems that cannot be solved using conventional approaches based on the use of synthetics substances. As organic fruit growers cannot rely on synthetic inputs, many of them have, on a local level, developed competitive strategies to improve plant health. Moreover, there is considerable research on improving organic fruit growing systems. The problem, however, is that this knowledge is not easily accessible to farmers all over Europe and remains either locally known or only available in the scientific sphere. The sector is in need of a network focused on organic fruit production that bridges the gap between science and practice and makes locally found solutions available to other fruit growers in Europe. Therefore, the specific objectives of BioFruitNet are: 1) Collect and synthesize existing knowledge ready for practise, 2) Create a stable European innovation network, 3) Strengthen established networks, 4) Widely distribute solutions, 5) Extend the Organic Farm Knowledge Platform. To achieve these objectives, we will first carry a thorough mapping exercise to find relevant networks at national level in partner countries and beyond (WP1). Then, compile all existing practical and scientific knowledge relevant to organic fruit farmers (WP2) and select the best practices (WP3). We will then focus on adapting and translating all best practices in an easy-to-understand format like practice abstracts (WP4) and disseminate the information through high impact channels (WP5).