Barcelona made a campaign to promote the supply of products of proximity and increase the presence of organic food!

The Mayor of Barcelona Ada Colau signed a year ago the Urban Food Policy Pact. It is an agreement for the creation of an active international platform of cities that share a clear objective for a healthy diet, food projects, fair trade, and promote responsible and sustainable consumption. With this Pact, acepted by more than 110 cities around the world, the “Green Markets” campaign was born.

The campaign aims to promote the supply and consumption of local products and increase the presence of the fresh organic product, and to give visibility to the markets of Barcelona as healthy eating places.
The Green Markets campaing started in 2015 with a pilot test in the Llibertat market, and revolves around three main axes:
– Promoting sustainability
– Promoting product proximity
– Encouraging the presence of organic products in the markets.

Now, after a year, Barcelona has seven green markets: Clot, Concepció, Horta, Llibertat, Les Corts, Sant Martí and Lesseps. The goal is to reach the 39 municipal markets of the city within the campaign.

Barcelona Markets Products

With this campaign it has been detected that 20% of the fruit that is sold in the market was already a proximity product, and that 60% of the meat also. Therefore, this initiative wants to reinforce the work done for years, and increase the offer of products with these characteristics up to 10%. The Proximity products are those that come from a radius of maximum 150 km around Barcelona. Consuming products of proximity leads to a reduction in the cost of transportation and, at the same time, it favors better quality and freshness of the products.

Related with the third point of the campaign, the presence of organic products, all market stops have been endowed with a distinctive label to mark both products of proximity and ecological ones. The one indicating the certification of ecological product adopts the graphic image agreed by the European Union and, where appropriate, the CCPAE or other official certification bodies. Likewise, fish and seafood establishments distinguish their products coming from responsible fishing.

Captura de pantalla 2017-01-20 a la(s) 16.10.29

EU Ecolabel and CCPAE

Traders have positively valued the campaign, but they said that is required “more communication” to spread the benefits of healthy eating, as the high price of these products can deter consumers.

With the aim of reinforcing the communication of the campaign, Immb (Institut Municipal de Mercats de Barcelona) has promoted a program of activities of dynamization and awareness in collaboration with Fundació Alícia, a center with a social vocation, dedicated to technological innovation in kitchen, improving eating habits and food heritage valuation.
The two organizations together create for that occasion a cycle of talks about nutrition and healthy eating on 16 and 17 December in the markets of Les Corts, Sant Martí and Lesseps.

For everyone that is coming to Barcelona we suggest to enter in one of the amazing markets of Barcelona.

You will be amazed by the beauty, the colors and the multitude of the products!

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Source: lavanguardia.com