Looking at legumes through the consumers’ eye with Hungarian TRUE project-partners AgriKulti and ESSRG at the 2nd TRUE C-LIN Workshop in Budapest between 11-13, September 2018.
The meeting provided another exceptional opportunity to get together sustainable farms and professionals related to responsible farming, processing and trading, consumers and NGOs and to interact with members of the TRUE project – or more broadly people who are passionate about sustainable diet.
TRUE’s perspective is that the scientific knowledge, capacities and societal desire for sustainable legume supported systems exist, but that practical co-innovation to realize transition paths have yet to be achieved. Main aims of this Legume Innovation and Networking Workshop were to:
- share legume focused activities with other networks and actors
- exchange insights from legume-based innovations
- collate challenges and needs regarding legumes across the entire value chain
- gather stakeholder assessments on legume markets and policies
- identify key leverage points for improving framework conditions for legume-based food- and feed-chains.
The first day of the conference provided an open forum, with presentations of participants based on the rules of Pecha Kucha. In the evening, a Networking Event was held on the famous ship of A38 on River Danube with a spectacular view to Budapest at night. We enjoyed thrilling Pecha Kucha presentations:
Day Two focussed on networking and knowledge exchange co-organised by the Budapest Business School, University of Applied Sciences. The main hall of the university provided excellent space for a series of keynotes on a variety of innovative research agendas around legumes: new market opportunities, new product developments, consumer knowledge and the need for policy coherence for legumes. Then a poster session and a stakeholder world café continued for the whole day.
Day Three was about a most exciting trip to Lake Balaton, aka the Hungarian Sea where participants met with the new gastro star of Balaton at Lajos Fodor’s farm, Bean ‘Törek’. After taking a look at the plants, we went even further by tasting them as well in the Kistücsök restaurant where we experienced what happens when beans and a legume committed staff meet.