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VET in Regenerative Agriculture in the EU: a state of play

Adopting environmental-friendly agricultural practices such as regenerativeagricultureisessentialto achieve sustainable food consumption and production patterns, as recalled by many of the United NationsSustainable Development Goals(SDGs). To develop the skills and knowledge required for the implementation of more sustainable farming practices, vocational education and training (VET)is a criticaltool.1However, inlight of the environmental, geopolitical and health crises, VET education in regenerative agriculture does not receive sufficient attention across the EU. While ambitious climate and environmental goals have been highlighted bythe EU’s recentcommunications(European Green Deal, Farm to Fork Strategy), it is indeed quite unclear how professionals’ dire need for environmental education will be met by public policies.

What isthe EU doing in the field of VET?

1. The Council Resolution2021/C 66/01established a strategic framework covering education and training systems as a whole (European Education Area-EEA) in aholistic and lifelong learning perspective. It definesnew strategic targets for the period up to 2030, with a particular emphasis on VET.The target is that by 2025,at least 60% of VET graduates should benefit from exposure to work-based learning during their VET.2
2. The EU Council Recommendationon VETfor sustainable competitiveness, social fairness and resilience defines keys principle to ensurethe adaptating of labour market needs,and to enable quality learning opportunities for young people and adults alike^.3
3. The Osnabrück Declaration 2020endorsed by Ministers in charge of VET of EU MSs (among others), establishes additional VET policy actions for the period of 2021-2025 to complement the Council Recommendation. One of the main area of this declarationis to foster sustainability as a green link in VET^.4

Aspart of the EEA, a VETworking group was created to assistMember States inimplementingthe principles and objectives of the aforementioned policy documents.While these measuresare in line with the European Green Deal, Action 6 of the European Skills Agenda, as well aspriorities 2 and 5 of the Council Resolution,there is currently nomention of or specific reference to actions to promote the transition towards sustainable farming practices.

Regenerative agricultureeducation

The development of skills and knowledge that support environmental improvements on farms is equally important as focusing on the dissemination of values and changes of mindsets in order to convert the EU agriculture sector into anenvironmentally sustainable production system^.5As previously stated in policy brief 1 and 2of the RegAgri4Europe project, regenerative agriculture is essential to ensure asustainable environmentand to fight climate change, biodiversity loss and severe impacts on soil and water quality.

Whilst much research has focused on processes and dynamics of the regenerative farming practices, the area related to education inregenerative agriculture is often overlooked, anddecisiveactions are neededin this field.67 Given thatthe most significant drawbacks of people engaging in regenerative agriculture practices is thedifficultacquisition of new knowledge and skills(given their complex accessibility), and the lack of academic recognition, investing more in education is critical to close thesegapsin this field^.8

Education aspects across the EU

In line with the goals of “aligning skills with labour market needs”stated in the Europe 2020 Strategy⁹, the European Commission(EC)needed to carry out analysesat Member States (MS)levelacross a range of policy areas, including in the fields of education and training.The assessment report¹⁰ revealed that:

1. The VET sector needs more attention and investment;
2. VET was at the centre of reforms in a significant number of MSs that aimed to create a better link between educational outcomes, offers and labour market needs;
3. nvestment in education and training systems was the common challenge identified by all MSs;
4. There is a strong decline in number of generally low-skilled workers in agriculture sector;

Moreover, the European Skill Agenda also indicated that a massive investment in skills is needed^.11 TheEuropeanUnion regularly invests in educational programme such as the European Social Fund Plus (ESF+), Erasmus+, InvestEU and others. Nevertheless, no specific mentions or funds can be identified and assessed in terms ofregenerative agriculture related -skills.¹²

Moreover, the European Skill Agenda also indicated that a massive investment in skills is needed.11TheEuropeanUnion regularly invests in educational programme such as the European Social Fund Plus (ESF+), Erasmus+, InvestEU and others. Nevertheless, no specific mentions or funds can be identified and assessed in terms ofregenerative agriculture related -skills^.12

Additionally, even though the Osnabrück Declaration 2020 has been highlighting sustainability as a green link in VET,itsshort-term deliverables and policy actions are broad and fall short of specifically supporting education and training for sustainable production systems.

If the EUeducationpolicy has to efficiently support MSs’ actions towards builing sustainable food systemsand tackle the common challenges,MSs must also actively make efforts to integrateregenerative agriculture into their national education systems.Furthermore, it isimportant that MSsfrequently address and include regenerative agricultural subject in the context of VET discipline.

MSs haveto develop strong and ambitiousplans to maximize the large-scale potentialfor sustainabilitythat acquiring practical skills and knowledge of regenerative agriculture can bring.

The current EU educational system policy must be refocused and adapted to enhance agriculturaleducation and skilldevelopment to aid in the transition to moresustainable production practices, particularly those

related to regenerative agriculture.In this respect, the RegAgri4EUROPE project makes the following recommendations:

• More than ever, the Union and EU institutions must provide extra funding support to VET education enabling the transition towards regenerative agriculture;
• MSs must invest more and develop targeted educational strategies for VET that integrates regenerative agriculture education to promote the practice and foster its use;
• National MSs authorities must adjust their national education systems according to the set sustainability targets and goals, to include regenerative agriculture education as a self-standing subject into curricula.

Recommendations

The EU countries have committed to achieve the UN SDGs, and the EU targets. If the EU itself is indeed to meet the climate changegoals, enhancefood security, protect farmland and developsustainablefood systems, both the EU and MSs public authorities must take greater steps and invest more in fostering educationin regenerative agriculture.

To reach the Council Resolution’s goal of at least 60% of VET students experiencing work-based learning during their VET by 2025, more EU resources and funding opportunities are required

References

1Council Of The European Union.Reskilling and upskilling as a basis for increasing sustainability and employability, in thecontext of supporting economic recovery and social cohesion. https://www.consilium.europa.eu/media/44351/st08682-en20.pdf2Council Of The European Union. Council Resolution on a strategic framework for European cooperation in education and training towards the European Education Area and beyond (2021-2030) 2021/C 66/01, https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:32021G0226(01)3Council Of The European Union. Council Recommendation of 24 November 2020 on vocational education and training (VET) for sustainable competitiveness, social fairness and resilience 2020/C 417/01, https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A32020H1202%2801%294Osnabrück Declaration on vocational education and training as an enabler of recovery and just transitions to digital and green economies, 2020, https://www.cedefop.europa.eu/files/osnabrueck_declaration_eu2020.pdf5EIT. The Regenerative Agriculture Manual. 2022. https://www.eitfood.eu/reports/regenag-manual6Ruth Nettle, Laurens Klerkx, Guy Faure & Alex Koutsouris (2017) Governance dynamics and the quest for coordination in pluralistic agricultural advisory systems, The Journal of Agricultural Education and Extension, 189-195, doi: 10.1080/1389224X.2017.13206387EIT. The Regenerative Agriculture Revolution. 2022. https://www.eitfood.eu/projects/regenag-revolution8Policy Brief 2 9European Commission. Europe 2020: A European strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth https://ec.europa.eu/eu2020/pdf/COMPLET%20EN%20BARROSO%20%20%20007%20-%20Europe%202020%20-%20EN%20version.pdf10European Commission. Assessment of the Europe 2020 Strategy. https://safefoodadvocacy.sharepoint.com/:b:/g/EcGHKgDEPa1Kh8WsrBbDlwkBeW1p4dMt2GA409XzUF_BpQ?e=zwnUkq11European Commission. European Skills Agenda. https://ec.europa.eu/social/main.jsp?catId=1223&langId=en12European Commission. Vocational education and training initiatives. 2022https://education.ec.europa.eu/education-levels/vocational-education-and-training/about-vocational-education-and-training

RegAgri4Europe in a nutshell

Project Name

RegAgri4Europe -Upgrading the Agricultural Sector with Skills in Regenerative Agriculture

Consortium

• CEFE International (Germany)
• Safe Food Advocacy Europe (Belgium)
• Schloss Tempelhof e.V. (Germany)
• Skybridge Partners (Greece)
• Agricultural University of Patras (Greece)
• ACQUIN (Germany)
• AKMI (Greece)

Duration

01.01.2021 –31.12.2022

Funding Source

European CommissionErasmus+ Programme Key Action 2: Strategic Partnerships for vocational education and training

Website

www.regagri4europe.eu

Contact

Project Coordinator ,Laura Dorn ,dorn@cefe.net

The European Commission support for the production of this publication does not constitute an endorsement of the contents which reflects the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be heldresponsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.

The RegAgri4Europe partnership has recently launched the training programme:

“Regenerative Agriculture”

aiming to accelerate the global transition to regenerative food, farming, and land management and to produce more healthy food. The programme was developed by:

• Agricultural University of Athens (AUA), Greece
• Schloss Tempelhof, Germany
• Metropolitan College (AMC), Greece
• Safe Food Advocacy Europe (SAFE), Belgium
• CEFE International, Germany – Project Coordinator
• Skybridge, Greece – Platform Developer

Under the guidance of the Accreditation, Certification and Quality Assurance Institute (ACQUIN), the training programme was reviewed in terms of quality within an Erasmus+ project – by an Expert Committee and received international cross-border certification based on the European Standards and Guidelines (ESG) framework for higher education.

The international certification seal is a recognition at EU-level standing for the quality of the training programme and furthering the project’s main objectives of:

• Closing the skills gap in agriculture education by providing a web-based training on regenerative agriculture.
• Enabling learners to apply alternative cultivation methods and respond to the challenges the agricultural sector is experiencing.
• Informing VET authorities and policy makers about regenerative agriculture thereby giving impetus to include teaching contents on the subject into national framework curricula.
• Integrating the programme into curricula of agricultural VET providers, training companies and HEIs.
• Providing policy makers, VET providers, farmers, and the public with a coherent picture of the state of the art of regenerative agriculture and helping improve the perception about alternative farming, its benefits, and the possibilities to upscale measures.

The programme is offered on a tailored Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) blended with a practice session on the premises of Schloss Tempelhof teaching farm.

Enrollment to the training programme is free and open here:

https://vle.regagri4europe.eu/.

March 2022

Status Quo

Intensive Conventional Agriculture is one of the root causes of global warming and biodiversity loss. The spread of urbanization and the intensification of land use for agriculture have contributed considerably to GHG emissions1 , with a consequent increase in biodiversity loss2 . Forty percent of the EU land area is used for agriculture3 , whose intensive practices are identified as a major driver of soil degradation4. The current scenario will worsen without a new approach to agriculture. Farmers’ well-being, the preservation of nature and the fight against climate change are deeply interrelated. Consequently, the promotion of a sustainable transition of our food system requires EU policies to be cross-sectoral, and Regenerative Agricultural possesses this wide-raging approach. The RegAgri4Europe project calls for policies that enable a consistent and firm approach to reshape agricultural systems.These principles can reduce soil degradation and reverse the impact that years of intensive land management caused, keeping farmers’ and animals’ well-being at heart in a symbiotic system. However, the current legislative frameworks impede this innovative approach from fully takinghold.

The Importance of a Consistent andForward-Looking Policy Framework

As highlighted in this project’s first Policy Brief, intensive conventional agriculture is one of theroot causes of global warming and biodiversityloss. Moreover, 2016 indicators were alreadyshowing that over 80% of all EU lands affected bymoderate to severe soil erosion were agriculturalareas and natural grassland5. Despite this worrying situation, the existing policy frameworks impede Regenerative Agriculture to be adopted at a large scale, as they lack coherence, ambition, and effectiveness.

1. The European Green Deal published in 2018 has certainly motivated the reform of the existing legislative framework and the Commission has been working on new legislative proposals to reach the ambitious goals set. The two core initiatives for agriculture are the Farm to Fork Strategy6 , which promotes the transition towards a fair, healthy, and environmentally friendly food system, and the EU Biodiversity Strategy 20307 , which aims to reverse the degradation of the ecosystem. However, apart from the revision of the Sustainable Use of Pesticides Directive, the Commission has not expressed the intention to pursue other legally binding targets but invited Member States to reach the common targets through their CAP Strategic Plans8. Concerning climate change, with the European Climate Law9, the EU sets the objective to reach net-zero emission by 2050.

Recommendations

The EU legislation needs to be more ambitious to unleash the potential that new agricultural approaches have in contributing to reaching the commitments that the EU has announced. In this regard, the RegAgri4Europe Project formulates the following recommendations:

1. Policies need to be consistent and adopt a holistic approach. They need to be wide-ranging and consider trade, food, agriculture, environment, and climate, which are severely interlinked issues.

2. The EU should set clear objectives and define legally-binding targets that can assure the respect of the commitments undertaken

3. Targets are not sufficient without robust monitoring and safeguard mechanisms. The monitoring systems for soil and GHG emissions needs to be upgraded. The EU, through the new Soil Directive, should also define common definitions for soil health and other soil-related issues.

4. The transition of our food system requires public support. The adoption of alternative agricultural practices and models requires significant investments by farmers, and this constitutes an obstacle to the transition. The spread of regenerative agriculture can only be successful through an economic support from European and national institutions. National Governments should use the policy measures that the new CAP provides to help farmers to cover the costs that the transition entail. At the same time, the European Commission should encourage Member States to comply with the recommendations set and ensure that the funds available in the new CAP are invested in regenerative farming practices.

5. Adopting a new approach to agriculture requires a change of cultural mindset as well. Farmers need to be equipped with the skills to implement regenerative agricultural practices. Part of the funds should therefore be allocated to training opportunities with experts so that farmers can assimilate the necessary expertise.

About Regenerative Agriculture

Regenerative Agriculture is a set of principles and farming practices to achieve soil regeneration and environmental protection, primarily by increasing biodiversity and soil organic matter, and through soil carbon sequestration. The basic principles informing the management of Regenerative Systems are soil regeneration and environmental protection, economical productivity and profitability, human well-being, and positive social impact. As such, Regenerative Agriculture improves upon the foundation of the Ecological Standard, which is mainly concerned with product quality, and imposes a set of supplementary ethical & quality standards concerning :

❖ Farm Investments, Acquisitions & Waste Management Production, and Distribution Chains

❖ Soil Health & Fertility

❖ Animal Rights & Welfare, and

❖ Farmers’ Quality of Life

Consequently, proposals to align the existing legislation to the new targets have been published10, however, the existing EU climate legislative framework will remain almost invariant until 2031.

2. The 2014-2020 CAP failed to support farmers that embark on more sustainable practices such as Regenerative Agriculture, according to different estimations11. Even though it provided policy instruments to favor the transition, the implementation choices made at the national and regional level were short-sighted and prioritized controllability over impact12. The new delivery model (‘National strategic Plans’) of the common agricultural policy (2023-2027) significantly reduces the impact that the EU could have in leading the transition towards a climate-, soil- and environment-friendly agricultural system. It is very likely that Member States will prioritize their own objectives, while the existing performance and accountability mechanisms might fall short in promoting the environmental and climate objectives set13 . Eco-schemes, introduced in the 2021-2027 CAP, and the ‘Carbon farming initiative’, which wants to promote the ‘carbon sequestration by farmers and foresters’14, are promising tools recently introduced.

In November 2021, the Commission issued the EU Soil Strategy for 203015, whose implementation will hopefully overcome the current lack of common definitions, monitoring systems, and objectives on soil protection at the EU level and a new legislative initiative on the soil will be presented by 2023.

In anticipation of this, the RegAgri4Europe project would like to recall that institutions need to support farmers that embark on more sustainable practices like Regenerative Agriculture through policies that act like a ‘safety net’ to allow them to experiment with new approaches.

The challenges that the EU, and the whole world, are facing require wide-ranging policies able to identify tools and objectives consistent with the needs and challenges that the different sectors will encounter more and more frequently in the coming years. However, policies alone will not contribute to an effective solution if the tools and mechanisms promoted do not set the foundation of a cultural change that reset the existing relationship we have with nature.

An element of reparation, reconstitution, or improvement is central to Regenerative Agriculture. It is more than a technical approach, it is a philosophy, a holistic approach, and a social movement, where the farmer is manager and steward of the land. The application at a large scale of this social movement would massively contribute to the current environmental, and consequent socio-economic, problems. However, only a solid policy framework will be able to transform Regenerative Agriculture from a vanguardist approach to agriculture, reserved to some virtuous examples, to a well-known approach capable to reform the agriculturalsector.

RegAgri4Europe in a nutshell

Project Name

RegAgri4Europe –

Upgrading the Agricultural Sector with

Skills in Regenerative Agriculture

Consortium

– CEFE International (Germany)

– Safe Food Advocacy Europe (Belgium)

– Schloss Tempelhof e.V. (Germany)

– Skybridge Partners (Greece)

– Agricultural University of Patras (Greece)

– ACQUIN (Germany)

– AKMI (Greece)

Duration

01.01.2021 – 31.12.2022

Funding Source

European Commission

Erasmus+ Programme

Key Action 2: Strategic Partnerships for

vocational education and training

Website

www.regagri4europe.eu

Contact

Project Coordinator

Laura Dorn

dorn@cefe.net

The European Commission support for the production of this publication does not constitute an endorsement of the contents which reflects the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.

1 Dale VH. The Relationship Between Land-Use Change and Climate
Change. Ecol Appl. 1997;7(3):753-769. doi:10.1890/1051-
0761(1997)007[0753:TRBLUC]2.0.CO;2
2
IPBES. The Global Assessment Report on Biodiversity and Ecosystem
Services – Summary for Policymakers.; 2019. www.ipbes.net.
Accessed May 11, 2021.
3 AgriCaptureCO2. D2.1 EU and UK Policy Context for Regenerative
Agriculture. 2021.
4 UNCCD. Global Land Outlook – First Edition. Bonn, Germany; 2017.
www.unccd.int. Accessed September 29, 2021.
5 EUROSTAT. Agri-environmental indicator – soil erosion. 2020.
https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statisticsexplained/index.php?title=Agri-environmental_indicator__soil_erosion&oldid=473348#Analysis_at_EU_and_country_level
6 European Commission. Farm to Fork Strategy.
https://ec.europa.eu/food/horizontal-topics/farm-fork-strategy_en
7 European Commission. EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030. 2020.
https://eur-lex.europa.eu/resource.html?uri=cellar:a3c806a6-9ab3- 11ea-9d2d-01aa75ed71a1.0001.02/DOC_1&format=PDF
8 AgriCaptureCO2. D2.1 EU and UK Policy Context for Regenerative
Agriculture. 2021.

Οn 27-28 of September 2021 , we had our first Transnational Partner Meeting on Schloss Tempelhof, Germany. With 13 participants, all member organizations from Germany, Belgium and Greece were represented.

The official meeting started with a tour on Schloss Tempelhof, where we saw first hands what Schloss Tempelhof has achieved with regard to Regenerative Agriculture. We saw the 26-hectare grass- and cropland as well as the market garden with over 50 types of vegetables and all kinds of herbs.

Best thing: for breakfast, lunch and dinner we were also able to taste the freshly harvested food. It was just delicious 🙂

Back in the seminar room, the partner meeting was filled with presentations on delivered results reflecting the status quo of the project, as well as discussions on further developments. Special focus was given to the development of the RegAgri4Europe Course, our Quality Assurance process and our Policy Briefs.

Next to content related activities, the meeting gave space to the participants to get to know each other better and therewith to create a fruitful working environment.

The consortium sincerely thanks its partner Schloss Tempelhof for hosting the first Transnational Partner Meeting and making everyone feel extremely comfortable during our stay.

1st Policy Brief

Food production is considered one the primary drivers of climate change, with the agricultural sector responsible for up to 18.4% of global greenhouse gas emissions1. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, soil erosion induced by traditional agriculture is expected to lead to water scarcity and a crop yield diminishment of up to 50%. Considering current socio-demographic trends, traditional agricultural practices will thus not suffice to help feed the world, reach climate mitigation targets2 or prevent further biodiversity losses.

In light of these alarming figures, the European Commission has identified sustainable agriculture and food systems as well as biodiversity preservation as paramount in recent EU action plans such as the EU Green Deal, the Farm to Fork strategy and the EU Biodiversity Strategy.

Yet, the new proposals for reforms of the current Common Agricultural Policy and its subsidies for European agriculture are still insufficiently linked to ecological or regenerative practices and heavily rely on intensive output-oriented mechanisms and structures (e.g. hectare-based direct payments to farmers, low consumer prices), which eventually keep unsustainable agricultural schemes afloat3.

The European Union and national governments would greatly benefit from the inclusion and promotion of often disregarded alternatives, especially that of Regenerative Agriculture. We present a set of recommendations aimed at emphasizing the utmost importance of such regenerative agricultural practices, and fostering its mainstreaming into vocational education for farmers.

The RegAgri4Europe Project is a two-year project financed by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union. The main purpose of our project is to design an innovative vocational curriculum on Regenerative Agriculture, which will provide learners skills and knowledge to implement sustainable cultivation methods, therewith giving impetus to transform agricultural practices. in order to restore climate stability, increase biodiversity, rebuild soil fertility and produce healthy food.

You will support us in developing needs-based teaching materials if you take the time to answer the following questions. Thank you very much!

The questionnaire is available at: https://ec.europa.eu/eusurvey/runner/RegAgri4Europe  .

On Nov 24, the RegAgri consortium held its first online meeting. The main purpose was to get to know each other, to outline the project process, main responsibilities and tasks as well as communication agreements. Although the meeting was not in person, the enthusiasm for the project and each expert’s strength and expertise was transmitted virtually. We are all looking forward to start the RegAgri project, which is funded by the European Commission and has as it’s ambitious goal to promote, facilitate and accelerate the global transition to regenerative food, farming and land management in order to restore climate stability, increase biodiversity, rebuild soil fertility and produce healthy food.

Agenda: 

• Presentation of Schloss Tempelhof and Common Understanding of Regenarative Agriculture (1 hour)
• Q&A Session (0,5 hour)
• IO1 Status Analysis (1 hour)
  • Presentation of Analysis Outline
  • Introducing necessary steps for research and interview conduction 
• Dissemination (0,5 hour)
  • Presentation of dissemination outputs
  • partners’ responsibilities & tasks
  • documentation and deadlines
• Accredition (1 hour)