In this year’s annual Norwegian Honey Championship, a remarkable group of young, urban beekeepers from Oslo has won the silver medal in the category “honeydew”. The group was founded at the Oslo Living Lab, a project of Nabolagshager, and a partner of FoodE. At this year’s championship, a record number of beekeepers submitted their best honey, which has made the win of the Nabolagshager group even more impressive. The objective of this prestigious championship is to contribute to innovative thinking among beekeepers to increase the diversity of local honey products in the Norwegian market. According to Adam Curtis, research director at Nabolagshager, ‘the medal in the honey championship is a recognition of the youth creating a quality product that the market is interested in’.
Nabolagshager and the Oslo Living Lab
At the Living Lab, minority youth from H20 high schools can explore green jobs of the future and learn about entrepreneurship, sales, and marketing. Idil Akdos, the youth mentor at Nabolagshager, has said that for young people growing up in the middle of the city, beekeeping is a great way to learn about the magical, but laborious, connections between nature and food production. For her, it is important that youths develop a curiosity for and an understanding of sustainability and biodiversity through their tasks. The project also wants to build networks with other beekeepers. This way, the young beekeepers can learn more about the professional opportunities of the business, which can make them see beekeeping as a viable and exciting career path.
Nabolagshager and FoodE
The youth program of Nabolagshager is exactly what FoodE is aiming to achieve across Europe, namely to accelerate the growth of sustainable and resilient citizen-led urban food system initiatives by engaging not only academia and schools, but also citizens of all ages and food system start-ups. With its output, FoodE wants to pave the way for job creation, enhance local communities, and enable local communities to contribute to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. With projects like the ones of Nabolagshager, local communities can contribute to these goals and make a difference in the local, urban food systems in their cities. Moreover, these projects can inspire the next generation to choose jobs that connect to a greener and more sustainable future. FoodE looks forward to seeing more of these projects across Europe to inspire and activate young citizens to invest in greener job opportunities and pave the way to a more sustainable food system.
