The vision of the EFE project was to empower a new generation of food entrepreneurs to start, grow & adapt new ethical food enterprises that consider people, planet & profit. The project aimed to contribute to the professional development of food HEI Educators by increasing their pedagogic skills to develop and teach ethical entrepreneurship mindset which considers both the planet, people and profit. In more detail, the project was built to - empower HEI educators to commit to EFE innovative learning and teaching practices to tackle societal challenges, - upskill students as potential ethical food entrepreneurs and - empower SMEs and start-ups to breed innovative food concepts & thrive new businesses that EU needs. To reach above goals EFE aimed to develop unique training and teaching resources (including guides, an entrepreneurship manual, an online training course and peer-to-peer learning resources) for HEI/VET educators, students and SMEs at the food sector on how to grow an ethical food business in fulfilment of SDG 8 and SDG 10, enabling them to be drivers of equitable & sustainable growth and provide long-lasting benefits to industry players.
Today´s food production systems compromise the capacity of Earth to produce food in the future. Food production is exceeding environmental limits or is close to doing so. The food we produce and consume has a significant impact on the environment through greenhouse gas emissions, land and water resources, food waste etc. An important part of the green transition are our daily practices in food production, development, distribution, sales, marketing, and consumer food choices. Furthermore, even though we are in the EU, with adequate legislation regarding to food quality and safety, food fraud occurs by operators who do not follow ethical behavior in food production. The EFE concept initiates a global change by promoting the actors of the entire food chain in different parts of the world to take a leap in developing their knowledge and operations. In the EFE project, the partners contributed to the professional development of food HEI Educators by increasing their pedagogic skills to develop and teach new food entrepreneurship supports based on triple-bottom-line businesses (planet, people, profit). The project wanted to empower a new generation of food entrepreneurs to start, grow & adapt new ethical food enterprises.