An Interview with Davie Philip, Manager of the EU4Advice Living Lab Ireland

Davie Philip, manager of Living Lab Ireland, shared his experiences during the Cross Living Labs event. He discussed his journey into local food, the development of the Eco Village project, and the role of consumer coops. 

He highlighted how living labs are exploring short food supply chains and the potential for local economies to diversify livelihoods and offerings, ultimately leading to a more resilient local food economy. Philip emphasised that local economies provide a way for citizens to engage with ecological challenges through their food choices. He noted that the EU4Advice project offers a valuable opportunity to learn from good practices in other regions and contribute ideas based on Ireland’s experiences with online farmers markets, CSAs, and Food Hubs. 

He stressed that the project is centred on collaboration and knowledge sharing and also serves as a platform to develop a network of advisors and local food facilitators.

Watch the interview here!

Advisors
Are you helping farmers and producers to sell their things directly, to improve their bargaining power or position in the value chain, or to transition to more socially and environmentally production systems?

Now is your chance to join the first-ever European advisory network focused on short food supply chains (SFSCs), established through the Horizon Europe projects COREnet and EU4Advice, which ultimate aim is to enhance the sustainability, competitiveness and visibility of European short food supply chains. A key step to pursue this goal, is to enhance the connections between SFSC actors in Europe, the capacity building and the knowledge sharing between advisors, producers, researchers and policy-makers.

This platform will connect you to a wide community of experts and advisors related to SFSC and support effective exchange of knowledge and solutions among advisors and other food system stakeholders, through access to training materials, thematic workshops, collaborative knowledge-sharing sessions, and networking activities. Additionally, you will be listed in a public database of SFSC advisors, giving you visibility as a trusted resource in the SFSC field. Moreover, your participation will also play a role in shaping policy recommendations at the EU level that support the development of the SFSC sector.

Your involvement in the network and related activities is entirely voluntary, and you will at all times have flexibility in choosing how to participate. As a first step, we’ll ask you to complete a brief questionnaire to understand your expertise and role in SFSCs better.