SlowFarm is eco-innovation in rural areas for creating good foods, rural hospitality services and rural awareness for urban people. SlowFarm is innovation by SME’s and farmers in rural areas, inspired by natural and cultural resources, produced in a fair and social sound way stimulating social cohesion in rural areas, using small scale technologies, collectively marketed as sustainable quality product/service from regional-rural origin opening up awareness and experiences for urbanized citizens.

SlowFarm is the place where SlowFood is produced and SlowTourism is practiced, where traditional knowledge meets new technology for developing new products, new (touristic) services and new supply chains for stimulating rural economies. Slowfarm contributes with its innovations and activities to the self-esteem and pride of people in rural areas.

SlowFarm stimulates innovation capacity of SME's in the rural environment by empowering them with new knowledge, partnerships, networks and tools. Slowfarm creates networks through NSR where (young) people cooperate with traditional SME's in order to develop new services for food and leisure and to develop new supply chains between rural and urban areas.

Traditional knowledge has created a plenitude of tasteful food products. Many of these products are hardly produced anymore because of industrialization food production, (hygienic) regulations, loss of knowledge and others. Traditional food processing knowledge combined with modern scientific insights will yield new locally produced traditional food products which match modern hygienic standards and processing conditions with maintaining traditional food character and taste.

Hospitality on farms and other rural institutes provide opportunities for urban citizens for enjoying, experiencing and learning about good food production and natural and cultural heritage. Rural hospitality has the potential to create togetherness and understanding between urban and rural citizens. Rural hospitality provides the basis for appreciation of quality rural produced food products and opens up possibilities for developing regional food systems.

Farms are mostly family owned business where female partners are managing farm households. Women farmers are carriers of traditional knowledge for food production. Female farmers can professionalize their role as traditional food producer and hospitality service provider by adopting innovative approaches.

Nesting of food markets, combining transnational regional and local market approaches. Appreciation of regional produced food can be supported by specific measures for introduction of regional food products with urban institutional hospitality/catering providers such as hospitals, homes for the elderly,  educational institutes, authorities etc.  “Slowfarm traditional product basket” is the flagship of regional diversity in the NSR/EU

• regional rural-urban networks for new market and supply chain development
• partnerships for innovation traditional food products between farmers, SME's and knowledge providers
• partnerships for innovation rural touristic services 
• new social media tools for SlowFarm product/service promotion and dissemination
• and more to be defined....

New product and service development for green-innovation in small scale farms and SME's in rural areas is hampered by access to new knowledge and the ability to create new supply chains for new market development. The SlowFarm project will empower small businesses in rural areas with networks and capacity for creation eco-innovative products and services for urban markets. 

partners found in BE, NL and DE

we are looking for partners in DK, SE, NO and UK