Rural Europe on the move English_chapt1_6 | Page 23

are dozing off, taking advantage
AGROECOPOLIS
Agroecopolis is a very young, grassroots non-profit organisation.
It is the Hellenic Network for Agroecology, Food Sovereignty
and Access To Land. It is the product of many years of
collaboration with a variety of formal and informal groups,
collectives and individuals working in these broad areas.
They work on systemic change and are the focal point for the
Food Sovereignty and Community Supported Agriculture (CSA)
European movements in Greece and for the Mediterranean
network for Local Solidarity Partnerships for Agroecology.
They are a member of the European CSA Research Group,
and the European steering committee of URGENCI -the global
CSA network. They are focused on participatory methods
and are engaged mainly in trainings, dissemination, networking,
advocacy and research.
OPPOSITE 1. European Rural Sustainability Gathering at lake Plastiras
THIS PAGE 2. Village in the forest near Karditsa, region of Thessaly
of our 3-hour ride to Thessaloniki
airport but I can’t sleep - I am just too
overwhelmed. You see, this meeting
holds special significance for me:
not only because it was my first
engagement with Forum Synergies
(and look at me now, writing this
chapter a testimony to how open and
inclusive this network is), but also
it was the formal ‘first’ participation
in Forum Synergies for our newly-
formed grassroots organisation,
AGROECOPOLIS – the Hellenic
Network for Agroecology, Food
Sovereignty and Access To Land, born
in February of the same year.
Financial crisis
and the social
solidarity economy
Why did we gather here in
this beautiful but remote and
struggling part of Greece? Karditsa
is considered as an isolated, rural
region with poor infrastructure and
- for a long time - a real pocket of
poverty and unemployment. Karditsa
lost 11,4% of its population from
2001 to 2011, according to official
municipal statistics. Today, Karditsa
is breaking records in mobilising its
people for a new social economy:
while the average turnover in ‘social
solidarity economy’ (SSE) projects
in Greece is only 1,2 %, it is 6,2 % in
Karditsa. The regional development
agency ANKA and its cooperative
bank seem to show new exciting
paths to a new social economy in
times of crisis. We are curious to
learn about this place.
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