Big Picnic: Big Questions - Engaging the public with Responsible Research and Innovation on Food Security

Big Picnic: Big Questions - Engaging the public with Responsible Research and Innovation on Food Security' is a new European Union project on food security, funded of Horizon 2020, for three years period. It operates in 18 European institutions ans one African, coordinated by Botanic Garden Conservation International (BGCI). The Big Picnic is working with the public to open up the debate on the future of our food. The project aim is to encourage collaboration and conversation to build public understanding of food security issues and enable people to articulate their views to decision makers. Due to the international cooperation and engagement of various actors, representing different interests related to the food it is going to support local communities and find solutions that might be implemented. It offers various types of activities, participatory events, travelling exhibitions designed through joint creative collaboration in local context and science cafes. Botanic Garden Meise is situated close to Brussels and spanning 92 hectares. The mission of Botanic Garden Meise is to increase and disseminate knowledge about plants and fungi and to contribute to biodiversity conservation. Garden has a long tradition of collaboration with several African botanic gardens and research about food crops important for Africa. In the framework of Big Picnic project Botanic Garde Meise is developing activities around four main topics. The first focus is 'sustainable catering' - how can organisations make their catering more sustainable and meanwhile inform and sensitize their clients about sustainable food? The second focus, called 'your food - our food' will bring Belgians of different cultural backgrounds together to discuss and learn about each other's food traditions and food security problems. A third focus, 'So sweet', explores the role bees and pollination play in our food security. Finally, a fourth focus will explore traditional, biocultural and innovative ways of food production and transportation.