Riomaggiore 27th - 30th January 2027: Food Systems Design Lab
Riomaggiore 27th - 30th January 2027: Food Systems Design Lab
For policy makers, community leaders, local governments, designers and practitioners
What happens when we learn with a place?
This January, Living Earth College is bringing together regional decision-makers, partners, businesses, intellectuals, artists, designers, foodies and farmers for a four-day immersive Food Systems Design Lab in Cinque Terre, Liguria.
Rather than sitting in a classroom talking about food systems, we will walk, observe, listen, meet people, explore the landscape and work with what we find.
We will move from observation to inquiry, from insight to possibility, and from possibility to design and action.
The aim is not simply to learn more about food systems, but to develop the capacity to see a place differently and design what could happen next.
27–30 January 2027 · Cinque Terre, Liguria, Italy
Sliding scale: €490–€980
Come with a question, an idea or a challenge. Leave with something you can take back into your own place and work!
Living Earth College, Food Systems Design Lab
Learn with a place. Design for life. Activate change.
A different kind of learning experience
The Food Systems Design Lab is not a conference.
It is not a study tour.
It is a living laboratory for people ready to move beyond discussion and begin designing practical pathways from policy to implementation.
Together we will learn from one of Europe's most extraordinary food landscapes, where communities have cultivated steep coastal terraces for centuries, demonstrating how food, culture, ecology and economy can evolve together.
Through field visits, conversations, collaborative design studios and shared meals, we will explore practical approaches that participants can adapt within their own regions.
Designed for
Policy makers
Local government leaders
Community development practitioners
Regional development organisations
Farmers and food entrepreneurs
Designers and educators
Researchers
Changemakers committed to local action
Together we will explore
How to activate local food systems rather than simply plan for them.
Redirecting food investment towards regional communities.
Building food as civic infrastructure.
Designing place-based initiatives that communities genuinely own.
Bridging policy, practice and participation.
Creating resilient local food economies through collaboration.
A challenge to policy makers
If the strategies we already have are not creating the outcomes our communities deserve...
What are we prepared to do differently?
This invitation is for those willing to move beyond incremental change and explore new ways of working, grounded in collaboration, place and practical action.
The future of food systems will not be designed by one organisation or one discipline.
It will be created by courageous partnerships that bring together government, communities, farmers, researchers and designers around a shared purpose.