Santa Carxofa connects the past and the future, both in constant tension. Innovation and tradition come together to rethink the identity of the artichoke in a craft beer, creating short waste recirculation channels.
Define the problem/need you are solving or addressing with your project. How does it address the Open Call criteria, such as environmental impact, social engagement, circularity, user experience, resource efficiency, and community-driven solutions?
The transition to new agroeconomic models has already begun. There must be ways to move from a dominant industrial model to one of multiple autonomous and diversified systems that strengthen the food chain, support generational change and local development. The Prat carxofa (artichoke), with almost 100 years of history, is the queen of crops, representing 90% of the current harvest in Prat de Llobregat in Catalonia, a place that has been able to preserve its rural identity despite the exogenous pressures that the city of Barcelona has exerted on it. In recent years there has been an overproduction and losses of this product due to climatic changes and the poor adaptation of farmers, the artichoke surplus is discarded, donated, incinerated or sometimes transformed into compost still retaining its characteristics, so it’s necessary to reuse this healthy and versatile product that brings great potential for food exploration in a new one.
Please describe your project, reflecting on the concept, inspiration, materials, technical aspects, methods and process(es).
The new paradigms of consumption symbolize the need as humans for our roots, territoriality and culture, that is, for interaction. Santa Carxofa is a beer creation designed for people looking to experience new flavors, with a very clear objective, to transport you to Prat de Llobregat just by tasting it. It promotes the territorial capital to revalue the natural and cultural resources (the artichoke and its heritage) in the municipality, creating a link between the people belonging to the territory and its tourists. The project proposes a strategy of articulation between food processing and other economic activities such as agro-tourism that vindicates the work of farmers, promotes closer links between producers and consumers and allows the reactivation of agro-traditions. Santa Carxofa is a local, proximity and seasonal product, which is part of a regenerative solution from the consumption and strengthening of more sustainable communities, which are more resistant to crises.
What do you think makes your project innovative compared to the existing efforts and ideas in the field it addresses?
Santa Carxofa transmits the heritage of the land by connecting generations, takes advantage of an native material to enrich a community, developing short waste recirculation channels that generate greater added value. It manages to create synergies between the actors involved, making available to them the experience in circular economy and craft beer culture. It makes the population aware of the farmers’ difficulties and how their choice of a beer inspired, produced and marketed in the territory builds identity, cultural roots and a more sustainable future. In functional terms, the beer is brewed using the remaining part of the artichoke head (not the heart) and the label is artichoke paper made from the green matter of the plant (stems and leaves), a biomaterial screen-printed with the brand and the carxofa route on the back, a rural tourism activity through the artichoke crops that evokes historical and ancestral moments.
Does it impact or reflect young people need(s) and how?
The device of a craft beer fulfills its function by approaching young adults and capturing their interest in business models that are the fruit of their own territory, in this way, the new generations of farmers will preserve their crops and will have local autonomy as a factor of sustainability and development. Food is culture and values. Defending the fact that each people has the right to control their food (food sovereignty) is fundamental because we will not only maintain self-sufficient fields supported by traditional knowledge and experiences, but also facilitate decision-making when consuming a local product, because the ultimate goal is not the beer in situ but the local and relational dynamics that this can generate within the territory, as this drink puts into practice small cooperative economies, real, tasty, conscious and artisanal that claim the good values in youth.
