Innovatie Netwerk, is awarded the Plantagon Award 2013 for the organization’s contribution to the field Urban Agriculture

LINKÖPING (January 30, 2013) - This is the first time excellence in urban agriculture is recognized publically. The Award is given out by the Plantagon Non Profit Association with the objective to underline the food security and safety issue. The awards are presented at the Urban Agriculture Summit in Linköping, Sweden. This is also the first time that professionals from all over the world gather to recognize the merit.

Criteria for the award in the category Organization: “The organization must have contributed significantly to the development of concrete innovative projects in urban agriculture; projects that must have been of global interest and communicated over a wider market.”

The jury's motivation statement: Innovatie Netwerk (The Netherlands): “For being frontrunners in developing urban agriculture and vertical farming. Developed one of the first designs for an Agropark (early 2000) with vegetables, pigs, chicken and fish. Located in a vertical greenhouse in the harbor of Amsterdam.”

Nominated for the award were three cities, three individuals and three organizations. The Jury consist of the members of the Plantagon Advisory Group: Mats Hellström, Fredrik Billing, Richard Von Essen, Mikael Kullman, Thomas Malmer, Mats Rönne, Madeleine Cæsar, Mia Kristiansson. Keywords in the evaluation process were: transformative solutions, politics, innovation and market.

Nominated in the category Organization were: FAO (UN): Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, and the RUAF Foundation (International network): Resource Centre on Urban Agriculture & Food Security.

The winner of the Plantagon Awards in the category City is Linköping, Sweden, and in the Individual category the Columbia University professor, Dickson Despommier.