October 1, 2013, Poltava — The Poltava Center for Children’s & Juniors’ Clubs hosted a seminar on “Sustainable Food Basics” initiated for 15 instructors of such clubs by MAMA-86-Poltava within the framework of the Global Green Action Week and the Green Consumer Week’2013 campaign “Environment on Your Plate.”

The seminar participants considered the following issues: basics of environmentally responsible nutrition, importance of nurturing environmental culture and consumer culture in the youth, informal education teaching methodology for the basics of sustainable consumption in general and food in particular, and objectives and forms of cooperation between MAMA-86-Poltava and the Children’s & Juniors’ Clubs.

Informational and methodological materials on sustainable food, including those developed by MAMA-86 for the campaign, were presented at the seminar. Options of implementing sustainable food themes in training process within various disciplines were also discussed.

According to the general opinion voiced by the seminar participants, the environmental themes require an additional informational and methodological base for the development of a complete course of informal education on ecology and sustainable consumption basics.

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Green Consumer Weeks in Ukraine– week-long concentrated awareness campaigns aimed at popularizing environmentally responsible consumption and focused on one of important themes of sustainable consumption – have been carried out since 2012 by the Ukrainian National Environmental NGO "MAMA-86" with support from the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation and in collaboration with various partner organizations.

The Swedish Society for Nature Conservation has been conducting similar campaigns in their country in October for many years running. These campaigns have helped significantly increase public awareness of advantages of environment-friendly way of living, develop a legal framework that encourages sustainable consumption and prohibits or limits supply of environmentally harmful goods and services, as well as form a circle of eco-responsible producers and sellers who, on their part, further the transition of the Swedish society toward more sustainable consumption behavior.