How can we anticipate the future of agriculture in our communities? And what can we do to make the future we want happen? Let's follow 3 French cities' foresight exercise to learn more.
How can foresight be used in local food policies?
The A to Z of urban food analysis
FAO and RUAF have published a very comprehensive Toolkit called “Assessing and planning sustainable city region food systems”. This is the result of a 3 years journey with 7 cities to develop a methodology to analyse urban city food systems that any city around the world can apply.
The subtle equation of sustainable urban food logistics
Why is it so difficult for farmers operating just outside the city of Chicago to sell to people living there? This was the question that led a team of researchers from the University of Wisconsin–Madison (United States) to explore urban food logistics. Their work, published in a report entitled Regional Food Freight: Lessons from the Chicago Region, unveils the historical trends that led to the consolidation of long distance supply chains at the expense of shorter ones, and the limits of the current food freight system. It calls for a more careful integration of food diversity into urban logistics.
Exploring urban regions’ food self-sufficiency
Is it feasible to source all the food a city needs from its surroundings? The quick answer is no. And two recent academic papers demonstrate it while setting out a methodology that any urban region can use to assess its existing level of food self-sufficiency and the way this would evolve under different policy options.
And so cities stopped caring about food…
Food has been at the core of cities’ strategies from the Antique times onwards. Only with the rise of the national state and industrialisation have cities lost their grip on food issues. History casts an interesting a light on the power relationship between cities, states and rural areas.
Food relocalisation: it is not only the number of hectares that counts!
When cities try to relocalise food production, they should keep in mind that it is not only the number of hectares of land that is relocalised that counts. They also need to take into account the quality of that land. More widely, they need to familiarize themselves more with the farming sector in order to provide suitable conditions for farms to come back close to the cities.
Eating the land that feeds you
Why every city should care about the impact of global urbanisation on cropland
Going beyond local food
Is local better than global? A European research project explored the question. The conclusion of the project is that, well, nothing is clear-cut. And cities should rather focus on bringing anyone – local and global food chains actors – on the path to sustainability.
Embracing the diversity of urban and peri-urban agriculture in food policies
Urban and peri-urban agriculture can be very diverse. What are the main differences? How should we account for them in food policies?
Understanding how urban farmers do business to adequately support them
If urban farms are to be maintained or even developed further, they will need to be economically viable in the long run.
