Paper short abstract:

This interactive workshop aims to explore connections and disconnections between agricultural production and food consumption while at the same time critically reflecting on our own roles as researchers (and consumers) in food system transformation.

Paper long abstract:

This interactive workshop will explore (dis)connections in agri-food systems and in related research. By critically exploring these (dis)connections and any underlying assumptions we can improve our understanding of the agri-food system and identify relevant interventions for real change.

The current agri-food system has become so large and complex that it is incredibly resilient to change. Abson et al. (2017) identified a number of ‘deep’ leverage points that are more likely to enable sustainable transformation and emphasized that it is essential to explicitly include values and norms in research processes to produce suitable knowledge that can inform the design and intent of transformation. As transdisciplinary researchers it is especially important to identify and explore our own implicit values so that we understand how underpinning assumptions, norms and values inform and legitimise knowledge production (Horcea-Milcu et al. 2019) and steer transformation.

Food system research covers a broad range of scientific disciplines while also involving a wide variety of social actors. If we are to actually make and do food system transformation we need to re-think how we approach knowledge production and sharing. This workshop will first explore implicit values of the researchers themselves related to agricultural production and food consumption. This will then be used to reflect on the different possible problem framings and solution spaces and to map (dis)connections in the agri-food system. Finally we will identify opportunities for mutual knowledge production and potentially relevant systemic interventions.

Paper short abstract:

This paper looks how to include consumers in a meaningful manner in food system transition projects through focussing on a unique group in society that bridge the gap between consumers and producers: allotment gardeners.

Paper long abstract:

Incorporating the interests of people, or consumers, is widely acknowledged as essential for the success of food transition endeavors (Verhees & Verbong, 2015). However, in attempts to create a sustainable food system, it is often precisely this group that is structurally absent from the ‘table’, typically resulting in end-of-the-pipe involvement with limited impact (Brons et al., 2022).

Therefore, this paper sets out to discuss how to include consumers in a meaningful manner in food system change efforts. It draws on a project (‘CropMix’) that looks into ecology-based arable farming through strip cropping.

To do so, the research focuses on a unique group of actors that bridge consumers and producers: allotment gardeners. Allotment gardeners carry specific expertise and experience from their role as producers, that they (subconsciously) use in choices made as consumers (e.g., Veen, Derkzen & Visser, 2014), and therefore offer a unique opportunity to study the intertwinement of roles and knowledge, and the impact this has on their awareness of irregularities in the food system as opposed to most consumers.

The paper draws conclusions based on a survey among approximately 120 Dutch vegetable gardeners, followed by 20 in-depth interviews. Preliminary findings show a more critical comprehensive grasp of power and dynamics in the current system.

By incorporating the perspectives of people that operate on the interface between food-production and consumption but who are not typically included in transition studies, we can enhance the systemic perspective on food system transformations, and identify action-points that go beyond the typically proposed solutions.

Paper short abstract:

Local food system is becoming less sustainable every day and can be affected by many factors. Nilüfer Municipality encouraged local farmers and producer women to organize in cooperatives and associations, making them stakeholders of the Food Hub model at the center of the food system transformation.

Paper long abstract:

Nilufer’s food system needs to be improved and transformed because it’s becoming less sustainable (circular) day by day, and can be affected by; population, biodiversity loss, environmental degradation, climate change, pollution etc. Nilufer's local producers, who owned land in rural neighborhoods, needed valid reasons to prevent them from using their properties as residences and to reject the construction offers. Also, empowering women for obtaining their financial freedom in rural neighbourhoods was another driver while providing healthy food accessible for everyone. Nilufer Municipality found a solution; and encouraged the farmers to organize in agricultural development cooperative, and encouraged women to organize in associations to obtain retail products from their own crops. Given many supports from seeds to sales level. Afterwards, the Food Hub model was placed at the center of all this operation. Food Hub has started seasonal production processes and already producing enough for 6 salepoint branches located in urban neighborhoods. Local producers now have a cycle in which they can profit as they produce and safeguard their lands since production in rural areas has value in metropolitan areas. When an economy has been created for local producers, their lands remain as agricultural lands. Food Hub has encouraged women to participate in the workforce. There were women procurement of workforces for all stages. The healthy food (also reliable and made with traditional methods) is more accessible for consumers in Nilufer. Food Hub Model has a key role for creating a winwin between local producers and people of Nilufer (consumers).

Paper short abstract:

The experience of Rome FUSILLI Living Lab, a disruptive, inductive, and on-the-field-steered day by day process, implemented a "LL’s building" model we now like to name “of the 10 Es”, which has proven effective in fostering the change for a sustainable future of the City food -complex - system.

Paper long abstract:

How did FUSILLI gain, in Rome, a synergy with the Administration, and trust from stakeholders? Overcoming mutual mistrust, and the physiological indolence for innovation? How did the Rome LL gathered in a few months 250 stakeholders representing 3,000 individuals? Who met regularly, developed concrete proposals, organized dozens of events and activities, acted as advocacy body, and gave birth to the Food City Council. And all for free!

Because we did not decide "a priori". Forgetting any pre-framed scheme. On the opposite, pursuing project’s goals through stakeholders’ contingent needs and proposals. Given the amount and diversity of interests in action, we quickly realized we needed an immediately effective tactic, to get some quick, clear results: thus, embracing stakeholders’ initiatives on a "day by day" basis, maximizing their C&D, only later pursuing the construction of our organic strategy.

This approach of "tailoring" the program to the real city benefited from engagement and support, both from Administration and citizens. Actions were implemented taking advantage of the opportunities suggested by the stakeholders, the citizens, the politicians, while driven by contingencies. Only later, the activities were "routed" towards their targets, thus achieved through inductive paths.

In 37 month many governance acts were approved: e.g. a Food Interdepartmental Boureau established, a Call for Allocation of Public Land to Young farmers issued; a Food City Council of 156 members appointed as consultant body within the City Assembly.

Effective results that came from a collective process, democratic and inclusive, witnessing its adherence to the needs of the city.

Paper short abstract:

After CoP28, cities reduce GHG emissions and food waste, and promote sustainable diets.The Fusilli Project empowers municipalities to innovate for holistic, sustainable, and local food systems.This paper analyzes their advances, capabilities, and challenges in building sustainable urban food systems

Paper long abstract:

After CoP28, it became obvious that where national governments are falling short, cities and regional governments are pioneering policies on food and climate change with dozens of inspiring examples of effective action on the ground. Local governments are spearheading actions to cut GHG emissions by promoting healthy and sustainable diets, reducing food waste, shortening food supply chains, supporting a transition to organic farming, and ensuring their lowest income inhabitants can access healty and sustainable food. These policies are cutting greenhouse emissions as well as providing a wide range of social, health, economic and environmental benefits. The central aim of the Fusilli Project, along with the multitude of urban food system projects that proliferated in recent years, is to empower municipalities to generate an innovation ecosystem, strengthening their capacity to design, construct and deploy holistic policies and actions enabling food system change, the consensus being that legacy food regimes need to evolve towards more healthy, sustianable, equitable, inclusive and local city region food systems.

Starting from the articulation of their “needs and gaps” and moving to Urban Food System Plans, FUSILLI cities have demonstrated very large disparities, depending on the availability of resources, previous experience with urban food planning and local political will behind food system change. The progress of FUSILLI cities towards more sustainable urban food systems continues, gaps and weaknesses coming into relief as the Project continues. This paper is an attempt to comparatively analyse their advances, their respective capabilities to pinpoint gaps and overcome declared barriers and obstacles.

Paper short abstract:

Governance is vital for urban food system transformation. FUSILLI monitored advocacy in 70 actions across 12 cities, 59% showing positive progress. Positive relationship was observed between advocacy efforts & governance involvement, highlighting their interconnected role in driving positive change.

Paper long abstract:

Advocacy, particularly at the governance level, plays a pivotal role in instigating and advancing urban food system transformation. The dependence of public institutions on politics and their lobbying capacity for food system issues within the local context underscores the significance of advocacy throughout the food chain. Method: FUSILLI Project focused on 12 participant cities to identify actions where advocacy work was crucial. An Advocacy Indicator template was devised and measured at M0, M24 and M36 encompassing aspects like the number of campaigns, meetings, and the influence on stakeholders and policymakers. The evaluation procedure assigned two points to the first question, irrespective of the number of actions, while subsequent questions received 2 points when “yes”, 1 when “partially” and 0 when “no”. Results highlighted 70 actions where the advocacy indicator was crucial, with 59% exhibiting positive progress from baseline to M36. Governance-related actions, comprising 53% of the total, demonstrated a significant association with advocacy work, with 65% displaying positive progress. Rome, emerged as the leader in advocacy efforts, officially establishing the first Food Policy Council. Conclusion: Over half of the actions measured with the advocacy indicator witnessed positive progress, with governance actions being particularly associated with advocacy work. After three years (M36), a positive correlation was observed between advocacy efforts and governance involvement, facilitating actions in the field. The study also highlighted the essential role of advocacy and government support for the success of certain actions within the urban food system transformation.

Paper short abstract:

Our contribution proposes a reflection starting from an action research carried out in the context of the Metropolitan Turin Food Atlas aimed at exploring the possibilities of building a City Region Food System as a basis for a polycentric food policy.

Paper long abstract:

Food space today is much more than a relationship between an urban centre that consumes and a surrounding rural area that produces if it was ever that simple. Today, however, food flows have become more complex than ever before, with global extensions of supply networks, the countryside's urbanisation, and the return of a part of food production to the more strictly urban space. In this scenario, a monocentric food policy can perform some relevant functions - since obviously, even in a space of more complex networked flows, the nodal place that a city like Turin occupies makes it possible to take a series of decisions on the flows that pass through it - but it also shows all its limitations, first and foremost that of being excessively focused on the consumption side.

The idea of a polycentric food policy on the scale of the Metropolitan City therefore seems promising in this historical context and in a territory like Turin. Although it cannot be assumed that it can govern the total complexity of the system mentioned above, it does have the potential to address the issues concerning the food space on the one hand with greater complexity and comprehensiveness, without on the other hand sinning from excessive complexity.

The research group of the Turin Food Atlas is working on this hypothesis in an action-research pathway that starts from participation in the national Agritech research and in the Horizon FUSILLI project, referring to the approach of the City Region Food System (CRFS).

Paper short abstract:

The paper shares process&results of a transdisciplinary governance analysis of local food systems in Thailand, Taiwan, Sweden, Turkey and Germany of the Belmont Forum project "CO-SFSC: Co-Creating Sustainable Transformations of Food Supply Chains through Cooperative Business Models and Governance".

Paper long abstract:

This paper is based on the project "CO-SFSC: Co-Creating Sustainable Transformations of Food Supply Chains through Cooperative Business Models and Governance", funded in the frame of the Belmont Forum CRA Sustainable Systems of Consumption and Production (SSCP) (2023-2026). Co-SFSC realizes transdisciplinary research on five country cases that allows for cross-case comparison and learning on sustainability and governance of agri-food eco-systems while supporting and strengthening cooperative models. This paper aims to share the process of co-creating a framework for analyzing and assessing governance models of agri-food ecosystems in Taiwan, Thailand, Sweden, Germany and Turkey. The presentation shares both the process and the outcome of a series of meetings with hub teams on how to operationalize a conception of governance that helps us compare and contrast different cases and to support knowledge exchange and learning. The presentation will first focus on a conceptual framework of “hybrid forms of cooperative governance” that integrates state-led, market-led and network-led governance schemes depending on each social, political, and economic circumstances along with different institutional arrangements. “Hybrid forms of cooperative governance schemes” provides a theoretical framework that can account for the variegated-ness of agri-food governance models. Comparing and contrasting different contexts also requires a common ground of principle on which different governance mechanisms can be assessed. The presentation will share the assessment criteria that came out from repeated meetings with the hub researchers and practice partners as well as the collected insights across different hubs on transforming agri-food systems towards more sustainable production and consumption.

Paper short abstract:

In spring 2024, Data4Food2030 partners will employ a foresight methodology to explore future DE4FS pathways. This presentation will present the results and critically address traditional data practices, data colonialism, and ethical implications in data economy for food systems.

Paper long abstract:

The findings of a methodology in foresight applied to the data economy in food systems (DE4FS) will be presented. In the spring of 2024, Data4Food2030 partners will undertake a participatory scenario development to create potential pathways on the future of the DE4FS. A critical discussion will then evaluate how to reshape traditional data practices, addressing issues of data colonialism and its ethical implications in the future of DE4FS.

This presentation will first explore challenges, focusing on the porosity, and overlapping dataregulatory layers in food systems, and the challenging the conceptualization of the DE4FS. Secondly, we will summarise the foresight methodology, consisting of stakeholder mapping to identify the processes employed in constructing plausible scenarios. Emphasis will be placed on highlighting major trends and building narratives taking into account technological, legal, social, environmental and economic aspects. A backcasting approach will be used to shape pathways to realize desired aspects and impacts of scenarios, while averting undesired ones.

The third aspect of this presentation involves a critical examination of these. As Europe engages in a twin transition of digitalization and the Green Deal, existential questions about the need and use of data ensue. Drawing from decolonial scholarship in data extraction, we question the premise of data collection also posited as data colonialism. Our approach challenges conventional data practices, reframing the utilitarian discourse on data, restoring wellbeing eroded by data, articulating worldviews to resist datafication, protecting social realms from over-datafication, and encouraging collective efforts to establish social relations beyond the scope of data.

Paper short abstract:

This case study explores how Alternative Food Networks in Guadalajara, Mexico, promote food sovereignty for urban campesinos and marginalized communities. Our research approach uses stakeholder interviews and literature review to uncover novel perspectives on the transformation of food systems.

Paper long abstract:

In Guadalajara, Mexico, more than 30% of residents grapple with food insecurity, directly impacting health, education, and economic potential. The conventional agricultural industry, known for its exports of corn, avocados, and agave, is expanding its economic and ecological footprint, placing an ever greater strain on small farms the region depends on. Our case study explores the transformative approach Alternative Food Networks (AFNs) take to promote food sovereignty and address the complexity of food security in Guadalajara.

We are employing an ethnographic, qualitative research approach through 25 field interviews with producers, distributors, government officials, and experts from local academic institutions. This locally driven approach is supported by a comprehensive literature review, encompassing scholarly and grey sources, to enhance our understanding of the local context and relevant issues.

Our research to date suggests that AFNs are collaborative relationships formed among actors within local agri-food systems that challenge conventional agro-industrial practices. They are characterized by their locality, embeddedness, and short-supply chains with a strong emphasis on community sustainability and resilience. We are interested in uncovering accounts of how urban and peri-urban campesinos are actively disrupting conventional food systems through AFNs, and the ways in which these networks improve food sovereignty and the well-being of marginalized communities. In doing so, our research aims to address the pressing issue of food insecurity in an agriculture-dependent region.

Driven by an interdisciplinary team of researchers, our work offers a multidimensional perspective on transforming food systems and develops insights that can be leveraged for marginalized communities globally.

Paper short abstract:

The Urban Food Processing Hubs Concept, part of the FUSILLI project, proposes a sustainable model to connect food processing with the urban environment, addressing excess produce from urban gardens.

Paper long abstract:

Research on urban food production has largely focused on primary food production (so-called urban farming), while the subsequent steps of the food chain have rarely been studied. The concept, developed by Tecnoalimenti as part of the FUSILLI project (https://fusilliproject. eu/), refers to an alternative and experimental model for linking food processing with the urban environment in order to meet citizens' needs. This concept aims to provide a preliminary evaluation of an 'Urban Food Processing Hub' within the municipality, which should be the urban hub for transforming surplus food from urban gardens into processed food. The generic feasibility of this concept has been preliminarily studied using data from the North Italian Municipalities' urban gardens, which are characterised by a seasonal urban horticultural overproduction of tomatoes. The hub concept has shown the feasibility of preventing the possible loss of summer overproduction by transforming tomatoes into tomato sauce. The tomato sauce would then be given back to the citizens or could be used in the municipal canteens. In addition, the food processing hub should be seen as a transformation hub for fruit and vegetable products that do not meet the marketing standards of the large retailers but are still safe to eat (e.g. class II fruit) and/or surplus products from city markets, canteens or large retailers. The concept of Urban Food Processing Hubs represents a new sustainable theory that aims to redesign the actual urban food system.

Paper short abstract:

Achieving food supply for a population of 9.7 billion by 2050 is a challenge, and community gardens are seen as a solution. The aim is to evaluate the importance of their implementation, through cases evaluated in Spain and France. Results show that they offer many benefits and should be encouraged.

Paper long abstract:

One of the most urgent and complex concerns facing the world today is achieving an accessible food supply for a population expected to reach 9.7 billion by 2050. By 2030, 60% of the population will live in urban areas. Community gardens are increasingly seen as a very promising way of ensuring food security, since they help in providing supplementary food for the lowest income groups, making fresh products available and ensure social integration. The aim of this study is to evaluate the importance of implementing community gardens in urban areas, through cases evaluated in Spain and France. The methodology involved interviews with the project leaders supplemented by field visits. The results show that numerous points in common exist between within the two countries, such as the production of organic fruit and vegetables without chemicals, which ensures a certain reduction in costs, combined with the trend towards local production, resulting more sustainable, greener cities. The differences concern the way in which these initiatives are managed, the group responsible for setting them up and how they are subsidized and financed, but these are common within each of the two countries. Among the main conclusions drawn from this study are that, to ensure sustainable cities, community garden projects should be more numerous, as they offer many benefits to the inhabitants and the city itself. Moreover, the need for the contribution of community gardens to the three pillars of sustainable development - economic, social and environmental - are all elements to be considered.

Paper short abstract:

Through reflexive monitoring we supported the diverse partnership Rotterdam de Boer Op! to enhance transformative impacts of and reflexivity in the program. We are sharing the challenges and successes of the program and of engaging with reflexivity.

Paper long abstract:

Food consumption is among the largest drivers of the ecological impact of cities including biodiversity loss. In response to this issue, "Rotterdam de Boer Op!" was launched in 2021. It is a 6-year collaboration of 25+ partners aiming to make Rotterdam's food system more nature-inclusive and local while reconnecting people with the rural areas that support their livelihoods. The partnership is unique in that it includes both nature conservation groups, sustainable food system pioneers and large incumbents.

As the need for sustainability transformations grows, there is a demand for practical insights into how such diverse partnerships can contribute effectively. Therefore, we (DRIFT) joint the partnership as action-researchers. Through reflexive monitoring, we aim to instill reflexivity with three goals in mind: enhance the transformative impact; identify and share learnings; and address systemic barriers to food systems transformation. In this session we aim to share the challenges and success of the program as well as our challenges in embedding reflexive monitoring. Examples of those challenges are:

How to trigger meaningful interactions between food system pioneers and established organization within this diverse partnership?

How to deal with plural imaginaries of the desired future and the path towards that future?

Who to involve and how to create ownership of reflexive learning questions?

Idea for the session: instead of a (paper) presentation I would love to engage in a dialogue on challenges in a mixed panel with both researchers and practitioners – I could bring someone from Rotterdam de Boer Op!

Paper short abstract:

The paper investigates the potential role of food districts established in Italy as part of a more effective food waste reduction strategy that can actively involve micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises, creating sustainable integrated territorial systems in conjunction with urban food policies

Paper long abstract:

In the EU, 54% of food waste generated annually is due to household consumption and the remainder to the production chain, where the largest contribution (21%) is attributable to post-primary production. In this context, to achieve the target to halve food waste and reduce losses by 2030, a recent proposal to amend Directive 2008/98/CE plans to assign clear responsibility to Member States.

Although household consumption is the main contributor to waste generation and so far policies have focused on this part of the supply chain, the amount of food waste can be measured more effectively among production stages, just as binding measures with verifiable impact can be imposed.

Studies show that the main drivers which generate food waste among the production stages relate to inefficiencies and trade-offs; moreover, failures in food business operations as well as lack of cooperation between actors can lead to food waste. It should also be considered that the food sector is mostly populated by micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises that often lack the economic, organizational and knowledge resources to implement an effective strategy to address food waste issues.

In Italy, food districts established under the act 205/2017 should promote territorial development, and, among other goals, reduce food waste. So far, food districts was established in many regions focusing mainly on the promotion of quality and organic productions, but they could act as key-actors in promoting cooperation between food business operators to pursue food waste reduction goals, as well as promising links with urban food policies.

Paper short abstract:

Local government support of community food assistance projects in Amsterdam Noord makes food aid and informal care work intersect with formal welfare. Funding and accountability ties endanger these projects' otherwise lively capacity for performing in-/formal care work.

Paper long abstract:

As food insecurity in Europe has risen in the last 15 years, food assistance has burgeoned. Whereas this has often been approached as a symptom of structural inequalities, alternative perspectives shed light on the potential of community food assistance (CFA) to contribute to redress these inequalities. This can be strengthened in more-than-food programs, where CFA recipients are actively supported by public institutions, e.g. by social and health workers. However, such more-than-food assistance has been widely understudied. Our research thus aims to fill this gap by tracing the development and role of CFA projects in the historically deprived city district of Amsterdam Noord, and the way that the local government has supported them. We build on interviews with 25 people and participatory observation. We found that, on the back of Covid-19, economic, energy and housing crises, CFA projects developed as unmissable loci where food aid intersects with informal and formal social and health work. Simultaneously, these projects are fraught with insecure food supply, locations and subsidies, and often coordinated by volunteers who themselves are in physically and financially vulnerable positions. The public funding these projects receive increases their ‘formality’ and lines of accountability towards public institutions, whereas it is precisely their informality that supports their care work wider than ‘just’ food, e.g. by attracting those that often live under the radar of institutions. We conclude that public support should avoid bureaucratizing the projects’ otherwise lively capacity for performing in-/formal care work.

Paper short abstract:

Central in sustainable food systems lie economic and social relations based care, reciprocity, and solidarity for people and nature. We show that affects are key in attracting and entangling people in these new relations, and argue that researchers can play a role to support this.

Paper long abstract:

Sustainable or agroecological food systems have been defined as those that enhance biodiversity, conserve natural resources, and contribute to people's health and to social justice. At the heart of agroecological food systems lie economic and social relations that are based not on maximizing profit and production, but on care, reciprocity, and solidarity for people and non-human others. While studies have been conducted on how these type of relations are embodied in solidary markets and alternative farming practices, much less attention has been paid to the role of affects in attracting people to, and entangling them in, these new relations. Using the notion of affective atmospheres, we illustrate how spaces where farmers and their organizations meet with one another, with diverse groups of citizens, and with other movements are important in maintaining and expanding agroecological food systems. We also show how action research can be used to support this.