Sustainable Food Cities Can Join Up Local and National Food Strategies – a Powerful Force for Change
What do we “get”? What is our gravity? What draws us together is the natural instinctive understanding that food is the staff, the stuff of life.
food policy
Democratising Agricultural Research for Food Sovereignty in West Africa
The West African part of the action-research programme – Democratising Agricultural Research for Food Sovereignty – has made a conscious effort to include members of both advocacy and practitioner movements.
Only Possible to Feed People Sustainably in an Equitable Society
A recent report from the United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) confirms that the current food system isn’t sustainable neither for the environment nor for our health. Organic agriculture, conservation farming and agro-ecology are key technologies for a transition to a sustainable food system, which also has to shun artificial nitrogen fertilizers.
Food Liberation Inspires People-Centered Food Policy
In both the commercial and health professional viewpoints, the social, emotional, environmental, economic and empowerment dimensions of food relationships are pushed aside.
This City Made Access to Food a Right of Citizenship
To begin to conceive of the possibility of a culture of empowered citizens making democracy work for them, real-life stories help—not models to adopt wholesale, but examples that capture key lessons. For me, the story of Brazil’s fourth largest city, Belo Horizonte, is a rich trove of such lessons.
The Front Burner of Food Policy
A good stint at home cooking should be a prerequisite for anyone who’s a city food policy practitioner. Home cooking deserves to be on the front burner of good food policy.
The Future of UK Farming
The Future of UK Farming conference, organised by the SFT, took place this past weekend with over 300 people attending. Hosted by Sir Alan and Lady Parker at Fir Farm in the beautiful Cotswolds, it was a lively two days of meaningful debate and deep conversations on how we best grasp the opportunity that Brexit offers to transform the UK food system.
Beet the System!
Can food and food sovereignty be the catalyst for a Commons Transition? For over 30 years, FIAN International has been advocating for the right to food sovereignty. Their work unites bottom-up grassroots movements and local administrations, with a special focus on inclusivity and enfranchising those who are most often left out.
Halfway Thoughts on Today’s Food Movements
Some people wonder if youthful food movements spreading through cities across the Global North are half-full, half-empty — or maybe even half-baked. The timing for such questioning is perfect. Once a new trend gets over its first flush, people start to judge it as a movement that will be around for a while. That’s when tough questions crop up.
Hang Together or Hang Alone
I’m delighted to introduce Mark Winne’s latest book — Stand Together or Starve Alone: Unity and Chaos in the U.S. Food Movement. I consider it the most important book going on today’s food movements.
Shifting from Nutritionism to People-Centered Food Policy
Local governments need to deal with food through the window of people issues – jobs, neighbourhood cohesion, neighbourhood rejuvenation, public safety, mental health, conviviality, the need for “third places,” immigrant welcoming, multiculturalism and interculturalism, community gardens, walkable shopping, farmers markets, school gardens, … the whole nine yards of city life.
Nine-Tenths of the Power, Glory and Empowerment of Food are Hidden Beneath the Surface
But when it comes to food, we continue to believe that what you see, touch, hear, smell and taste is all that you get. Thankfully, food cannot be digitalized. But quite a bit short of that, I believe we need to do something to make ourselves more mindful about food’s unseen powers.