Sustainable Food

This entire morning, the Cotxeres de Sants Civic Centre has hosted almost 100 experts, technicians and local leaders who participated in the seminar ‘From the Plate to the Planet: Municipalities that Transform’. This workshop was organised by the Network of Cities for Agroecology and the Barcelona City Council to reflect on the role of sustainable food in transforming territories and addressing climate change.

The seminar is part of a pilot project with the participation of Barcelona, ​​Granollers and Rivas-Vaciamadrid as part of the Barcelona Challenge for Good Food and Climate, and it enabled them to assess the impact of their local food policies.

Tools for assessing the impact of local policies

During the workshop, Maria Carrascosa, the technical secretary of the Network of Cities for Agroecology, told participants about the tools and resources already available for cities committed to the Barcelona Challenge, which will enable them to track and assess the local food policies they adopt. Barcelona, Granollers and Rivas-Vaciamadrid are the first three cities to assess them.

Highlighted actions in Barcelona

In Barcelona, Manel Vàzquez, the director of Commerce, Restaurants and Food Services at Barcelona City Council, highlighted the actions undertaken, first and foremost the Barcelona Healthy and Sustainable Food Strategy for 2030, a city-wide agreement to transform the current model. He also mentioned the Green Commerce programme, which promotes the supply of local, ecological products in municipal markets and has more than 500 affiliated establishments, as well as the technical instruction for public food procurement and the More Sustainable School Canteens programme.

Next, Helena Barracó, head of the Department of Facilities and Programmes for Barcelona City Council’s Office for Climate Change, presented the Climate Plan. She specifically focused on the awareness-raising actions geared at and worked on jointly with citizens.

Successful initiatives in Granollers

Francesc Arolas, the lieutenant mayor and councillor for Transparency and Good Governance, Human Resources, Environment and Green Spaces, Public Health and Consumer Affairs at Granollers City Council, talked about La Mimosa project, an initiative that facilitates agroecological consumption among groups in situations of vulnerability; the Saturday Market, a market where most of the vendors have grown or made the products they sell, which has more than 1,000 visitors per week; and the Vallès Oriental Seed Bank, which aims to preserve and showcase the cultivated agrobiodiversity in the region.

The experience of Rivas-Vaciamadrid

The third participant in the pilot project is the city of Rivas-Vaciamadrid, a municipality with more than 100,000 inhabitants that has recently launched some of the most innovative local policies to transform the food model in Spain. Javier Barchín, director of Economic Development and Employment, and Alberto Cruz, Farming Promotion Officer, both with the Rivas-Vaciamadrid City Council, highlighted three of these policies: the Soto del Grillo Agroecological Park, the creation of a local ecommerce platform and community composting.

Learning from experts

In addition to these towns’ practical experience, the workshop also featured thematic panels and panel discussions so experts could share their knowledge. They include Marta Rivera-Ferré, CSIC researcher, and Enric Tello, environmental historian at the University of Barcelona, who reflected on the impact of food systems on the climate and how the agroecological approach can offer solutions from the municipal sphere.

The workshop also explored the processes needed to promote food policies for climate action with Pere Jurado, director of Campaigns and Communication at Legados, and Laura Calvet, sustainability researcher at the Metròpoli Institute and coordinator of the post-graduate degree in local agroecological promotion at the UAB. In Calvet’s opinion, ‘agroecology is the only possible way to both mitigate climate change and feed people in the future. But intersectoral cooperation is needed both within each municipality and among different public administrations to act in the areas under their authority: waste management, health, education, markets and public procurement, among others.’

Final activity: Conclusions

The last part of the workshop featured an activity geared at defining specific proposals for climate action in the participating municipalities, identifying opportunities and specific needs. The different working groups discussed issues like governance, social and economic equity, food waste, food production and sustainable diets and nutrition. The event closed by sharing conclusions.

The participants stressed the need for municipalities to earmark more resources to food policies to foster cooperation with city residents and organisations by actively promoting the spaces that exist and even to ensure that municipalities’ climate action plans include food issues. They also emphasised the importance of providing access to sustainable food to everyone, regardless of their social and economic situation, along with the need to get producers involved and to include agroecological education at school and in vocational and university degrees.