In the aftermath of the economic crisis in the city of Madrid, food geography transformed. The urban unemployed began to engage in agriculture in periurban areas, creating new alliances between producers and consumers. Over a period of 15 years the alternative food movement organized on the fringe gave way to agroecological civic platforms that are highly assertive, and a dialogue with political institutions has opened. A key moment in the advance of this proactive attitude came about in the municipal elections of May 2015. Activists ascended to positions of political power and the backdrop of the Milan Urban Food Policy Pact, created an opportunity for the food movement to move from protest to program, and public policies permeated by agroecological principles.
In the last decade, efforts to re-localize the food system have been gaining ground in a way that is intended to induce changes in the primary sector, thereby improving its conditions and sustainability. The European Union has identified food as one of the ten key sectors with outstanding potential for an ecological transition, and public procurement of (organic) food as an appropriate policy to foster agricultural development and support small farmers. In this study, we analyze changes in land use and farming dynamics in three municipalities close to the metropolitan area of Madrid (Spain). We also explore how stakeholders and farmers perceive the driving forces of these changes and the potential for public procurement in providing stability for farmers and more specifically, boosting the articulation and consolidation of the emerging agroecological sector in an up-to-date hostile peri-urban environment. Some urban policies and food strategies in nearby cities, such as Madrid, have introduced measures to promote sustainable food in public procurement. The procurement could drive 10% of the total food grown in the Comunidad de Madrid, with large variations in the impact on different food subsectors. However, if public procurement is to be organic, local production has no capacity to meet increases in demand, except for honey and oil. Food procurement would not lead to improved stability and increases in farmers’ incomes if public policies to boost ecological transition are not adopted in parallel. For farmers, economic viability takes precedence over other problems, and although public procurement has been mainstreamed as a valuable tool to support local agriculture, stakeholders do not have high expectations for it. The research shows that farm size and specialization have a strong influence on market orientation, and the agroecological farmers and social movements that support them are primed for innovation adoption and may act as catalysts for the process.
The agroecological movement is gaining presence in urban spaces, transcending the rural areas where it originated and revealing the need for an alliance between both worlds. As the social justice dimension is at the core of agroecology, one would expect that designing urban food systems with an agroecological approach would prioritize deprived neighbourhoods. However, this is not happening. To overcome it and address food poverty, we explore spatial design principles inspired by agroecology, to transform production and consumption along the urban-rural transect. We developed a methodology and applied it to a vulnerable neighbourhood (Bellas Vistas in Madrid, Spain), to outline a network of productive spaces and collective facilities for an agroecological transition that overcomes the middle-class bias commonly observed in Alternative Food Networks. It defines mechanisms to connect local needs with available resources, considering self-supporting communities, empty plots and underused spaces and buildings, as well as institutional policies and plans. This way, the traditional assistance approach can be replaced by a structural solution that disrupts dominant relationships bringing food sovereignty a step closer.
Food is back on the agenda. After the global financial crisis of 2008, food insecurity became rampant even in high‐income countries, and COVID‐19 has only worsened the situation. Action is needed to build emancipatory practices dealing with food insecurity. The cultural and technical legacy of urban planning can be seized and enriched with the principles of the commons and the ethics of care. A case study in Madrid, Spain, provides clues about how to envision a future in which urbanism backs agroecological and right to food movements to design resilient urban food systems. More than 400 free food distribution nodes operate in the city, yet over 14% of the population is food insecure. This study analyzes public, private, and community programs to address food poverty, as well as community gardens, municipal markets, food‐related business incubators, and public centers with potential community kitchens. Urban planning helps broadening horizons of possibilities, activating the collective imagination of new ways to connect needs and—often unnoticed—resources. Such an approach contributes to progress in reducing dependencies from the large industrial food sector. Urban planning provides tools for applying the qualities of agroecological food systems supported by the community to define strategies adapted to each specific context. In mature contexts, it helps transposing the social reorganization into the material space in the neighborhood.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.