Assessing and Planning Sustainable City Region Food Systems: Insights from Two Latin American Cities

Abstract

Abstract:In the context of growing urbanisation, urban poverty, and climate change impacts, the importance of urban food security and urban food systems is increasingly recognised by both local and national governments, as well as international actors. There is also a growing understanding that urban development and food systems cannot be decoupled from rural development given the multiple impacts that urban areas have on their surroundings. In recent years the concept of City Region Food Systems (CRFS) has emerged as a promising approach to support local governments, policy makers, and multi-stakeholder bodies in making informed decisions to improve urban and regional food system sustainability and resilience, while taking into account a more integrated approach to territorial development across urban and rural areas. This paper is based on an ongoing FAO and RUAF programme of assessing and planning City Region Food Systems, currently implemented in eight city regions in Canada, Colombia, Ecuador, Senegal, Sri Lanka, The Netherlands, and Zambia. The paper analyses the content, definition and delimitations of the concept of City Region Food Systems by presenting two case studies from Latin America (Quito and Medellín), and discusses first advances in policy uptake and territorial food planning.

Validating the City Region Food System Approach: Enacting Inclusive, Transformational City Region Food Systems

“…These activities have provided a platform for increased inter-institutional integration through the "Alianza por el Buen Vivir" task force that includes the Medellin Mayor's Office, the Government of Antioquia and the Metropolitan area and that weaves together various administrative levels. Moving forward, with a view to working across political, administrative, and economic priorities, the CRFS task force will support improved crop production, as well as distribution systems and local supply chains, to improve access to safe, diverse, healthy food for urban consumers [5].…”

“…The New Urban Agenda supports SDG goals by combining urban and regional planning to address food and nutrition security, coordinate more equitable and less wasteful food systems, and address environmental resilience and biodiversity. The Milan Urban Food Policy Pact provides an entry point for municipalities and surrounding regions to engage in coherent regional food policy and program initiatives that focus on governance; sustainable diets and nutrition; social and economic equity; and food production, distribution, waste reduction, and recovery [1,4,5]. Together, these mechanisms provide the basis for a robust governance framework for city region food system initiatives.…”

“…First, it is being applied, tested, and revised through on-going FAO and RUAF projects that began in 2015 to intentionally foster more sustainable, integrated food systems in city-regions [4,5]. Second, it is also possible to identify CRFS that have emerged organically/spontaneously before explicit CRFS approach interventions began.…”

“…For example, in the case of the SDGs, food provides a cross-cutting entry point to support all the goals and can play a central role in achieving both local and global sustainability. Despite this focal role, implementing the SDGs and sustainability more generally is not scale-focused and needs a specific lens to help focus operationalization offered by the CRFS approach [5,12]. Addressing multiple challenges simultaneously, CRFS provide a mechanism for coherent, functional sustainability policy and action [1,4,5] (Table 1).…”

“…Despite this focal role, implementing the SDGs and sustainability more generally is not scale-focused and needs a specific lens to help focus operationalization offered by the CRFS approach [5,12]. Addressing multiple challenges simultaneously, CRFS provide a mechanism for coherent, functional sustainability policy and action [1,4,5] (Table 1). Categories in Table 1 were extracted from the literature review for the various approaches complemented by the overview of the city regions and food systems literatures with a view to comparing and contrasting the relative merits of each approach.…”