Call for papers: International seminar: Local Urban Food Policies in the global food sovereignty debate, Ghent 11-12 June 2015. An increasing number of Cities are establishing local food strategies. The EU funded “Food Smart Cities for Development” network will result in an Urban Food Pact, to be signed during the Milan World Expo 2015. The pact will orientate initiatives in cities worldwide to increase their grip on sustainable local food systems. The debate on local food systems is rich with inroads from technical, agricultural, ecological and governance perspectives and have predominantly taken a local scope. The “Food Smart Cities for Development” network aims to maximize the contributions of local food policies to sustainable urban development and to increase understanding of the relevance and global relation between local food systems in this regard. The city of Ghent launched its local food policy “Gent en Garde” in October 2013. The city is eager to better understand the relevance of polies for food sovereignty for cities worldwide and offers its experience as a case-study to start analysis and discussions. City governments, the academic and the civil society community are therefore invited to take part in the analysis of local food policies, sharing of good practices from other cities and continents and to develop concepts that increase understanding of how local food systems are globally interdependent. This international seminar takes the policy option to build urban local food systems as the starting point for analysis and debate. Its goals are: 1) to enhance the knowledge on how local food systems can contribute to sustainable cities worldwide and what role it can take in the global challenge to increase food sovereignty, 2) to build usable concepts to understand at how local food systems are globally linked to the same objectives, 3) to gather inspiration and advice for policies at local, EU and global level that can maximize local urban food systems’ contribution to food sovereignty and sustainability worldwide. This seminar is co-organized by the City of Ghent and Ghent University and is part of the process towards a global Urban Food Policy Pact. Participation in this international seminar creates the opportunity to contribute to a landmark process in policy formulation on the role of cities in the global food sovereignty challenge. Kindly note that the seminar will take place shortly after the Asisses of Decentralised Cooperation (http://krt.be/assises15) and the Resilient Cities Conference (www.resilient-cities.iclei.org). Thanks to the proximity of Brussels (35 min.) and Bonn (3h.30) to Ghent participants can optimise international travel.
Participants are invited to share good practices and/or analyses of local food system strategies (or the lack thereof) in one of three tracks of discussions: What leverage do city governments have to create local urban food systems and how Governance of does this differ between Europe and the Global South? What place for local local urban food governance within complex food systems? How do local authorities deal with this systems challenge of multi-actor and multi-level governance? What do the processes needed to establish local urban food systems contribute contributing to government legitimacy, citizens participation and government effectiveness?
Urban-rural continuum
Production models in urban setting need to be tailored to their context: which production methods are urban-fit and how can local authorities stimulate innovation? Does density/organization of the built environment (which differs quite a lot between cities) define how urban food production is shaped? What lessons can be learned that are relevant for all cities? If it is true that local food systems should rely on a stronger relation between periurban food production and urban market, what kind of interventions are needed to adapt markets and/or production systems? How does this differ between cities worldwide and what impact can policy choices in one region have on possibilities of intervention in other regions?
Food security – food sovereignty
How can local food systems contribute to food sovereignty? Will establishing local food systems help the creation of fair food chains? Do choices to establish local food systems in one region have a positive impact on opportunities for cities in other regions or are global trade relations more defining?
Process for participation: Participation to the international seminar is free of charge. Travel and accommodation costs are at the expense of participants. Support could be given to participants from developing countries to cover travel costs, please enquire. To be accepted as participant, representatives from city governments, civil society or academia are requested to submit a short essay of max 800 words on local (urban) food policies. To increase policy relevance of the seminar contributions are preferrably empirical and case-specific. City authorities are particularly encouraged to submit good practices. Date for submission: 15 April 2015. The essays will be published as conference-notes. Excelling contributions could be invited to be further developed into articles. Please send all enquiries and proposals to wouter.boesman@gent.be
Program of the seminar: 11 June (Thursday) City Hall – field visit 12 June (Friday) Het Pand
13h-17h Field visits to projects of the Ghent Food Policy “Ghent en Garde” 19h Welcome dinner 8h30 Registration and coffee 9h Welcome by Deputy Mayor of Ghent 9h-12h30 Key notes and workshops on tracks 1-2 13h30-15h Key note and workshop on track 3 15h-16h30 Formulation of conclusions and recommendations 17u Closing remarks and reception
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