Three Days in Turin

Castello del Valentino.

Source: Politecnico di Torino.

Three Days in Turin

by Jay Skardis [CRP]

The Association of European Schools of Planning (AESOP) convenes their annual conferences every summer. The main conference, for professors, was held in Stockholm this year, with workshops for PhD. students and professionals on specific disciplines held in rotating locations throughout Europe. This year’s workshop on Sustainable Food Planning, a relatively new field, was held in the city of Turin, in the Piedmont region of northern Italy, and hosted by the Polytechnic University of Turin Department of Regional Urban Studies and Planning.

The workshop was held over three days in June, in the Castello del Valentino, the UNESCO world heritage site that houses the engineering school of the University. Arriving there through a series of unexpected events, from being invited to submit a short paper for presentation, to having the paper accepted, and with thanks to the Pratt Graduate Student Engagement Fund, I found myself participating in this event with a group of about 20 people visiting from various locations within Italy, and several other European countries, as well as Indonesia. The majority of attendees were PhD. students, currently working on their theses on food planning related topics, with a few participants already in the field in both local and global organizations.

This year’s area of focus was to explore the concept of Sustainable City Regional Food Systems (CRFS) within a planning framework. Still in its nascent form, the context of the CRFS is one that looks to address the connection between cities and their surrounding regions as “dynamic spaces of interaction,” and bring together research, initiatives, and policy for planning direct food system networks between the urban market and the peri-urban and rural agro-ecological supply.†

Turin is at the forefront of innovative food planning, at the community, municipal, and national levels. The Turin master plan, in progress, with green infrastructure initiatives, protection of open space, and restrictions on new building for soil preservation, aims to be a pioneer in incorporating food planning in the agenda. A recent national law has been passed to mitigate food waste, offering tax deduction for the daily donation of leftover food from grocers, small shops, and farmer’s markets. This is being implemented at the municipal and community levels; a City initiative to collect this food for free distribution to people in need is being developed; and local community centers and restaurants are preparing this food to provide affordable meals to the public.

The first day of the workshop was held in the frescoed Sala della Caccia, in the upper castle, for keynote speeches and an interactive discussion. The PhD. Planning coordinator of the University, Umberto Janin Rivolin, greeted the group, and Professor Egidio Dansero, Ph.D. (Political and Economic Geography, Department of Cultures, Politics, and Society at UNITO) spoke first on The Food Atlas of Turin. This is a current project looking to map the movement of food supplies from the regional area to the central city, the processes by which it is done, and the stakeholders involved at each stage. And afterwards Professor Andrea Calori, Ph.D. (Territorial and

Environmental Planning, Polytechnic of Milan) engaged the group in building theory and conceptualization of Sustainable Food Planning through a thought-provoking lecture, which became the interactive discussion.

A schedule of interactive sessions at the University filled the second day, and were followed by talks on sustainable cities and food planning at the municipal level, and finished with a dinner at a restaurant serving locally sourced foods.

An interactive training session on public speaking and communication with Lorenzo Tesio started the day. We then applied the approaches he presented in a session for individual student presentations, followed by peer and professional feedback. An interactive training session on Ph.D. conflict management with Professors Pettenati and Santangelo, from the university, followed, with break-out groups reviewing assigned literature and discussing scenarios that were later presented to the group at large.

The group met at the restaurant Via Baltea that evening for two successive round table presentations before dinner. Delegates from Almere, a closed loop sustainable city outside Amsterdam, spoke of their work, the upcoming 2020 EXPO, and challenged the group to think beyond current food planning initiatives. A talk about Torino food policy and the Torino Master Plan with Simone Mangili, from the Office of the Deputy Mayor of Turin for Environment, Sustainability and European Funds followed, who spoke of the initiatives included in the plan.

The third and last day was spent, literally, in the field. The group traveled to the Stupingi Natural Park just outside of the city, a former hunting castle with surrounding property being used for natural farming. Panacea, a cooperative cultivating heritage wheat, grows six varieties here, that are ground at a local mill and sold to local bread shops to bake traditional baked goods from the Piedmont region; a thriving CRFS. They are partially funded by the city and incorporate outreach, educational programs for children, and work training programs for high school students.

A closing lunch was held at the edge of the city, in an underserved neighborhood, in a community center on public open space. Casa del Quartiere at La Locanda del Parco is a gathering space open to the public, and an open space for many different community organizations to share and collaborate. Their kitchen reclaims unsold, donated food from the forty-two open air markets of Turin, and prepares one or five euro meals on a sliding scale for all guests.

It was an inspirational three days that brought together a collective of individuals with the common goal of advancing food policy and food planning for cities and their surrounding regions.

†To read the journal publication of the collective academic papers from the workshop, go to: http://www.dist.polito.it/content/ download/693/5358/version/1/ file/AESOP_newdist.pdf