Panel of international experts discuss The New Urban Food Agenda at Cardiff event
22 June 2018
An event hosted by Sustainable Places Research Institute on May 20th at Cardiff University brought together international experts to reflect on a decade of urban food policy, and identify key levers to deepen and broaden a transformative urban food agenda.
The panel of experts delivering talks at the event included: Dr. Nevin Cohen (City University of New York); Dr. Jane Battersby (University of Cape Town, African Center for Cities); Professor Tim Lang (City University of London); Dr. Ana Moragues-Faus (Cardiff University); Professor Harriet Friedmann (University of Toronto) and Professor Bernardo Mançano Fernandes (Visiting Professor, Cardiff University).
In a context of increasing urbanization, cities have become key sites to transform our current food system in order to deliver good food for all. More broadly, the urban has been signalled as the key site for revolution where transformation of nature becomes most visible, both in its physical form and its socio-ecological consequences; and, therefore, a key space to reshape food system dynamics.
The first panel, with Dr Cohen, Dr Battersby and Professor Lang, discussed the role of cities in reproducing but also transforming the food system. Through examples of pioneering cities, the speakers reflected on how cities have become key actors in the food policy arena.
The second panel, with Dr Moragues-Faus, Professor Friedmann and Professor Fernandes, reflected on how cities are actively shaping, and being shaped by, global food system dynamics. They analysed the increasing interconnectedness of urban food policies through the emergence and expansion of national and international city networks such as the Milan Food Policy Pact, global and national networks.
Key questions addressed by panellists included how cities can contribute to transform national, European and international food governance dynamics and who are the key agents and process that can support those transformations.
The day finished with an open debate to identify what’s next in the development of a global and transformative urban food agenda.
The event was funded by the Ser Cymru II Fellowship Programme.
