Creating city region food systems Emily Mattheisen
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As cities continue to expand and more people migrate to urban areas, current unsustainable patterns of urbanization and ineffective policies are no longer acceptable. The typical approaches that maintain the separation between rural and urban, neglect the ways that connect both worlds. And, nowhere else are rural and urban areas more linked than within the food system.
The grocery market at Istanbul
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he expansion of cities and their increasing demands for food is paired with the challenges of improving rural livelihoods. Unsustainable consumption and trade continue to grow, and in particular the continued corporate takeover and dominance of the food and agriculture sector. This has left many urban families and their communities without access to affordable, nutritious, safe and fresh food. At the same time, these practices disenfranchise small-scale food producers and rural people, reduce rural livelihoods opportunities and exacerbate rural poverty. This begs the question – how can we make better development decisions based on a more inclusive framework?
Urban–rural linkages in the food system
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Rural–urban linkages can be best supported through making real change in the food system. The food system itself is complex and many-layered, including flows, exchanges and impacts across rural and urban areas – from food production, LEISA INDIA JUNE 2015
distribution, processing, marketing, consumption and waste, as well as supportive infrastructure. A revolutionary change in the food system is not global; it is small scale and locally based. Many issues and interventions are being discussed by governments and civil society that seek to better connect areas through territorial approaches to governance at the local level. Improved relationships between producers and consumers, which also support vulnerable populations in rural and urban areas, are vital. For many communities, this means preserving traditional and public market spaces, improving social protection and food support programmes, amending public procurement policies, and supporting direct purchasing schemes and community supported agriculture, are some of the many interventions that are needed.
Local governments and authorities Decentralisation of power and clear guidance for local authorities is key to carrying out international policy