Based on the guiding questions, Commission services wish to contribute the following to part B:
Share good practices and successful experiences on strengthening urban and peri-urban food systems in the context of urbanization and rural transformation, including in the case of emergencies or conflicts.
The Food 2030 R&I policy provides a vision for a systemic approach to “how we think and do” R&I, with “whom” we do it (inter and transdisciplinary, multi-actor approach), on “what” (leverage points) and “for what”? The focus is on impact-driven R&I via which to develop, test and deploy solutions to the urgent, complex and interconnected challenges inherent to food systems. We have been advocating and investing in multi-actor systemic approaches to future–proof our food systems for co-benefits: 1) Nutrition for sustainable and healthy diets, 2) Climate smart and environmentally sustainable food systems 3) Circular and resource-efficient food systems 4) Food Systems innovation through empowerment of communities.
Food 2030 is operationalised via 10 thematic action pathways and one of them is “Urban food system transformation”. We have taken stock of urban food system projects across European R&I projects funded under H2020, Horizon Europe, and Life, and will release a report “Urban food system transformation in the context of Food 2030” based on projects’ valuable input end of May 2023, to help guide other cities and regions with tangible solutions, to learn from mistakes, foster scaling and reproducibility, and further enhance the linkages between urban and rural areas.
Hopefully this will contribute to the comprehensive development of the report and apologies for not keeping within the given DL. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank you for your efforts.
Kind regards
Ioannis FERMANTZIS
Policy Officer
European Commission
Directorate-General International Partnerships
Unit F.3 – Sustainable Agri-Food Systems and Fisheries
Mr. Ioannis FERMANTZIS