Urban Food Actions Platform

Food systems should ensure that enough nutritious food is available for everyone, whether they live in urban or rural areas, and they are poor households. The challenge is to do so while minimizing any harmful impact on the environment. 

This thematic area focuses on efficient and resilient food supply and distribution systems. For instance strengthening the rural-urban food supply chain in order to face and adapt to disruptive events; developing sustainable food transportation and logistics planning in order to reduce carbon emissions by improving alternative fuels or means of transport and thus improve connections with peri-urban and rural nearby areas; strengthening or developing energy efficient municipal public markets including farmers markets, retail and wholesale markets; creating an enabling environment for the informal food system sector and their stakeholders.

Related Resources

Food supply and distribution - Reports & Case Studies
Unity College shifted a large portion of their meat purchases to local meat products in order to support local Maine farms and the college’s commitment to sustainability, as well as to promote increased transparency around food safety and origin. When compared to conventional meat products offered by some distributors, it...
United States of America (North America)
2020 - Riley Neugebauer
Governance and planning, Food production and ecosystem management, Food supply and distribution - Articles
The disruption to food systems from COVID-19 highlights the need to reconnect local production and consumption. City regions food system is part of a multi-level response. Key insights from various city regions all over the world (Antananarivo/Madagascar - Nairobi/Kenya - Kitwe/Zambia - Toronto/Canada - Quito/Ecuador - Melbourne/Australia).
(Global coverage)
2020 - Coll.
Social and economic equity, Food supply and distribution - Articles
This audio resource discuss how the coronavirus crisis has not only resulted in vast amounts of food being wasted but also saved and redirected to feed people in need. Covid-19 has led to levels of food waste in developed economies increasing from around 30 per cent to 40 per cent...
United Kingdom (Europe)
2020 - Coll.
Social and economic equity, Food supply and distribution - Articles
In Brazil, the Covid-19 health crisis has triggered a stalemate between the president and the local government. The rapid spread of the disease across the country led many state governments and city mayors to take strict lockdown measures. With the arrival of Covid-19 in Brazil, tens of millions of people...
Brazil (Latin America and the Caribbean)
2020 - Stéphane Guéneau; Catia Grisa
Social and economic equity, Food supply and distribution - Articles
With the arrival of the coronavirus, the country is facing not only a health crisis but also a social crisis, highlighted by the precariousness of casual jobs in the cities.
India (Asia and the Pacific)
2020 - Bruno Dorin