Session 4

Are preexisting networks a precondition to form a FPC that works? What are the key steps toward FPC formation? How these stakeholders can be managed efficiently after the institution of a FPC to avoid fatigue, concentration and disengagement? Is participation enough to ensure real empowerment of stakeholders, what other processes or strategies can be deployed to enhance a robust and productive engagement?

In this Session:

The Importance of Networks and Peer-Learning: The Example of CLEVERFOOD (Chiara Roticiani)

• Knowledge-sharing and collaboration with other initiatives greatly contribute to the development of food policy councils. As part of the CLEVERFOOD project, Eurocities – the largest network of European cities – is supporting these processes by coordinating the FOOD 2030 Connected Lab Network (which includes food policy councils) and a peer-learning programme for food policy labs and councils, focusing on stakeholder engagement and participatory governance. This intervention will explore the importance of exchanging good practices and challenges, as well as the difficulties encountered in creating added value – particularly when establishing broad, cross-sectoral networks.

Beyond participation: examining Food Policy Network empowerment strategies in the Global South (Guilherme Raj)

• The assumption that inclusion and participation of underrepresented groups in food governance necessarily leads to empowerment and transformative agency remains contested. An exploratory study on 12 Food Policy Networks in Latin America and Africa reveals several empowerment strategies to foster agency in food governance and persistent structural injustices that hinder more sustainable, equitable and healthier food systems.

The role of Farmers’ Organisations in Food System Governance (Jessie Power)

• The Australian Food Sovereignty Alliance (AFSA) is a farmer- and First Peoples-led organisation working towards socially-just, ecologically-sound and culturally-determined food and agricultural systems. For the past 15 years, AFSA has had a strong focus on advocating for farmer and civil society representation in the development of food system policy, particularly in Australia where neoliberal policies continue to focus on trade, export and productivity despite the land, water and labour injustices that have emerged as a result of such policies. The Australian Government has recently announced its intention to allocate $3.5 million in funding to a Feeding Australia food security strategy, to boost the security and supply chain resilience of agriculture and food production in Australia. Australia has never had a federal food policy, though one was proposed in 2010 by the Australian Labor Party. The process at that time was guided by a Federal Advisory Panel, comprised of government ministers and the CEOs of major agri-food corporations. In response to this, AFSA was formed through various different community organisations that came together to draft a letter to politicians of all parties.While that letter welcomed a national food policy, it insisted that this process be a transparent, inclusive and participatory process. This letter was endorsed by civil society across Australia including social enterprises, farmers, community organisations, academics and individuals. In 2012, AFSA launched its Peoples’ Food Plan in response to the (subsequently abandoned)National Food Policy, to demonstrate a more participatory and intersectional approach to food system governance that included First Peoples, farmers, community groups, public health, academics and civil society.

Towards a Food Council in Turin: Governance Innovations and Opportunities for an Integrated Urban Food Policy (Riccardo Giovanni Bruno)

• Over the past decade, the City of Turin has advanced toward a systemic urban food policy through civic, institutional, and academic collaboration. Key milestones include the creation of the Turin Food Atlas, the recognition of the Right to Food, and the recent Food Policy Guidelines. While a formal Food Policy Council is not yet established, three key platforms, GIPA, the Food Atlas, and the grassroots network PUNTo al Cibo, are shaping a participatory food governance model. This case illustrates how multi-level engagement and sustained innovation can build fertile ground for food democracy and points to emerging challenges in formalizing inclusive governance structures.

People-centred food policy councils: The Toronto experience (Lori Stahlbrand)

• The Toronto Food Policy Council (TFPC) was a leading food policy council throughout its 30 years of existence. The TFPC went into an unplanned hiatus during the pandemic, from which it has not yet emerged. For three decades, the TFPC was a citizen council advising the Toronto Board of Health and Toronto City Council on food issues. It operated under a unique model of community stakeholder engagement, based on citizen volunteers who committed to help develop and advocate for progressive and sustainable food policies using a food systems approach. This presentation will explore this model and how it functioned to advance urban food policy in Toronto. The presenter is a former City of Toronto Staff Lead for the TFPC, and was also a TFPC member during the mid-2000s.

Experiences from Oslo and Gothenburg (Prof. Einar Braathen, Norwegian Institute of urban and Regional Research )

• The FPC (Food Policy Council) in Oslo was an outcome of the H2020 FUSILLI project. At the same time a food network (with the aim of building a FPC) evolved in Gothenburg. The initiative started among officers and tenants in the municipal land sector. In Oslo the initiative was coordinated by a province government officer, a ‘slowfood’ farming activist, and a university researcher. Oslo Municipality did not play any active role. The two cases are presenting the differences in how they engaged stakeholders and extended participation, explained by their respective food system and political environments.