Rural and urban communities can be powerful change agents when it comes to transforming food systems, even when national and EU policies are inadequate. Feeding Ourselves 2024 hosted a roundtable on bottom-up approaches to sustainable food systems, bringing together stakeholders involved in developing fair and environmentally friendly food systems in Germany, France and Ireland. ARC2020 participants include Anne-Marie Weber of Collective von Morgen (Germany), Henrik Maas of Deutsche Arbeitsgemeinschaft Bauerliche Landwirtschaft (Germany), and Thierry, member of the city of Presse (France).・Mr. Rohr and Mr. Fergal Anderson of Tallam Beo (Ireland) participated. . Alison Brogan shares the key lessons of the unfolding debate. Additional reporting by Louise Kelleher.
Currently, Brussels is not the most hopeful place for those hoping for a fair and green transition to the EU's food system.
But hope lies on the ground. Rather than waiting for an incentive from above, many communities, food policy councils, solidarity farming initiatives, food cooperatives, and even rural and urban municipalities are creating their own democratic initiatives to build sustainable food systems. , has already established an economic and social framework.
Feeding Ourselves 2024 will host a roundtable on bottom-up approaches to sustainable food systems, bringing together two ARC2020 projects, Rural Resilience in France and Action for Rural Europe – a like-minded opportunity for partners in Germany* and Ireland. It has expanded. the purpose? To exchange knowledge and experiences on the development of fair and environmentally friendly local food systems in different contexts, including their unique components, processes, successes and challenges.
Encouraging participation
Ann-Marie Weber from kollektiv von MORGEN, partner of the Marburg-based project “Rural Europe Takes Action – Germany”, gives an insight into the collective efforts to create a culture of sustainability in the city and its surrounding areas. I did.
Promoting participatory processes and creative education that anchor climate and sustainability at local level is at the core of kollektiv von MORGEN's work.
The collective plays an important role in supporting the development of sustainable food systems in the region, bringing together stakeholders such as politicians, civil society, researchers and producers, and creating a neutral exchange space. I am.
Another important point that emerged from Weber's insights is the political composition of local government and how it influences policy direction and facilitates or impedes movement toward sustainable food systems. The question was whether or not they would play an important role.
Anne-Marie Webber contributes virtually to a roundtable on bottom-up approaches to sustainable food systems at Feeding Ourselves 2024. Photo: Adèle Violette
One local government that is pioneering local food and agricultural policy through citizen participation is the French city of Presse, a partner of ARC's Rural Resilience Project from 2021.
Thierry Rohr, elected councilor of the city of Presse, also took part in the roundtable and shared his insights into the municipality's unique approach to participatory politics and representative democracy.
Civic organization Thierry contributed to its success in the 2020 local elections by running a political campaign through a participatory process and asking residents: “What would you do if you were elected?''
So when the group won the 2020 election, it had a strong political mandate that included a focus on agriculture, food, the environment, and biodiversity. These could then be deeply developed in the municipal committee system. All Presse citizens over the age of 14 are invited to join the committee along with their elected representatives.
At the end of 2020, the city established a residents' committee to support local food and agricultural policy (PAAC). This Agriculture, Food, Environment and Biodiversity Committee includes 12 of his elected representatives and 26 dedicated citizens or VIPs (Volontaires Investis à Plessé).
Although the committee includes farmers, they are not the majority, reflecting the need for an integrated approach to saving the local agricultural sector. It is the residents who actively participate in PAAC, and the local government plays the role of facilitator.
Hearing about this ambitious approach to governance and democracy, participants in rural Tipperary shared their doubts about the potential for Irish local government to play such a role in a sustainable food system.
Ireland is a highly centralized country with limited local autonomy. The 2023 report states: “In many respects, the position of local government in Ireland is weaker than in most other European countries…Local government in Ireland is one of the lowest scoring countries, ranking only behind Hungary. It turned out to be just a little bit higher.”
Anne-Marie Weber has therefore pointed out the importance of having a political anchor at community level to drive change in local food systems, which is always seen in local government in the Irish context. There are no restrictions. However, as one participant suggested, anchor institutions can think creatively.
Local anchor institutions do not necessarily have to be public institutions. For example, theaters and sports clubs can use procurement to support a sustainable local food economy.
Progressive procurement is a proven way to approach building community wealth. Public procurement processes must also comply with relevant laws, while ensuring that local authorities, hospitals, schools, prisons, etc. provide healthy, locally and environmentally produced food to staff and the general public. There is still room to shape the process so that it can create demand for such agricultural products. And we support the producers who do it. In Ireland, new green public procurement rules mean that 10% of the value of food sourced must be organic. Minimum green standards may be expanded in the future.
Additionally, community food hubs can serve as trusted intermediaries to aggregate sustainable local food production for procurement needs. Digital tools like the Open Food Network could support this.
Access to local land
Access to land is another area where the local level can be a powerful point of intervention. Land consolidation is a serious issue in Ireland that needs to be addressed sooner rather than later, and land transfer is particularly important given the aging of the farming population.
This theme was raised many times throughout Feeding Ourselves 2024. This includes during the closing plenary in her Simone Matouch (Forum Synergy) contribution on intergenerational cooperation and sustainable food systems. She said that while there will be challenges in handing over to younger generations, these challenges can create space for innovation to flourish and out-of-the-box thinking to take hold. In this process of generational change, Mr. Matacci emphasized the importance of not abandoning the older generation. They have the experience, the youth has the energy.
Generational renewal is interrelated with access to land. When a farmer retires, who inherits the land? If the farmer's family doesn't take over, are there any farmers in the community willing to jump at the opportunity? Otherwise, the expanding neighborhood of land could be filled by farms?
Other EU countries have more experience in promoting land access and dealing with integration than Ireland. Simone Matouche points to French examples such as Presse and Terre de Riens, which have managed to maintain the number of farms in the region by replacing 26 retirees with 26 new entrants since 2020. I mentioned it. These are just two of the many approaches she is working with to secure land for farmers, agroecological farming, and livelihoods. There was discussion in the room about the need to establish a land-based observatory-like initiative in Ireland.
Not only ownership but also leasing needs to be improved. Henrik Maas highlighted the common good leasing initiative proposed by the German smallholder farmer organization AbL (Arbeitsgemeinschaft bäuerliche Landwirtschaft). A decision-making guide for local authorities and private landowners on who to rent their land to, looking beyond market considerations. Standards include climate protection, nature conservation, workers' rights, and tenant farm maintenance and development.
Connecting the levels – the short food supply chain
Civil society, local communities, regional governments, national governments, or the EU alone cannot find solutions to the major challenges and crises facing our food systems. There needs to be coherence and cooperation between the multiple governance levels and sectors that intersect in the food system.
The Rural Action Assembly for Sustainable Food Systems co-organized with kollektiv von MORGEN at local level in Marburg, the Arbeitsgemeinschaft bäuerliche Landwirtschaft (AbL) at regional and national level, and ARC2020 at EU level last November. , just one example of how broader food systems enable broader food systems. It brings together different food system stakeholders across disciplines and governance levels to collaborate for future-proof food systems.
The Marburg Action Plan for a Future-Proof Food System in Europe, which resulted from this meeting, set six goals and outlined actions that political, private and civil society actors from local to European levels should take. and provides a snapshot of the transition in motion. The level of transformation in the way we produce and eat.
As Henrik Maas has emphasized, this transformation must focus on both agriculture and food. “You can't change agriculture without taking into account what consumers want, and you can't change consumption without listening to farmers.”
He also noted that farmers' protests in Europe seem to have common demands for fair incomes and better prices. According to Maas, although not much progress has been made on this at the EU or national level, AbL is working in this direction at all levels, with shortened supply chains and commodity markets as a path to stable and fair incomes. It is said that they are encouraging the withdrawal from the
It is important to connect the dots from local to national levels.
There are more than 60 food policy councils in cities and towns across Germany, and last year a network was established to better represent these food policy councils at national level.
In Ireland, despite the national agri-food strategy's focus on big industry, primary exports, or perhaps because of it, there is a significant lack of support for small-scale producers. , a grassroots movement is growing to create avenues to support local agroecological food. Production that allows small-scale farmers to earn a fair living and communities to access food that is locally and sustainably produced. There is an important opportunity here to realize a national framework for an agroecological food system transition.
To this end, Tallam Beo, the Irish branch of Via Campesina, recently launched a regional food policy framework with a simple premise: We also want farmers to earn a fair living by feeding their communities. Fergal Anderson of Tallam Beo notes that there are many parallels between these farmer-led proposals for Ireland and the efforts on the ground in Plesse and Marburg, and calls for a concerted effort. emphasized.
Tullam Beo's Thomas O'Connor, Janet Power, Fergal Anderson and Brian Meredith introduce the regional food policy framework.Photo: Louise Kelleher
In conclusion, each region has differences in culture, politics, environment, location, etc., and there is no one-size-fits-all approach. Even in neighboring villages, possibilities and paths vary depending on governance structures, population mix, political will, available resources, infrastructure, cultural identity, and shared vision for the future. . Barriers to access are even higher for people who struggle to put down roots in their communities for a variety of reasons, including intergenerational rents, seasonal migrant workers, and asylum seekers.
There is also a common cause. It is a demand for fair agricultural incomes and equal access to fair and environmentally friendly food, which is often thwarted by EU and national policy disincentives.
Local communities in rural and urban areas are leading the transformation of local and regional food systems, even when policies and politics at national and EU level are inadequate. It is not too late for the EU's integrated rural, agriculture and food framework to encompass the transition.
*The project “Regional European Action – Germany” is supported by the Robert Bosch Foundation.
Teaser photo credit: Gärtnerei PetTeaser© Robert Bosch Stiftung / Heinrich Völkel / Agentur Ostkreuz