Tag Archives: Food

Sustainable Food Planning Conference

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De KemphaanIn her recent blog, Petra already reflected on the Sustainable Food Planning Conference that was held in Almere (at De Kemphaan) on 9 and 10 October. My personal impression is that it was a very successful kick-off of the AESOP thematic group on sustainable food planning. In addition to lots of interesting presentations, there were interesting discussions and the strong will and desire among the participants to continue collaboration. One of the ways to continue collaboration is by means of an annual conference. Another is to create an electronic platform to facilitate exchange of experiences, examples, articles, reports, etc… Soon we will launch such a platform by means of a weblog similar to this one. For the time being, this post provides the links to the dowloads of the presentations and the discussion.

De Kemphaan, 9 and 10 October 2009, Almere, The Netherlands
The program
The participants
Presentation 1 Mr. Henk Mulder Including food and agriculture in urban planning: The Almere approach
Presentation 2 Prof. Han Wiskerke An integrated and territorial perspective on food studies, policy and planning
Presentation 3 Mr. Henk de Zeeuw Feeding the city: Practices, challenges and lessons from developing countries
Presentation 4 Prof. Gianluca Brunori Reconnecting consumers and producers: Dynamics, diversity and potentials of alternative food networks
Presentation 5 Dr Roberta Sonnino Urban food and public spaces: Planning for security and sustainability
Presentation 6 Dr Marin Caraher Food and the city: The links between food, public health and sustainable urban development
Presentation 7 Mrs. Lenie Dwarshuis Food and agriculture in Europe’s peri-urban regions
Presentation 8 Dr. Nevin Cohen The practice of food planning in New York City
Presentation 9 Mr. Bart Pijnenburg, MSc Amsterdam’s food strategy (“Proeftuin Amsterdam”)
Presentation 10 Prof. Jerry Kaufman Including food in planning studies and planning practices: Experiences from the USA
Report of the discussion

Food and urban planning

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MorgenTomorrowLast week the municipality of Amsterdam, together with the Netherlands Institute for Planning & Housing and the Ministry of  Housing, Spatial Planning & the Environment, organized and hosted the International Urban Planning Conference entitled MorgenTomorrow. The two-day conference was a combination of plenary sessions in the morning and parallel workshops in the afternoon. I had the honour and pleasure of convening a workshop entitled ‘Food and the City’. Although the food system is, as Pothukuchi and Kaufman (2000) rightfully state in their article in the Journal of the American Planning Association, a stranger to the field of urban planning it was good to see that the conference organizers had put food very prominently on the conference agenda. Not only by means of the workshop I convened but also by means of keynote lectures in the plenary sessions by LaDonna Redmond and Tim Lang. Both are extremely critical about the prevailing food system.

LaDonna is a community activist as well as founder and CEO the Institute for Community Resource Development (ICRD) in Chicago (Illinois). The ICRD’s mission is to rebuild the local food system by building grocery stores that bring access to sustainable products to urban communities of color, organizing farmers markets, converting vacant lots to urban farm sites and distributing local grown produce to restaurants. I was unable to attend LaDonna Redmond’s keynote, but she participated in my workshop and reflected on the different presentations.

Tim is Professor of Food Policy at the Centre for Food Policy of City University London. He has authored and co-authored many articles and books about food policy, especially focussing on the relation between food, health, social justice and the environment. His current work is about ‘omni-standards for sustainable diets’. I attended his keynote lecture and what I very much appreciated about his vision is that, despite the food system being a major contributor to climate change, devising sustainable food systems is not simply a matter of creating ‘climate neutral’ food systems. It will only be truely sustainable if it is able to meet a whole range of sustainability standards (a set of omni-standards as he calls them) in which social and health aspects are as important as economic and environmental ones. What struck me most in his presentation, and which will undoubtedly become the new issue in food debates, is the water footprint of the conventional food system.

Around 65% of all fresh water is used for food production and with growing water scarcity and an increase in water-stressed countries, water use is likely to become the main threat for food production. The table below, of which Tim displayed a part in his presentation, is rather shocking. It shows how much water is needed to produce one portion of a whole range of mainly food products and drinks. It surely makes one (at least is does make me) aware of the urgent need for change.

Portion Litres Portion Litres Portion Litres
Pint of beer, 568ml 170 Cup of coffee, 125ml 140 Glass of orange juice, 200ml 170
Glass of milk, 200ml 200 Cup of instant coffee, 125ml 80 Glass of apple juice, 200ml 190
Cup of tea, 250ml 35 Glass of wine, 125ml 120 Orange, 100g 50
Slice of bread, 30g 135 Bread with cheese, 30g + 10g 90 Bag of potato crisps, 200g 185
Egg, 40g 135 Tomato, 70g 13 Hamburger, 150g 2400
Potato, 100g 25 Apple, 100g 70 Bovine leather shoes 8000
Sheet of A4, 80 g/m² 10 Cotton tee-shirt, medium 500g 4100 Microchip, 2g 32
Source: http://www.igd.com/index.asp?id=1&fid=1&sid=5&tid=48&cid=326

Eten van dichtbij

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Werkplaats 10 - Eten van dichtbij

Werkplaats 10 - Eten van dichtbij

Vorige week verscheen een nieuwe uitgave van het blad “Werkplaats voor de Leefomgeving” van de Koninklijke Nederlandse HeideMaatschappij (KNHM). Deze 10e uitgave van dit blad heeft als thema “Eten van dichtbij” en gaat onder meer over stadsboeren, pergolabedrijven, stad-plattelandrelaties en publieke sector catering. Verder bevat het tal van korte beschrijvingen van en web-links naar initiatieven over regionale voedselvoorziening uit zowel Nederland als andere landen. De diversiteit aan activiteiten en benaderingen is zonder meer indrukwekkend. Voor een ieder die geïnteresseerd is in verschillende vormen en aspecten van regionale voedselvoorziening en/of stad-platteland relaties biedt dit themanummer een informatief en toegankelijk overzicht.

Know your farmer, know your food

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Recently I joined a Dutch internet Sustainable Food group. Today the convenor of this group informed the members about a new initiative of the USDA (United States Department of Agriculture): “Know your farmer, know your food”. The aim of this USDA initiative is to help more Americans understand where their food comes from and how they can support local food economies in their communities. The initiative was announced by USDA secretary Tom Vilsack in a YouTube video:

“An American people that is more engaged with their food supply will create new income opportunities for American agriculture. Reconnecting consumers and institutions with local producers will stimulate economies in rural communities, improve access to healthy, nutritious food for our families, and decrease the amount of resources to transport our food.”

While the White House kitchen garden and Obama’s idea to have a weekly farmers’ market at the White House (see my blog posted on 4 September) could have been perceived as ‘window dressing’, this USDA initiative surely gives the impression that the Obama administration is seriously attempting to fundamentally change US agrofood and rural development policy. Will, in this case, Obama’s campaign slogan – “Yes, we can” – become true?

Sustainable food planning conference – reminder & update

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As mentioned in my blog of 28 August 2009 the Association of European Schools of Planning (AESOP), the International Studygroup on Multiple Use of Land (ISOMUL) and the Rural Sociology Group are hosting the first European Sustainable Food Planning conference. The conference will take place at De Kemphaan in the city of Almere in the Netherlands on 9 and 10 October 2009. It is still possible to register for this conference. If you are interested to participate in this conference, please apply by e-mail to corine.diepeveen@wur.nl. Costs for participation are € 100,- (incl. drinks, lunches and diner).

City estate De Kemphaan

Since the first announcement a couple of weeks ago, the conference programme has changed slightly. Below you can find the most recent version of the programme:

Day 1 – Generating ideas, exchanging experiences and comparing perspectives
09.00 – 09.30

Welcome and coffee/tea
09.30 – 09.45 Food and planning: an introduction to the conference Prof. Kevin Morgan (Professor of Governance & Development, Cardiff University, UK)
09.45 – 10.00 Including food and agriculture in urban planning: the Almere approach Mr. Henk Mulder (director urban planning Almere)
10.00 – 11.00

Session 1: Setting the scene
10.00 – 10.30 An integrated and territorial perspective on food studies, policy and planning Prof. Han Wiskerke (Chair of Rural Sociology – Wageningen University, Netherlands)
10.30 – 11.00 Feeding the city: practices, challenges and lessons from developing countries Mr. Henk de Zeeuw (director of the RUAF Foundation)
11.00 – 11.30

Coffee/tea break
11.30 – 13.00

Session 2: Theoretical perspectives and academic issues

11.30 – 12.00 Reconnecting consumers and producers:  dynamics, diversity and potentials of alternative food networks Prof. Gianluca Brunori (Professor of Agriculture Economics – Pisa University, Italy)
12.00 – 12.30 Urban food and public spaces: planning for security and sustainability Dr. Roberta Sonnino (Lecturer in Environmental Planning – Cardiff University, UK)
12.30 – 13.00 Food and the city: the links between food, public health and sustainable urban development Dr. Martin Caraher (Reader in Food & Health Policies – City University London, UK)
13.00 – 14.00

Lunch break
14.00 – 15.30

Session 3: Food planning practices and policies
14.00 – 14.30 Food and agriculture in Europe’s peri-urban regions Mrs. Dwarshuis (President of Peri-Urban Regions Platform Europe – PURPLE)  
14.30 – 14.50 The practice of food planning in New York city Dr. Nevin Cohen (Associate Professor in Urban Studies – New School for Liberal Arts, New York)
14.50 – 15.10 The practice of food planning in New York state Mr. Bob Lewis (senior planner New York State)
15.10 – 15.30 Amsterdam’s food strategy (“Proeftuin Amsterdam”) Mr. Bart Pijnenburg MSc (Programme manager Proeftuin Amsterdam)
15.30 – 16.00

Coffee/tea break
16.00 – 18.00 Excursion to City Farm Almere Tineke van den Berg (urban farmer)
19.30 – 22.30

Diner (Restaurant De Kemphaan – Almere)

Day 2 – Towards an agenda for sustainable food planning
09.00 – 09.30

Welcome and coffee/tea
09.30 – 10.00 Including food in planning studies and planning practices: experiences from the USA Prof. Jerry Kaufman (Professor Emeritus of Urban and Regional Planning – University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA)
10.00 – 10.45 Issues, topics, themes for a sustainable food planning agenda (plenary inventory) Moderated by Prof. Arnold van der Valk (Chair of Land Use Planning – Wageningen University, NL)
10.45 – 11.15

Coffee/tea break
11.15 – 12.45 Developing the building blocks for a sustainable food planning agenda (parallel working sessions)
12.45 – 14.00

Lunch break
14.00 – 14.45 Plenary presentation of and discussion about results of parallel working sessions Moderated by Prof. Terry Marsden (Professor of Environmental Planning – Cardiff University, UK)
14.45 – 15.00 Sustainable food planning in Europe: concluding reflection and look ahead Prof. Kevin Morgan (Professor of Governance & Development, Cardiff University, UK)
15.00

Coffee & tea / end of conference