Prof. Yves Cabannes

The central argument for this post is that we need to integrate more systematically food into urban planning and into the way we shape cities. As a matter of fact, for decades food remained a stranger to planning, but such situation is changing in recent times, especially in North America, with a prime attention given to providing more healthy and accessible food for all. Covid 18, and Cassidy Johnson in her talk clearly tells us that COVID 19, is only the most recent of a long series of zoonotic diseases transferred from animals to humans…and that unfortunately expand largely through our global food system.

Interestingly enough, a wide range of alternatives, and some of them quite radical, are popping up all along the food chain, providing concrete answers to the current food challenges: shorter food circuits that reduce the distance, and the food costs, between producers and consumers; guerrilla gardening; powerful networks of urban farmers; organic production around cities; agrotourism in Metropolitan areas; collaborative and social food enterprises; productive roof tops or reduction of food waste are among the experiences emerging in cities of different sizes and types around the world.

What is the problem then? 

Very few of these experiences expand and consolidate through time, and are able to go beyond a couple of percent of what cities need. In addition, the produces rarely end on the table of the poor and the low-income classes. Another serious problem comes from many city plans and policies, when they exist: they do not provide tools to protect existing cultivated land, eaten up by city expansion; usually do not provide land zoning for food production, animal raising or fisheries, for agro-processing, for fresh food local markets, especially in what is commonly called food deserts; or for proper space for decentralised food waste management and recycling.

This being said, integrating food into urban planning is not the panacea. However, it can contribute, and significantly, to increase food security and turn nutritious food as a right. At that stage is it worth remembering the words of Nassib Taieb, scholar and statistician, alerting about the risks brought by experts and planning experts during the uncertain times we are facing: “The problem with experts is that they have no idea about what they do not know! Planning for the unexpected requires breaking with market rationality”.

 How then [food] planning experts could help to breaking the prevailing food market rationality?

• A first answer is to explore, document and learn how some cities are doing it;
• A second one is to shift from [food] planners as experts in food plans providers to food planners as facilitators of food planning process and mediators between actors involved in the food chain, in order to help them envisioning the city they want as far as food is concerned, and to transform this vision into a food charter, usually a two pages document that defines the basic principles of a local food strategy. This food strategy will then have to be expanded into plans and policies.
• A third element is to map land potentially usable for food, at city and city region scales, in order to identify, again with different concerned actors, where and how food could be produced, transported, distributed and where and how food waste could be reduced and valued

However, a final argument for turning food into a robust component in cities is probably to reconceptualise food, at the light of different debates and contributions. This could be done around the following concepts: [a] nutritious food as a Right and not merely as a commodity; [b] food sovereignty at local level, quite different from food security that prevails today. However, this perspective remains largely rural based, conceptualized and promoted world-wide by movements such as La Via Campesina; [c] Agro-ecology that gives priority to organic food and the mimicking of nature. However, once again work needs to be done to transfer the concept to an urban environment; [d] and last but not least, considering food as a common, as conceptualised by authors such as Vivero-Pol, Ferrando, De Schutter or Mattei telling us “food commons are coming…”(2019)

These are the pillars of the teaching introduced at UCL Development Planning Unit on Food and the City. Quite a modest contribution, though, in relation to the immense need for well-trained food planners.