New Global Roles of Rural-Urban Networks?

While food security has been embedded in still more centralised global food supply agents and markets, the need for new models have been suggested from both scholars and policy makers. Realising that many so-called modern societies relay heavily on just-in-time systems a number of recent disruptions have challenged these models.

A growing community of cities and municipalities have started realising that they are major procurer of food for the institutional meals produced and served in their institutions and to their citizens. Through the support of the EU and other bodies (FOOD2030, Farm2Fork programs and the like) it has been possible to develop networks for sharing experiences on both policy level and practice level on the role of this instrument. These new food system oriented urban communities are seeking models for transformative and distributed food systems through living labs and other knowledge sharing partnerships.

This paper will discuss recent findings based on theories of change that have been exercised in some of these new partnerships. On this basis a critical assessment of the extend to which these partnerships and communities will be able to offer new transformative governance models that support a sustainable transition of the agrifood systems.