Benchmarking urban food strategies in Europe 4.12.2024

The upon-invitation workshop, sponsored by University Consortium of Seinäjoki and University of Turku in Finland, and organized in collaboration between University of Helsinki, University of Turku and the West Finland European Office, aims to discuss and brainstorm about best practices in urban food strategies at EU level.

The workshop is articulated in 2 sessions. The first one - EU perspective on urban food strategies - aims to provide the policy framework regarding actions and initiatives currently running in Europe to promote effective food strategies at municipal level. A specific focus, at the end of the session, will be on Seinäjoki food strategy which will represent a development and implementation model for the municipal and regional food ecosystem.

 The second session - Food strategies at city level in EU - aims at portraying different strategies currently in the running and/or implementation phase in some European cities and at comparing them.

The workshop will close with a brainstorming session that will lay the basis for the development for a position paper on Best practices for urban food strategies at EU level. Due to the cross-sectoral nature of food policies, a diversity of elements will be discussed such as government and political support, national and regional regulations, stakeholder and community engagement, public awareness, culture.

Additional aim of the workshop will be to start the creation of a network of European cities and experts willing and interested in collaborating and giving place to new initiatives or projects.

The event will gather practitioners, policy makers and EU and global networks working to support a transformation of the European food system through knowledge exchange and concrete actions.