Kevin Morgan School of City and Regional Planning Cardiff University

1. Feeding the City: the urban food movement Feeding Bristol in the Future Conference,The Council House, Bristol10 March 2010 Kevin Morgan School of City and Regional Planning Cardiff University

2. The forgotten planning domain • Among basic essentials for life – air, water, shelter, food – the latter has been absent from the planning agenda (APA) • The food system has been “a stranger to the planning field” (Pothukuchi and Kaufman, 2000) • Possible reasons: • Food is a rural not an urban issue – but what about urban agriculture? • Food is invisible because it’s plentiful – but what about nutritious food and under-served areas? • Food is just “too big to see” – Caroline Steel in Hungry City

3. Food becomes visible • Food has moved up the political agenda for many reasons: • looming crises of climate change • food chain accounts for 31% of GHG emissions in the EU • burgeoning problems of obesity/hunger • food system makes huge demands on land, water, energy and transport • food price hikes in 2008 triggered urban riots • food security is now deemed a national security issue • G20 convenes its first ever meeting on agriculture

4. Food 2030 • Food 2030, the new UK strategy, is a curate’s egg • Good bits • First government-wide food strategy since 1945 • Put security and sustainability on the political agenda • Bad bits • Too much emphasis on voluntarism • Too much emphasis on consumers • Did little to address the powerful actors in the food chain • FSA now backtracking on traffic light food labelling

5. The uniqueness of food • Food is unlike any other sector – we ingest it • The multifunctional character of food means it connects with many activities that are central to urban planning • Human health & wellbeing • Environmental integrity • Transport • Energy • Water • Land use • Urban regeneration/local economic development • Cultural identity/place marketing

6. The rise of urban food planning • Urban food planning comes of age • London/Amsterdam • New York/San Francisco/Toronto • Kampala/ Dar es Salaam • Who are the food planners? • All professionals and campaigners who strive to create a sustainable food system • Biggest problem – too localised/fragmented to be scaled up and replicated because of “projectitis”

7. Unpicking the urban foodscape • The urban foodscape has many facets: • Public plates • where low cost masquerades as best value • Food service • where transparency is absent • Supermarkets • where localisation should be a planning requirement • Public spaces • for farmers’ markets and healthy food zones around schools

8. Green cities/connected cities • Urban food planning is about making connections at three fundamental levels • Connected city governance – the internal conversation • from departmental silos to wellbeing networks • Connected city governance – the external conversation • tapping the creativity of civil society/food policy councils • Connected city-regions • reconnecting the city with its rural hinterland on economic, ecological and cultural grounds • cities creating markets for their regions • regions feeding their cities

9. Further information • The Urban Foodscape: World Cities and the New Food Equation (K. Morgan and R. Sonnino, Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy andSociety, 2010) • Local and Green, Global and Fair: The Ethical Foodscape and the Politics of Care (K. Morgan, Environment & Planning A, 2010) • Feeding the City: The Challenge of Urban Food Planning (K. Morgan, International Planning Studies, 2010) • The School Food Revolution: Public Food and the Challenge ofSustainable Development, K. Morgan and R. Sonnino, Earthscan, 2008)