* Any views expressed in this opinion piece are those of the author and not of Thomson Reuters Foundation.
Food systems remain overlooked in climate conversations, and the United Nations’ COP26 climate conference in Glasgow is not set to break that pattern
Councillor Anne Rendall is the Convener of Dundee City Council’s Neighbourhood Services Department. Marta Suplicy is the Municipal Secretary for International Relations of the City of São Paulo and former Mayor of São Paulo.
Our global approach to food will determine whether we meet the Paris Agreement. Food systems account for one third of global greenhouse gas emissions, they cause up to 80% of biodiversity loss, and ultimately fail to nourish millions of people.
Yet food systems remain overlooked in climate conversations, and the UNFCCC COP26 is not set to break that pattern.
The importance of food systems in multi-layered, so it requires a joined-up approach – from changing farming practices, providing healthy and accessible diets, and reducing food wastage, – to securing safe and secure jobs in food.
Both Dundee City Council and the City of São Paulo are aware of the decisive impact food systems have on food insecurity and communities with high multiple deprivation, and both are committed to tackling these issues and strengthening our food chain at the subnational level.
In Dundee, we are striving to be a UK Sustainable Food Place. The Victoria & Albert design museum, the future development of the Eden Project, and the James Hutton Institute put Dundee in the spotlight for visitors expecting quality food and drink experiences and we plan to work locally to achieve shorter, more sustainable supply chains.
That’s why food is integrated into our City Plan, committing the council to expand community growing projects, building stronger and empowered communities, and supporting projects focusing on food poverty.
The Local Food Growing Strategy works with community organisations and residents to enable them to access ‘grow your own’ opportunities. Plans to scale a growing hub up to a four-hectare area will provide food to projects via a Food Insecurity Network and other community routes.
The hub will provide training and investigate ways in which local community growers can earn income for excess produce – a ‘Grow the Grower’ scheme. And the collection of segregated food waste from domestic and commercial properties is carried out throughout the city for Anaerobic Digestion disposal, producing biogas for fuel and digestate for compost for local farmers.
In the City of São Paulo, we too are making steps to tackle the scourge of food loss and waste. Historically, the city’s 800 weekly food markets would toss unsold food to landfill. The Sustainable Markets programme collects and reallocates food that can still be eaten, and composts what can’t, amounting to 2,264 tons of food saved from landfill in 2020.
Our other priority is to provide a link between cities and rural communities. The City’s Connect the Dots programme supports local farmers in a just transition, purchasing produce at 30% increased market value so they can produce local food that builds soil health, promotes biodiversity, helps to tackle climate change, and reduces farmers’ reliance on synthetic fertilisers and pesticides. This delivers nutritious food for citizens, supports climate change ambition, and protects forests, reservoirs, and local communities located in rural districts on the outskirts of the city from urban sprawl.
These are just some of the integrated food policies our cities have implemented to drive change at a local level. Subnational governments are closer to the local issues, from nutrition and health to economic development, to land use and resource management.
Local leadership can mean improving local production to increase food and income security at household level, as well as buffering the gap between urban-rural, which is key in a major city such as São Paulo. It can mean the preservation of food diversity and custom. And it can mean quick action to tackle crisis.
Throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, Dundee’s food insecurity network initiated a city-wide response bringing together 24 local grassroots and small community-based projects from across the city, with senior managers in Dundee City Council, providing food for 2-3,000 people each week.
To bring municipal food policies to the forefront of the climate debate, the Glasgow Food and Climate Declaration was launched, a pledge by subnational and local authorities to accelerate the development of integrated food policies, and a call on national governments to act.
Convened by IPES-Food and Nourish Scotland in collaboration with Glasgow City Council, ICLEI, C40, the Under2 Coalition and a range of other partners, the Declaration has been signed by subnational governments across five continents, including Solo, Indonesia, Pittsburgh PA, USA, Cross River State, Nigeria, and Dundee City Council and the City of São Paulo.
The Glasgow Declaration celebrates those cities, regions, and sub-national states pioneering integrated food policies. The majority of sustainable food system innovation occurs at this level, and COP26 should recognise those traditionally less-acknowledged actors as engaged and important planners of sustainable food systems.
