State and international networks
Barcelona has high food consumption, most of it from outside the city, which often conceals the ecological and social impacts of its supply chains.
The urban environment has few connections with the metropolitan productive spaces, where 80% of farmland has been lost since 1956. Even though Barcelona was designated a Barcelona World Capital of Sustainable Food in 2021 (an opportunity to reverse this situation and highlight the relationship between the urban and rural worlds, as well as to protect agricultural spaces), strengthening food policies remains a priority.
This commitment seeks resilience, prosperity and social cohesion, and is a core part of the Metropolitan Commitment 2030. Being a World Capital also revealed inequalities in access to sustainable food and the need to work at a metropolitan scale, including food and tourism.
The institutions working to promote sustainable food include the Barcelona Metropolitan Strategic Plan (PEMB), a private, non-profit association – backed by Barcelona City Council and the Barcelona Metropolitan Area – that identifies the region’s medium-term needs and potential, predicts trends and threats, and proposes solutions to take on the future as effectively as possible.
The PEMB is currently running the “Barcelona Tomorrow. Metropolitan Commitment 2030” initiative, which aims to draw up a strategy for the Barcelona metropolitan region of the future. The aims of the Metropolitan Commitment 2030 include providing a joint response to shape our food model based on the Food Charter of the Barcelona Metropolitan Region.
As part of the Metropolitan Commitment 2030, the PEMB has established five principles to be used as a guide and to bring consistency to the projects and activities planned within the strategy:
- A metropolis of five million. Just like in 2000, when strategic planning zoomed out from the city of Barcelona to focus on what today is the AMB, in this new strategy, the whole metropolitan region is taken into account. This is the real city, the metropolis of five million people: the Barcelona Metropolitan Region (RMB).
- Reduced inequalities. The central goal is to reduce inequalities and urban segregation, in the context of a climate emergency and a post-pandemic world.
- Quintuple helix. The strategy is being created through a process of collective reflection and action. The participants in this process include: the public administration, academia/research, the private sector, the city’s residents and the media.
- Proactiveness and positivity. The goals set will be ambitious and transformative, but still clear and measurable. They will take the form of missions to be completed by 2030.
- Collaborative, inclusive work. The organisations involved in the process and the general public will be the main players. The goal? To understand, cater to and adopt different perspectives on metropolitan development, by collecting a diverse range of views, knowledge and interests.
Within this strategic metropolitan framework, the Food Charter of the Metropolitan Region of Barcelona (CARM) was born, the result of a process of collaboration and co-creation in which more than a hundred entities and individuals participated during the years 2017-2019.
The charter is an instrument of strategic coordination for the development of food policies in the metropolitan region. It supports and reinforces the processes taking place at local level for the transition towards a model of greater food sovereignty, which strengthens the resilience of a fairer, safer, more sustainable and healthier food system, based on social, ecological and proximity criteria.
Adherence to the Food Charter of the Barcelona Metropolitan Region implies the linking of the signatory institutions and organisations with the Milà Pact for Urban Food Policies and the willingness to collaborate in the proper development of the activities associated with the Barcelona, World Capital of Sustainable Food 2021 project.
Within this strategic metropolitan framework, the Food Charter of the Metropolitan Region of Barcelona (CARM) was born, the result of a process of collaboration and co-creation in which more than a hundred entities and individuals participated during the years 2017-2019.
The charter is an instrument of strategic coordination for the development of food policies in the metropolitan region. It supports and reinforces the processes taking place at local level for the transition towards a model of greater food sovereignty, which strengthens the resilience of a fairer, safer, more sustainable and healthier food system, based on social, ecological and proximity criteria.
Adherence to the Food Charter of the Barcelona Metropolitan Region implies the linking of the signatory institutions and organisations with the Milà Pact for Urban Food Policies and the willingness to collaborate in the proper development of the activities associated with the Barcelona, World Capital of Sustainable Food 2021 project.
Milan Urban Food Policy Pact
In a globalised world threatened by the climate and environmental emergency, inequalities and pandemics, current food systems face the challenge of providing safe, local, organic, diverse, fair, healthy, nutritious food for everyone. Cities are the main participants in this challenge, as areas that are home to half of the planet’s population but do not produce the food they eat.
C40 - Food Systems Group
Barcelona is a member of C40, a global network of major world cities committed to taking the necessary urgent steps to address the climate emergency. The C40 member cities represent 700 million people and one-quarter of the world’s economy. The mayors of the C40 member cities are determined to collaborate and innovate to comply with the Paris Agreement signed by countries in 2015 with the aims of limiting global warming and building healthy, sustainable, fair and more resilient communities.
The C40 works by area, and Barcelona is actively involved in the food systems taskforce, whose members provide ideas and resources to drive climate solutions based on the transformation of the food system. Examples include residents eating more plant-based options and/or reducing food waste. In 2019, the C40 drew up the C40 Good Food Cities Declaration, which has been signed by 14 cities, including Barcelona. In 2021, the C40 also promoted the Barcelona Challenge for Good Food and Climate, a call to national and international municipalities and their people to make a number of commitments aimed at transforming their food systems to make them fairer, healthier and more resilient in the face of the climate crisis.
Eurocities - Food Systems Group
Barcelona is also a member of Eurocities, a network of over 200 cities in 38 countries representing 130 million people that works to ensure that everyone can have a good quality of life. As part of this network, we work with the Food Systems Group, where cities from all over Europe share their knowledge and experience regarding how to promote sustainable food systems from cities, providing healthy, sustainable food that is affordable to everyone, protecting biodiversity and fighting food waste.
Network of Municipalities for Agroecology
Barcelona partners with the Network of Municipalities for Agroecology, an alliance of local organisations around Spain that promote agroecology-based food policies.
It is a collaborative space in which the member municipalities share knowledge and experiences, agree to action plans, and define operating models to work together towards more sustainable, fairer and more local food systems.
Among other projects, and with support from Barcelona City Council, the Network has promoted the Barcelona Challenge for Good Food and Climate, a call to both national and international municipalities and their people to make a number of commitments aimed at transforming their food systems to make them fairer, healthier and more resilient in the face of the climate crisis.
