Urban Food Policy Section
The Urban Food Policy Section, part of Barcelona City Council’s Directorate of Commerce, Restaurant Trade and Food Services, spearheads initiatives to promote a healthier, more sustainable and more inclusive food system in the city.
With its cross-cutting, collaborative perspective, it coordinates initiatives with other public administrations, social organisations, economic stakeholders, community networks and institutions to contribute locally to transforming the food model.
This commitment takes shape in multiple projects around Barcelona: educational projects, support for local production and distribution, initiatives that connect citizens with the region and the food culture and initiatives to facilitate access to a proper diet, among others.
The role of cities
Cities play a key role in the future of the food model. More than half the world’s population lives in urban environments, and this is where the majority of food produced around the world is consumed. This makes cities both part of the problem yet a crucial part of the solution.
From the most local scale – the neighbourhood, school, trusted market – to the metropolitan scale, cities can design spaces and policies that foster fairer, healthier food that is more respectful of the planet. They can also spearhead alliances among public, private and community stakeholders, and highlight the effort it takes to produce, transform and distribute food.
But most importantly, cities have the ability to inspire cultural changes. They can generate new stories, practices and referents and open the door to another way of eating and living.
If you’d like to learn more about everything a city can do to transform the food system, we’ve made it easy for you: