CityFood in 2024: What’s cooking?

This piece was written by the ICLEI CityFood team. 2023 marked another big step to further consolidate food as a game changer, its interdependence with biodiversity, climate and health, and the need to address these systemically to achieve progress. With ten years on the ground, ICLEI’s CityFood is one of the oldest urban food programmes 

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At last, COP27 spotlights food systems

COP27 has made it clear: this year, countries should be standing “Together For Implementation”. To this end, global leaders have come together in Sharm El Sheikh (Egypt) over the past two weeks to discuss the climate actions necessary to collectively meet Paris Agreement targets. And, for the first time at a UN Climate Change Conference, 

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Strengthening urban food systems in times of crisis

An update interview with ICLEI Global CityFood Program Coordinator Peter Defranceschi Written by Selina Emmanuel and Jiwon Lee of the ICLEI World Secretariat Global Projects Team Since our last interview on the global food crisis and the role of cities, the global food landscape has changed further. The war in Ukraine has amplified many of 

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Sustainable food systems to have strong presence at COP27 in Egypt

The 2021 UN Food Systems Summit stood as a stepping stone for putting food systems at the center of the international policy agenda. Since then, food systems have never had such a prominent role in intergovernmental processes, as it is now widely acknowledged they are tightly intertwined with many global issues – from social inequalities 

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Making school meals healthy for our children and planet

Shifting school meals and schools into a new paradigm to address public health and territorial, social, and environmental resilience: This is the aim of the SchoolFood4Change project. This article was written by Amalia Ochoa, Sustainable Food Systems Coordinator, and Monika Rut, Sustainable Food Systems Officer, at ICLEI Europe. Schools have the potential of being the 

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Urban farming – a growing trend in Malmö

Urban farmers are becoming more numerous in Malmö and they deliver fresh food with minimal climate impact to both restaurants and households. The City of Malmö, Sweden, encourages urban farming and gardening as a way to create social interaction, improve health, increase biodiversity and reduce the climate footprint. In Malmö there are different ways to 

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Mussels Farming: The path to cleaner water in Öresund

In Öresund, beneath the surface of the sea, hides northern Europe’s largest mussel bed. This 75 square kilometer area is covered with millions of mussels. However, the most impressive part isn’t the size of the bed, it’s the fact that the mussels act as natural filtering organisms, keeping the Öresund sea clean. Mussels provide us 

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Sustainability officers respond to the ongoing COVID-19 crisis with renewed determination

This piece originally appeared in Cities Today. In Turku, Finland, sustainability meetings and events have gone virtual, reaching much larger audiences. The City of uMhlathuze, South Africa, has developed a programme to promote more home-based businesses. Oakland in the United States has established a new food systems ordinance to encourage more urban gardens. Far from 

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Tackling climate change and COVID-19 at the local level in Africa

The COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically affected the work of national, regional, and local governments. Many countries around the world have imposed lockdowns and physical distancing measures while preparing massive economic relief packages. In several places in Africa, however, hand washing alone has been a critical challenge. Shortages of water, soap, nutritious food, and hospital equipment 

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Tackling sustainability, food, and social inequalities: A roadmap from industrial legacy cities

For cities with an industrial past that have undergone major transitions away from heavy industry as their economies have shifted, food insecurity has become a dire problem. Prolonged periods of disinvestment common to former blue-collar neighborhoods often means that food insecurity is more prevalent in these areas. But through their urban transitions, these cities are 

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