Economia Social i Solidària

Over 80 people gathered today for the first assembly of the City Agreement for the Barcelona Healthy and Sustainable Food Strategy for 2030, the new participation, public-private cooperation and joint action space for the city institutions and organisations that work hard to make the current food system healthier and more sustainable.

The meeting served as a call to action and cooperation among organisations in order to achieve the common goals set forth in the Strategy.

Álvaro Porro, Commissioner for Social Economy, Local Development and Food Policy, highlighted the city’s responsibility and influence in the promotion of sustainable food. In his welcome speech, he stressed that, “although municipalities have little power to take action in the food system, cities are very large consumers and creators of narratives, with the ability to heavily influence the transformation of the current food system.”

Operation of the Agreement

The aim of today’s event was to explain to the first signatory organisations – which already number more than sixty – how the Agreement will work and to learn about the first commitments made.

We should here note that all signatory organisations must eventually submit at least one commitment or statement of intent to promote healthy and sustainable food by means of specific actions.

The signatory organisations that have already completed this second level of engagement with the Agreement include, among others, Rezero, Slow Food Barcelona and the Societat Catalana de Pediatria. [Catalan Paediatrics Association]. During the session, these three organisations shared their respective commitments, which involved very powerful action-based proposals.

Barcelona City Council, for its part, has also made a variety of commitments to drive the promotion and inclusion of healthy and sustainable food criteria in its projects and lines of action. It took the opportunity provided by the meeting to present the ALIMENTA project, one of its most recent commitments.

Future workspaces for the Agreement

Groups were later formed to work on specific subject areas and start outlining the future workspaces for the Agreement, which will come into operation very soon. These new workspaces will be open to all organisations that are interested and willing to work.

Finally, the importance of education and dissemination on sustainable food matters was also highlighted in this part of the event, but so was accessibility, once again underscoring the need for a new universal model that is affordable for everyone.