The Barcelona City Council publishes Everyone to the table! Portraits of the sustainable food ecosystem of a Barcelona in transformation, with texts written by Jordi Bes Lozano and photographs taken by Lucía Herrero. The book presents a diverse range of roughly thirty different initiatives and proposals, which are submitted by individuals and companies and transmit the transformative spirit of the protagonists. These different initiatives show us ways of making our food system healthier and more sustainable, which will also help us to fight against the climate emergency.
The publication, which is edited by Álvaro Porro, Amaranta Herrero and Montse Peiron, is available in Catalan and English. The online version can also be downloaded for free.
Barcelona is one of the main European hubs of food consumption and marketing. The Catalan capital is this year’s World Capital of Sustainable Food, and this title is conceived to trigger a transition that will strengthen local economies and improve the health of people and the planet as a whole: elements whose weaknesses have been further highlighted by the Covid-19 pandemic.
One area that Barcelona is working on, as a signatory city of the Milan Urban Food Policy Pact, is to promote and support citizens who are already making steps towards this transformation while simultaneously encouraging the rest of the population to work together in this transition to enable a sustainable food system.
The book Tothom a taula! [Everyone to the table!] is divided into nine chapters:
1. Guarantee the universal right to healthy and sustainable food
2. Facilitate access to sustainable food
3. Adopt healthy diets
4. Eat less meat but of a higher quality; better for us and for the planet
5. Promote fair relations in the food chain
6. Cultivate diversity in the fields, on the table and in the neighbourhoods
7. Reduce food waste and packaging
8. Create sustainable and empowering food environments
9. Transform the food system with and for all
Each chapter tells the stories of the protagonists of civil society initiatives and small and medium-sized enterprises, educational experiences or studies from the world of science.
These initiatives range from community gardens and schools that teach children about healthy diets to international soup festivals, self-managed community kitchens that support the universal right to food and organisations that denounce the unhealthy, unfair and unsustainable practices employed by the powers that control the food system.
Some chapters also contain testimonies from experts who share their first-hand experiences with the reader.
Presentation of the book
The book will be presented at 5.30 PM on Friday 29 October as part of the ‘Terra i gust: Sustainable and Ethical Gastronomy Fair’ (on the Rambla de Barcelona, in front of Arts Santa Mònica).