COPYING NEIGHBOURS…
How to facilitate the collaboration between territories, the exchange of inspiring cases, the translation between governance cultures, the emulation and transfer between cities and resilience through cooperation in the face of such as the pandemic, the Ukraine crisis, or other unprecedented future problems?
BioCanteens is one of the 23 URBACT Transfer Networks engaged in a form of “action-research” to transfer "Good Practice" from one city to a set of partner cities across Europe. In this augmented edition completing the first publication based on the experience of BioCanteens1 with the experience of BioCanteens2 “second wave”, you will find out...

...LESSONS OF BIOCANTEENS TRANSFER NETWORKS
BioCanteens Transfer Network is about ensuring the distribution of sustainable school meals in participating cities as a key lever towards the development of an integrated local agri-food approach, protecting both citizens’ health and the environment. The project aims to transfer Mouans-Sartoux’s Good Practice based on the daily distribution of meals that are 100% organic and mostly composed of local products, the drastic reduction of food waste thereby fully compensating the higher cost of switching to organic products, and the organisation of dedicated educational activities to raise children’s awareness about sustainable food. It tells the various “Transfer stories” of the 9 BioCanteens city partners: Gavà in Spain, Liège and Pays des Condruses in Belgium, Rosignano-Marittimo in Italy, Torres Vedras in Portugal, Trikala in Greece, Troyan in Bulgaria, Vaslui in Romania and Wroclaw in Poland. You may also learn about “Transfer outcomes” after BioCanteens 1 & 2 and in particular the European online event organized in March 2021 in partnership with URBACT and the Glasgow Declaration and the Mouans-Sartoux Food Festival « À TABLE ! » organized in September 2022 to share the networks experiences, to raise European cities’ awareness on food sovereignty and to call on Europe to consider the need for a food exception in public procurement.

Read the full document HERE and start your revolution!

In one year and a half, the cities of BioCanteens#2 network have worked hard to transform the functioning of their school canteens. They have put into question their local agriculture and economy, drafting strategies on how to stimulate organic offer and demand. They have made a consistent job of sensibilization to food-related issues targeting not only kids but politicians, civil society and neighboring cities. All these actions have limited meaning and impact if taken singularly, but gain powerful sense if analysed altogether in a vision of food sovereignty. But what is the real meaning of this concept? 

Food Sovereignty is not to be confused with sovereinism, as it often occurs. In the mouth of many politicians, food sovereinism cares for the growth of the country’s GDP through the structuration of national agri-food industries and value chains. Closing agricultural economy to export and trade becomes the solution to protect national excelleces and economies.

This capitalistic vision of food and agriculture is often miscalled food sovereignty and disguised with messages of environmental and biodiversity preservation, creating confusion.

Food sovereignty deeply cares for the territory at a smaller scale and aspires at decoupling food – essencial need for human beings – from market dynamics. Food sovereignty is about human beings having direct, democratic control over the most important elements of their society – how we feed and nourish ourselves, how we use and maintain the land, water and other resources around us for the benefit of current and future generations, and how we interact with other groups, peoples and cultures. (La via Campesina, 2018). The organisation La Via Campesina introduced this concept in 1996, based on 6 pillars: 

1. A food system that focuses on food for people : rejects the proposition that food is just another commodity or component for international agri-business.

2. A food system values food providers and aims at creating fair market conditions

3. Localises food systems: brings food providers and consumers closer together. Importance of the territories. 

4. Decisionmaking and control at the local level: recognizes that local territories often cross geopolitical borders and ensures the right of local communities to inhabit and use their territories; it promotes positive interaction between food providers in different regions and territories and from different sectors. No national protectionism

5. A food system that builds knowledge and skills that are respectful for the future generations' needs

6. A food system that works with nature, values agroecological practices and takes into account the perspective of Climate Change

Inspired by the theories of François Collart Dutilleul (Nourrir, 2021), we like to add another pillar : Democracy –promoting equal rights for the individuals, for future generations and people, as well as transparency of information

We put all these information on the table during the Biocanteens#2 project because only a strong Food Sovereignty vision will be the engine for future actions.

European local authorities are today the drivers of the transition towards sustainable local food systems. In a context of strong concerns about Europe's food security, the key role of cities in the food transition deserves to be further supported by the EU, notably in the next framework law for a sustainable food system to be proposed by the European Commission in 2023. 

Mouans-Sartoux and the BioCanteens#2 partner cities are just some of many local authorities in Europe committed to food sovereignty and democracy. Ensuring fairer access to quality food for all, building resilient agroecological food systems, recreating urban food belts and developing more participatory food governance are not mere objectives but realities that are taking shape on the ground. 

On September 26, 2022, the city of Mouans-Sartoux invited British activist Rob Hopkins to open the Mouans-Sartoux Food Festival, A Table! With his conference entitled "The urgency of transition" he was able to launch the debate of the next two days on the construction of a European food democracy and sovereignty.

Building on the work that Mouans-Sartoux has been carrying out on multiple axes since 2015, A Table! brought together more than 150 actors from 10 countries, including 50 local authorities, and more than 20 NGOs and official structures involved in the food transition, for the closing of the URBACT BioCanteens Network #2. The participation of a Member of the European Parliament and the European Commission allowed for a multi-level dialogue aimed at bridging the needs of local communities with the food policy strategies defined by Europe in order to co-create food sovereignty.

Because cities are living labs of virtuous experiences to share and must make their needs known at the European level, the city of Mouans-Sartoux wanted to organise this event, where, in addition to the presentation of the Biocanteen#2 project and the visits to present the Mouans food project, numerous debates, exchanges and workshops were organised around the following three key themes 

• How to build a European food sovereignty that protects people's health and the planet?

• 100% organic school canteens throughout the EU: it is possible!

• For a food exception in the European public procurement code

Finally, the enthusiastic return after the 100% organic lunch at L'Orée du Bois school and the visit to the Municipal Farm, demonstrated once again the innovation of the Mouans-Sartoux project. The actions carried out by the town for more than 20 years are perfectly in line with the political priorities that are now emerging on the European agenda, and demonstrate that it can be a model not only for other towns of all sizes and countries but also for political organisations. 

Check out the tribune of Gilles Perole published on the Parliament Magazine on this matter here! 

Mouans-Sartoux is a territory where land pressure is very high and where agriculture has decreased significantly since the 1960s. In 2008 the city decided to aim for 100% local organic produce for our canteens. To supply the town's canteens, the public contracts have been modified to obtain organic vegetables from local producers with a view to sustainable development. There has been no response. Faced with this difficulty, the Municipality of Mouans-Sartoux decided to take up the challenge of producing vegetables grown in-house with farmers employed by the city. This decision, taken at the end of 2008, required a two-year feasibility study and an experiment in 2010 before starting in March 2011 with one local farmer. This municipal farm is located on the Haute Combe estate, which covers 6 hectares and is owned by the municipality. In a few years the project has found its cruising speed and with 3 municipal farmers and now the town produces 26 tons of vegetables each year, meeting 96% of the needs of the 1300 meals served each day (a total of 160,000 each year).

In the summer, part of the production is frozen in one of the town's kitchens so that vegetables are available at the end of the winter when production is lowest. The children in the canteen therefore eat these good local and seasonal organic vegetables. Here, the Maison d'Education à l'Alimentation Durable (sustainable food education centre) has been set up, allowing children to take part in sustainable food classes to learn more about the vegetables they eat every day.

This project, invented by Mouans-Sartoux, is so successful that many municipalities have come to visit it to replicate it on their territory. In Mouans-Sartoux, the municipal farm is an essential asset for supplying canteens with organic vegetables and fruit in the context of a highly urbanised area lacking in local agricultural production. The creation of this farm is part of a broader vision of food sovereignty, where the city is taking back control of the existing production on the territory and the will to increase the surface of agricultural land.

Mouans-Sartoux was the first French town to create a municipal farm. In France now , around twenty municipal farms exist and thirty or so are emerging. The project is also of interest to European cities from the BioCanteens networks: One example among others, the city of Troyan, a BioCanteens partner, was able to establish its own municipal farm in two and a half years. Now it produces organic fruit, vegetables and honey on over 15 hectars for its school canteens. Thanks to this practice, the city has been distinguished this year by the EU Organic Awards of the EU Commission.

Every local authority can rethink its local agriculture, by opening up to the idea of using public spaces as agricultural production units. Beyond organic production, each city can enrich the concept of the municipal farm with different interpretations:

- a demonstrator of local organic farming to engage the local agricultural sector and encourage organic conversion

- an educational farm to welcome school children and families, but also to raise awareness of local politicians and decision-makers on agricultural issues

- a social asset to engage socio-dependent people and provide employment

- a cooperative to bring together small local farms and provide food processing facilities.

Setting up a Municipal Farm has been an hot toping during the BioCanteens#2 Network. At the very beginning of the project, while visiting the Good Practice of Mouans-Sartoux, no one ever believed it could be replicated in their own city. But now, few months later some of them changed their mind. In Wroclaw, the city is seriously considering creating an agricultural hub in the outskirts of the city. 

Liège inaugurated a Municipal Transformation hub, where all the products coming from the surroundings can be transformed and distributed to the city markets and the schools.

This experience shows that setting up a municipal farm is not a dream, nor something specific from Mouans-Sartoux. Is a reality that can be achieved in a multiplicity of contexts. Each local authority can reinterpret this model in the most appropriate way, in line with their food sovereignty ambitions.