Faced with the crisis of confidence in a hyper-industrialized and globalized food supply, the territories have mobilized strongly. They are a scale that makes it easier to create coherence between overly segmented policies (agriculture, health, environment, education, etc.), to create synergies between actors, transparency, trust and solidarity. Today, they act as true laboratories for social innovation.
The Daniel and Nina Carasso Foundation is working to bring innovative actions to the forefront of this vast movement to enable these energies to become sustainable food systems for the future. Presentation.
Nur country of farmers and gourmets has been greatly shaken by the many contemporary food crises, from mad cow disease to food riots, whose consequences are now affecting the stability of the world. The scandal of horse meat in prepared dishes, the growing awareness of the impact of chemical inputs on the health of producers and consumers, the media coverage of climate issues and the impact of our production and consumption patterns on biodiversity and in particular the survival of pollinators on which our ecosystems depend, these social debates are all markers of the emergence of a consensus on the limits reached by our times.
Confidence in a globalized and hyper-industrialized food system is definitely eroded.
This system is now widely perceived as being as powerful as it is out of control, so much so that its orientations are emerging as a democratic issue. Faced with this crisis of confidence, the territories were quickly identified as the bearers of a solution. They have mobilized to embody and implement locally the change needed on a global scale.
France: a veritable proliferation of local food initiatives
For local authorities, food is therefore at the heart of many crucial issues: food sovereignty, public health, social justice, regional planning, waste management, employment, land and natural resource management, tourist attraction, protection of cultural heritage and biodiversity, education, etc.
Increasingly, French local authorities are seeking to regain control of their food systems. They are thus following the example of cities that are pioneers in sustainable food, often drawing inspiration from innovations that are emerging abroad. This is evidenced by the strong dynamics of Transition Towns, of the Rennes Declaration and the Milan Pacts, or the growing support they provide for short circuits or movements such as My responsible restaurant (see the Nicolas Hulot Foundation project below).
In five years, the Daniel and Nina Carasso Foundation (1) supported more than 145 projects in France (out of more than 830 received) and 36 in Spain, which are just a glimpse of the dynamics at work in these two countries.
While civil society is very active, more and more projects are being carried out by communities that wish to take up the food issue. In France, the Ministry of Agriculture counted more than 60 territorial food projects (PATs) in June 2016. The Ministry of Agriculture's 2014 Act on the Future of Agriculture has also strengthened their capacity for action on food. (2)and the hexagon is gradually being covered by an increasingly tight network of territorial initiatives, while networks of local authorities are getting organized to assert their claims. (3). This momentum of the territories is still recent, but abundant. Some are taking the time to work together, while others favour rapid political action. Pioneering local authorities have been working for nearly two decades, increasingly innovating by developing pragmatic, systemic and ambitious approaches, many of them observing and drawing inspiration from what already exists.
The levers for action are numerous and well known today, even if efforts still need to be made to facilitate their implementation: urban agriculture, collective catering, the protection of agricultural land, support for local industries, the establishment of food councils, the fight against waste, the development of new infrastructures, etc. The implementation of concerted food policies calls into question both the political structures and the relationship of citizens to the public space and to solidarity, with a shared objective: to strengthen the resilience of territories by promoting respect for the environment, the local economy, equity, health and living together.
There are, however, many obstacles to action by local authorities: certain constraints enshrined in the public procurement code, the complexity and coordination difficulties inherent in territorial stratification, or the lack of coordination in the implementation of the various public policies. French local authorities also have under-exploited room for manoeuvre in guiding the food system: Local Urban Planning Plans, Territorial Coherence Schemes and Agenda 21 are all tools that can be mobilised.
Documentary film "What are we waiting for? » of Marie-Monique Robin
Supporting and accompanying the most promising projects
The role of the Daniel & Nina Carasso Foundation is to give more resources to the most promising project leaders, to identify with them new avenues of solution, to support the dissemination of learning and good practices. To do this, it acts directly and with the 145 French partners that it supports financially, at several levels:
- Support the action of pilot communities in the experimentation and capitalisation of pioneering initiatives;
- Accelerate the development of food policy tools adapted to the diversity of cultural, legal, environmental and socio-economic contexts, to facilitate the transition of territories;
- Exploring certain levers for action, such as collective catering, in order to strengthen local agricultural, economic, environmental and nutritional policies;
- Support the experimentation and dissemination of sustainable food and agricultural practices through participatory research ;
- Rethinking the modalities of food aid to ensure its sustainability, improve access to quality food for vulnerable people and guarantee their dignity;
- Encourage the professional and social integration of isolated people in sustainable value chains (production, processing, distribution, etc.);
- Promote a multidisciplinary approach in international food systems research, and design strategic research projects that address new research fronts, etc.
A few examples of the vitality and diversity of actions at the territorial level
Mouans Sartoux (06), pioneer for more than 20 years on the issue of local food policy. In 2012, the first French town of more than 10,000 inhabitants to serve 100% organic meals in its schools.
For more than 20 years, the town of Mouans-Sartoux has been developing a policy of maintaining agricultural areas on its territory and supporting local production and consumption, particularly through tools such as Agenda 21 and the local urban planning plan (PLU). Having succeeded in supplying the school canteen with 100% organic food since 2012, the town's associations, supported by the city, wish to reinforce this dynamic by creating a Sustainable Food House. Supported by the Foundation, this place will help new farmers to set up and will include a processing laboratory. This House will also make it possible to raise consumer awareness and to carry out actions to evaluate, capitalize and disseminate the experience acquired. This success is based in particular on the creation of a municipal agricultural board.
BioValley, food, energy and ecological transition territory: three communities of communes, comprising 55,000 inhabitants, are developing a local food policy that integrates environmental, nutritional and socio-economic issues: they support local farmers who respect the environment, support fair trade channels and support processing and distribution cooperatives, improve the quality of food products in school canteens, and raise awareness among elected officials and consumers. On a regional scale, the project financed by the Foundation organises the networking of actors around optimised and shared logistics for the development of short circuits. With a strong involvement of citizens, communities in transition wish to reach 80% of organic and local products in canteens, a strong reduction of waste, and a strong awareness of healthy and sustainable food practices.
IUFN - International Urban Food network
The IUFN is a French association whose objective is to support local authorities developing local food policies. The project supported by the Foundation concerns four pilot territories (Centre-Val de Loire Regional Council, Pays Loire Nature Touraine, Bordeaux Metropolitan Area and City of Lyon). It aims to take stock of innovative practices and actors, to experiment with inclusive food governance mechanisms, and to facilitate the dissemination of lessons learned via methodological guides. This ambitious project acts at different territorial scales to analyse the complementarity of administrative levels and develop governance tools adapted to each.
Land in cities - A national network for a co-constructed and shared territorial food project
Bringing together local authorities and chambers of agriculture on an equal footing, the Terres en Villes association aims to co-construct the tools for multi-stakeholder governance of food systems by bringing together local authorities, businesses, associations and researchers. This project is experimenting, in three pilot conurbations (Lille, Grenoble and Lorient), with approaches combining agricultural, social, sustainable development and planning policies. These shared methods are developed with the participation of scientists and users.
Network News : http://terresenvilles.org/
Nicolas Hulot Foundation for Nature and Mankind (FNH): The FNH in partnership with the network Restau Co brings practical solutions to the actors of collective catering who wish to improve the sustainability of their practices. This project, called "Mon Restau Responsable", has already attracted more than 200 collective restaurants. It offers an Internet portal dedicated to the exchange of information between professionals, the pooling of best practices, the deployment of a participative certification method to support and enhance the value of establishments in transition, as well as a common reference system on the management of waste and wastage, supply, information for diners and training for professionals.
In partnership with the RESOLIS association, the Daniel & Nina Carasso Foundation has distributed an inventory of local authority practices in favour of an agricultural and food transition, which testifies to the vitality and diversity of the actions undertaken locally and the strong mobilization emerging from the territories.
Focus on Spain
The Daniel and Nina Carasso Foundation has been present in Spain since 2014 through its delegation in Madrid. It has supported 36 projects as part of its Sustainable Food axis, which supports and strengthens local food initiatives. Despite a context that is contrary to them, these initiatives are consolidating and growing throughout Spain.
In 2016, the foundation also launched a call for projects in Spain specifically dedicated to territorialized food systems. Aimed at raising awareness and supporting local elected officials and consortia of local organisations in their territorial approach to food. This call follows the signature of the Milan Pact by many Spanish cities, including Madrid, Barcelona, Zaragoza and Valencia, grouped together under the term "town councils for change", but also Cordoba, Granada, Bilbao, Pamplona and many other cities from all sides that are joining the movement. Out of 33 proposals received from 45 Spanish municipalities of all sizes and geographical areas, nine projects will be financed and supported during 2017, focusing mainly on territorial diagnostics and the establishment of food councils. In addition to the development of the projects themselves, these nine projects, located in Valencia, Zaragoza, Valladolid, Vitoria, Córdoba, Baena, the island of Menorca and Sobrarbe (rural territory with eight municipalities), will benefit from networking with similar experiences. Also included in the call for projects, the capitalisation and exchange of knowledge, as well as its dissemination beyond the initiatives themselves, will be achieved through the collaborative organisation of three seminars which will lead to the publication of an annual progress report.
Among the more than one hundred cities included in the Milan Pact platform, the city of Valencia will be the world food capital in 2017. As such, it will host the meetings of the group of projects monitored by the foundation, whose aim is to make progress in the definition of public policies (and their effective application) for healthy and accessible food for all the inhabitants of the signatory cities, as well as to promote sustainable food production in the territories covered.
(1) The Daniel and Nina Carasso Foundation (FDNC) was created in early 2010, under the aegis of the Fondation de France, in memory of Daniel Carasso, founder of Danone, and his wife, Nina. It is a family foundation independent of the food group. The purpose of the Foundation is to finance projects in two major areas contributing to the development of the human beingThe food, to sustain life and the environment.art, to enrich the spirit.
Its field of intervention is primarily France and Spain. The Foundation nevertheless reserves the right to act elsewhere, particularly in countries facing post-emergency situations, especially following environmental crises, by supporting projects related to its two main areas of action.
Through its financial support, the Foundation wishes to facilitate encounters and create bridges between worlds that do not exist side by side, in order to make possible what was not possible; to make innovative actions emerge and to capitalize on good practices in order to disseminate them as widely as possible.
(2 ) It has granted the regions the management of the EU agri-environmental incentives of EUR 1.4 billion/year. It created and provided support for Territorial Food Projects (TFPs)-60 today. These TAPs are a major component of the National Food Programme (PNA), which includes an annual call for projects co-financed by the Ministry of Agriculture, Agri-Food and Forestry and ADEME.
(3) In 2015, the Association of French Regions signed the "Rennes Declaration", a manifesto for territorialized food systems, while the Milan Pact links the world's major metropolises invested in food.
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