Urban Food Security and Landscape Change: A Demand-side Approach

This paper looks at cities as socio-technical systems consisting of patterns of interaction between actors, rules and artefacts. The issue of urban food security emerges as a key policy goal. This goal can be achieved through the coordination of a series of policies including territorial planning, commerce regulation, public procurement, health prevention and waste management. This paper discusses an example of how new narratives linking consumption to the environment-namely 'quality turn' and 'sufficiency' narratives-can help achieve more sustainable landscapes when implemented into food policies. Through the proposed approach, education, information and communication are seen as keys to change. The new approach may have important effects on landscape, and on the relationship between cities and the adjoining countryside.