Tine Heyse - Urban food policy: the city of Gent
Channel: Green European Foundation
Date: 2020-03-10

Tine Heyse (Alderwoman city of Ghent) discussing urban food policy.



A systemic crisis permeates our food and agricultural sector. Food, turned into a commodity to generate profit, feeds the greed of the few rather than the stomachs of the many in a healthy way. Decades of yield maximization and export-oriented monocultures in a globalising economy have broken our food and agricultural chain. Business-as-usual has become impossible.


But the tide is changing. More and more research and policy reports and practices point to a hopeful alternative approach to food and agriculture: Agroecology, as an integrated vision, aims to reconnect soil, plants, animals and humans with the environment. It integrates the social dimension of a fair and sustainable food system. At the same time, more and more cities put this vision in practice in concrete urban food policies. It is now the time for a new EU policy, reflecting and supporting this holistic vision.


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