Urban Food Systems (UFS) are sprouting over cities around the Globe, particularly in developed countries, where citizens have boosted the re-integration of food production into cities, which have been outlined as essential elements towards addressing global concerns. UFS increase urban food security while coping climate change. UFS are social and technological innovative ways of further developing local food production. While socially-oriented UFS address social gaps (e.g. social inclusion, food deserts) by combining complementary for-profit functions (e.g. education, training) and food production, technological UFS use high-tech solutions (e.g. greenhouse, aquaponics) to reach high crop yields and become resource-efficient. Such innovations results from the constraints related to urban environments (e.g. land availability, land costs) and the need to be competitive in the current food industry. To date, UFS have mainly been assessed from a quantitative perspective regarding their environmental benefits, such as by employing Life cycle assessment (LCA), widely used to compare the environmental impacts while avoiding trade-offs between stages. However, economic and social aspects of UFS were not widely analysed from a quantitative approach.
To efficiently promote sustainable cities, we must ensure the development of sustainable UFS from a three-bottom perspective (environment, economy, society). Thus, a comprehensive sustainable method to quantify the performance of UFS must encompass the three dimensions of sustainability and must analyse the entire nature of such complex systems. While LCA is a robust method to account for impacts, other frameworks focus on the provision of benefits, e.g. ecosystem services valuation. Furthermore, the inclusion of stakeholders knowledge and interests via bottom-up research design is essential to develop a comprehensive and integrated quantitative method that supports policy-making processes that promote the development of a local green economy around UFS. As well, the assessment of multiple UFS that represent different models in Europe are crucial to define thresholds and establish recommendations for policymakers and stakeholders.
The goal of the project was to assess the sustainability of UFS, focusing on social and technological innovations. To do so, the objectives were: (a) to develop an integrated sustainability method to assess UFS in a comprehensive way by integrating LCA and ecosystem services, (b) to apply the method to multiple case studies for observing sustainability aspects of UFS, and (c) to define a policy brief on developing a competitive and sustainable urban food sector towards a green economy.
Beyond the research project, this MSCA aimed at developing the career of the experienced researcher to reach a higher level of independence and maturity through this two-year training, in terms of attaining a leading position, widening competences and training on transferable skills.
