AESOP4Food seminar 2025

Introduction

This sustainable food planning seminar makes use of the learning resources which are available on the AESOP4Food wiki.

Participants are expected to prepare themselves for each session by viewing a recording and reading the compulsory material.

The seminar takes place from March 6 until April 10, 2025. Every week on Thursday 17h00 – 18h15 CET.

Each session consists of a 30-minute recap of the subject, followed by 30 minutes of discussion (if the group is large this will be in self-organised breakout rooms) and 15 minutes outlook on the next session.

Study Guide

Before you register please read the Study Guide. You can download the study guide here.

Rationale

Productive landscape concerns the current problems of foodscapes, food systems, short chains, and food security. This seminar concerns the planning, design and management of sustainable foodscapes, integrating both environmental, social, and economic aspects of the productive landscape. It addresses the main challenges, theoretical frameworks, approaches and methods for sustainable food planning. It relates to the concepts of food security, food safety, food democracy and food justice and the way stakeholders and communities can address the challenges by participatory action research and living labs. It builds upon the work of the International Panel of Experts in Food Planning (IPES) and the Resource centre on Urban Agriculture and Food Security (RUAF). Subjects of the sessions are defining the main challenges, mapping and analysing a food system, collaborative goal setting, proposing transformative actions, developing scenarios, alternatives, and implementation strategies.

Aim of the seminar

After participating in the seminar, learners should be able to elaborate proposals in a collaborative way for the future physical interventions of a part of a local-regional food system in relation to its context. The goal is to develop adequate knowledge, understanding of food systems, to define driving forces, understand the planning process, decide on transformative actions, planning and design proposals. For this learners can apply the main concepts of sustainable food planning and the building blocks of an Agroecological Urbanism.

Competences developed

The learner knows and understands the essence and significance of existing food systems in a local and city-regional scale and is able to apply knowledge and new ideas in a changing social – economic environment to initiate transformative actions for making food systems more sustainable.

Activities by the participants

Participating in the seminar will take some 8 hours per week. The tasks consist of:

• Viewing the recording of the selected lecture for each session
• Critical reading of the preparatory material for each phase of the seminar
• Participating in the recap lecture, the Q&A session and the discussion, that takes place on Thursdays from 17h00-18h30 CET.

Participants who want to receive a certificate for the seminar need to actively follow at least 5 of the sessions and give an online presentation of 15 minutes of their main understandings and findings. The framework of the presentation is available on the padlet that the participants use.

Registration

Registration is closed now. If you register after March 1, 2025 you will be placed on a waiting list and will receive a notification whether you still are admitted on Wednesday March 5, 2025. Please consulte the study guide. you can register here.

Session 1- March 6, 2025

Introduction on the content and organisation of the course, including a short intro on M&E – LE:NOTRE Institute

Preparation viewing before March 6

View the recording and the presentation slides nr 23 until 73 of Feb 29, 2024: https://wiki.landscape-portal.org/index.php/AESOP4Food_seminar_2024#Session_February_29,_2024

Preparation reading before March 6

• Tornaghi, Chiara. (2016). Urban Agriculture in the Food‐Disabling City: (Re)defining Urban Food Justice, Reimagining a Politics of Empowerment. Antipode. 49. 10.1111/anti.12291. This article helps participants understand urban food justice issues and introduces the concept of the politics of empowerment. Underlines the importance for reflecting on personal values and competencies and addressing inequalities within food systems.
• Deh-Tor, C.M. 2021. Food as an urban question, and the foundations of a reproductive, agroecological, urbanism, Chapter 1 in: Tornaghi, Ch. and Dehaene, M. 2021. Resourcing an Agroecological Urbanism: Political, Transformational and Territorial Dimensions. This chapter explores the foundations of a reproductive, agroecological urbanism, providing theoretical insights into sustainable food planning. It helps participants understand the role of agroecology in urban planning.

Recap, Q&A and discussion

Roxana Triboi and Jeroen de Vries gave a short introduction to the structure of the course and a recap of the main challenges of the current food system (30 minutes). You can view the powerpoint here.

Session 2- March 13, 2025

Field of Play - LE:NOTRE Institute Roxana Triboi and Jeroen de Vries recap the main drivers, the role of multi-level governance and the building blocks of an Agroecological Urbanism (30 minutes). This was followed by Q&A on the preparatory material and a discussion. You can view the slides of the presentation here.

Preparation viewing before March 13

View the recording and the presentation slides of March 7, 2024: https://wiki.landscape-portal.org/index.php/AESOP4Food_seminar_2024#Session_March_7,_2024

Preparation reading before March 13 – in total 23 pages

• IPES-Food, 2021. Read the management summary. (9 pages) A long food movement. Addresses global challenges and opportunities for transforming food systems towards sustainability. This comprehensive report emphasizes the urgent need to overhaul current food systems to address pressing issues such as climate change, biodiversity loss, inequality, and public health concerns. It outlines a vision for a sustainable food future, where long-term planning and grassroots movements play key roles.
• FAO. (2018) City Region Food System Toolkit, Assessing and planning sustainable city region food systems, publication of FAO, RUAF and Wilfrid Laurier University. (introduction page 1-3, schemes page 133-144 (p. 138-149 in pdf).

Session 3- March 20, 2025

Analysing / mapping – Universidad Politécnica de Madrid Marian Simon Rojo of Universidad Politecnica de Madrid gave a recap of goals and types of mapping food systems (30 minutes). You can view the powerpoint here. This was followed by Q&A on the preparatory material and a discussion

Preparation viewing before March 20

View the recording and the presentation slides of March 14, 2024: Marian Simón Rojo of UPM introduces the relevance of mapping and an overview of the mapping types. Katrin Bohn, of Bohn&Viljoen Architects & the School of Architecture & Design of the University of Brighton, presents several projects and how mapping played a role in them. https://wiki.landscape-portal.org/index.php/AESOP4Food_seminar_2024#Session_March_14,_2024

View the recording on mapping by Jorge Molero on how to map of March 30, 2023 https://wiki.landscape-portal.org/index.php/Seminar_schedule_2023#Session_March_30,_2023

Preparatory reading in total 34 pages before March 20

• Simón‐Rojo, M. (2021). Powering transformative practices against food poverty with urban planning. Urban Agriculture & Regional Food Systems, 6(1), e20021.
• Bortoletti, M., and J. Lomax. (2019). Collaborative framework for food systems transformation. A multistakeholder pathway for sustainable food systems. ISBN (2019): 978-92. United Nations Environment Programme, https://www.oneplanetnetwork.org/knowledge-centre/resources/collaborative-framework-food-systems-transformation-multi-stakeholder. Presents a coherent framework about how different stakeholders can help implement policies and support governments in advancing a systemic transformation.
• Jensen, P. D., & Orfila, C. (2021). Mapping the production-consumption gap of an urban food system: An empirical case study of food security and resilience. Food Security, 13, 551- 570.

Session 4- March 27, 2025

Goal setting/visioning – L’Institut Agro Montpellier

Damien Conaré of the UNESCO Chair of World Food Systems at Supagro Montpellier recaps collaborative goal-setting and visioning. You can see his presentation here. This was followed by Q&A on the preparatory material and a discussion.

Preparation viewing

View the recording and the presentation slides of April 4, 2024: https://wiki.landscape-portal.org/index.php/AESOP4Food_seminar_2024#Session_April_4,_2024

Preparation reading – 24 pages

• FAO/RUAF – A Vision for City Region Food Systems – Building Sustainable and Resilient City Regions. only have a look at the pages that relate to visioning: page 34 until 37, to be aware of the existence of this toolkit.
• UN Habitat, 2012: Visioning as a Participatory Planning Tool – read Chapter 1 and 3. https://issuu.com/unhabitat/docs/visioning_as_participatory_planning_tool

Session 5 - April 3, 2025

Scenarios, strategy, prototyping – Universiteit Gent

Michiel Dehaene of Ghent University gives a recap of scenario planning, developing strategies and the use of prototypes (30 minutes). You can see the presentation here. This was followed by Q&A on the preparatory material and a discussion.

Preparation viewing before April 3

View the recording and the presentation slides of April 25, 2024: https://wiki.landscape-portal.org/index.php/AESOP4Food_seminar_2024#Session_April_25,_2024

Preparation reading before April 3: 40 pages

• Mette Vaarst, Arthur Getz Escudero, M. Jahi Chappell, Catherine Brinkley, Ravic Nijbroek, Nilson A.M. Arraes, Lise Andreasen, Andreas Gattinger, Gustavo Fonseca De Almeida, Deborah Bossio & Niels Halberg (2018) Exploring the concept of agroecological food systems in a city-region context, Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems, 42:6, 686-711

• Scoones et al. (2015) The politics of Green Transformation (Chapter 1). Oxon/New York: Routledge. Only Chapter 1 is compulsory reading: page 1 - 24.

Session 6 - April 10, 2025

Monitoring & Evaluation – LE:NOTRE Institute

Jeroen de Vries will give a recap on collaborative monitoring and evaluation (30 minutes), based on the material that is provided by the Warsaw University of Life Sciences. This will be followed by Q&A on the preparatory material and a discussion.

Preparation viewing before April 10

View the recording and the presentation slides of May 23, 2024: https://wiki.landscape-portal.org/index.php/AESOP4Food_seminar_2024#Session_May_23,_2024

Preparation reading before April 10

UNICEF (2005) Useful Tools for Engaging Young People in Participatory Evaluation. UNICEF CEE/CIS Regional Office.

April 17 and 22 - Sessions of participants who give a presentation for a certificate

The presentations are scheduled for:

• Thursday afternoon, April 17, from 14h00 - 16h00 and 16h20-18h30 CEST
• Tuesday afternoon, April 22, from 17h20 - 18h20.

On Monday, April 7, we will publish a schedule who will present at what time and date.

All course participants are welcome to attend all the sessions.