MLA Vilnius Productive Landscapes

Studying foodscapes within the course Productive Landscapes

This page is still in development and will be completed during the course which is offered to Master Students of the Landscape Architecture Programme of Vilnius Tech- Vilniaus Gedimino technikos universiteto

Topic of the course

Productive landscape concerns the current problems of foodscapes, food systems, short chains, food security.

This module addresses 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). It includes mapping a food system, mapping the stakeholders, consumers, policy makers (power mapping), and carrying out a SWOT analysis. Students work on collaborative goal setting (applying the nominal group technique for systematic working); proposing transformative actions, developing scenarios, alternatives, and implementation strategies. It may relate to the relevant studio project.

Aim of the course

After completing the foodscapes part of this module, students should be able to conceive ideas 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 and understanding of food systems, to define driving forces, understand the planning process, to decide on transformative actions, and to make planning and design proposals.

Learning outcomes

The student/learner:

1. Understands the concept of food systems in their cultural, local and regional setting.
2. Is aware of contemporary challenges to sustainable food systems in context of spatial planning.
3. Develops an understanding of the multiple dimensions of food systems: social, environmental, economic and spatial.
4. Can map and evaluate a concrete situation of a food system, making use of a transparent method, to define the most relevant challenges.
5. Can formulate an approach and/or a possible solution for a selected challenge that is related to his/her own competences and role in the system.
6. Can define her/his own position and values regarding sustainable food planning
7. Is able to reflect on his/her own process, using feedback from others reflecting on cultural, social and economic differences.

Lectures, Q&A. and presentations

Preparatory activities

You are asked to view the introduction by Carolyn Steel Hungry Cities by Carolyn Steel video

And to read the IPES report A Long Food Movement.

IPES-Food, 2021. 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.

Deh-Tor, C.M. . 2017 From Agriculture in the City to an Agroecological Urbanism: The transformative pathway of urban (political) agroecology, in: Urban Agriculture Magazine no. 33 – Urban Agroecology. From this publication the focus is on the introduction, page 5 until page 13.

If you have time to do so, it would be nice also to read the Summary of From Plate to Planet.

• IPES-food: From Plate to Planet: How local governments are driving action on climate change through food.

Reading material before October 7, 2024

Countryside Charity (CPRE – UK) - just read the 7 pages that explain the toolkit.

You can also have a look to the complete website: https://www.cpre.org.uk/resources/mapping-local-food-webs-toolkit-2/

FAO. 2019. FAO framework for the Urban Food Agenda. Rome. https://doi.org/10.4060/ca3151en Helps to understand the policy context and frameworks that guide urban food systems, aligning with understanding sustainable food planning concepts.

Food and agriculture organisation. FAO Report : "Integrating food into urban planning“ page 18 - 32.

FAO. (2018) City Region Food System Toolkit, Assessing and planning sustainable city region food systems, publication of FAO, RUAF and Wilfrid Laurier University. http://www.fao.org/in-action/food-for-cities-programme/toolkit/introduction/en/ (introduction page 1-3, schemes page 133-144 (p. 138-149 in pdf).

Reading material before November 15, 2024

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 to understand urban food justice issues and introduces the concept of a politics of empowerment. It emphasizes the importance of reflecting on personal values and competencies and addressing inequalities within food systems.

Urban Commons Research Collective. (2022)., Urban Commons Handbook (Barcelona: dpr-barcelona, 2022): pages 18-29 and 32-54.

Menatti. L. (2017). Landscape: from common good to human right. In: International Journal of the Commons Vol. 11, no 2 2017, pp. 641–683 Publisher: Uopen Journals; http://www.thecommonsjournal.org DOI: 10.18352/ijc.738: pages 649 – 659 (10 pages)

Reading material as background for the assignment

The role and functions of Stakeholders in the development of local food systems: Case of Lithuania.

Adam Oleksiuk and Katarzyna Rull Quesad (2023) Co-creation of business and marketing models for SMEsin short food supply chains in Lithuania, Latvia and Poland.

Short Introduction, on-line, September 9, 2024

Introduction, overview course, concepts, first excercise.

1 Current challenges of the food system, global trends and regional perspective

Online, September 16, 16h20 – 17h50 Estonian Time

You can view the presentation here.

The recording of the main parts of the lecture can be found in the Slack channel.

2 City region food mapping methods and cases on multi-scale levels

On-site, October 7, 16h20 – 17h50 Estonian Time

You can view the presentation here. As background presentations on food system mapping you can view the presentation of Jorge Molero from the network for agroecology of Spanish Municipalities (30/03/2022) and the presentation by Katrin Bohn on Spatial and participatory food (systems) mapping (12/05/2022).

3 Food governance, food councils, multilevel governance.

On-site, October 7, 18h10 – 19h40 Estonian Time

You can view the presentation on governance, agroecological urbanism and an example of a food council from the city Region of Stuttgart here.

4 Agro-ecological urbanism: concepts and building blocks

Online, October 14, 16h20 – 17h50 Estonian Time

This lecture recaps the building blocks of Agroecological Urbanism. You can view the presentation here.

One of the building blocks is the Agriparc, of which an agroecological version is proposed. The presentation on the development of agriparcs in Europe and the proposal for a new model for an agroecological agriparc can be seen here.

For the city of Montpellier a design competition was launched for the new Agriparc Les Bouisses. You can see here the winning project and its further elaboration designed by Architect Office Fabriques.

5 Agriculture in a global context

Online, October

General introduction to agriculture, examples from Turkey, value and supply chains, global development of agricultural land and food consumption, EU policies and Key Performance Indicators. You can view this extensive presentation, which is for a large part based on the work of Dr. Ibrahim Yilmaz, Dr. Roxana Triboi for the TELOS project, here.

6 Urban agriculture and the commons

Online, October 28, 16h20 – 17h50 Estonian Time

The lecture explains the principles of commons, provides an overview of its role in the landscape, with some examples of rural and urban cases. You can view the presentation here.

7 Food security, food justice and food democracy

Online, October 28

This lecture presents the concepts of food democracy, food justice, food sovereignty and food security. You can view the PowerPoint here.

Students can position themselves and think about their role as landscape architect considering the values and strategies which are presented.

Student's presentation and discussion

Online on November 4, 16h20-17h50 Estonian Time

Intermediate individual presentation and Q&A session on the assignment

Online November 25, 16h20-17h50 Estonian Time

Final presentation and assessment

On-site in Vilnius Monday, December 9, afternoon. The session will be in combination with Energy. For the allocated time see the letter by prof Stauskis.

Practical work

Excursion

Tuesday, October 8, afternoon Study trip to the study area of the assignment. Details will be communicated by the university staff. The students will make a food system analysis. Preparation is needed for a general analysis of the area: what kind of producers are in the area, how many hectares of different kinds of crops, and produce. The study area will be larger than the planning area, and both will be defined beforehand.

Seminar, on site

Wednesday, October 9, afternoon, 16h30 - 19h00 Vilnius Time The seminar will have three parts: Part 1: Short lecture on Research Through Designing. You can view the slides here.

Part 2: collaborative work on the study and planning area: defining the challenges, collaborative goal setting, setting priorities. In this part we will apply the Nominal Group Technique (NGT). This method you can also apply for other sessions in which you have collaborative work with a group of people, for instance for participation or co-creation. You can view the introduction on NGT here.

Part 3: Discussion on aspects of the Lithuanian food system situation, questions on the references and literature and next steps.

Exercises

Exercise 1, landscape on your plate

The first exercise is meant to create a greater awareness of the relation between the food that we eat and the landscape that it results into.

STEP 1: Have a look at your plate for dinner. Take a picture or make a drawing of the content. Then make notes where the food comes from and what kind of a landscape your food results in. Add some sketches or images of these landscapes.

STEP 2: Place image(s) and description on a padlet. You will receive a QR code.

STEP 3: We will present and discuss the results in an online session.

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Assignment

The content of the assignement will be defined during the first weeks of the course.

You can find a draft of the assignment here.