Innovative food practices in Portugal

Urban planner and architect Cecília Delgado from Universidade NOVA de Lisboa, Portugal, made us aware of her latest publication, the e-book Innovative Practices in Portugal: From production to sustainable consumption [Alimentar boas práticas: da produção ao consumo sustentável]. This is what Cecília says:

‘The e-book, published in Portuguese March 2020, compiles 46 current initiatives that provide an overview of ongoing food-related actions, projects and programmes in Portugal. The compilation was the result of contributions from private promoters, central and local administration, the third sector and academia, which is reflected in the wealth and variety of documented initiatives

Each initiative describes who the promoter is, its location, background, objectives, key activities, results and outcomes obtained, financing sources and lessons learned. The common format used simplifies the presentation of cases in their diversity and facilitates putting them in perspective. The set of practices gathered in the e-book illustrates the multiple national realities, including: the diversity of actors involved, their territorial scale, the multiple spaces where they take place; the multiplicity of entry points through which practices are initiated; their dynamics through time; the wide range of entries in the food chain, namely, agricultural resources and inputs,  production, processing, logistics, marketing, catering, consumption, waste management, awareness/education, local food programmes; marketing, and “others”; the diversity of financial resources used and combined and, last not least, a unique wealth of lessons learned.

The various practices are organised in the e-book according to their territorial scope into: national scale, inter-municipal, municipal and Micro-local or sub-municipal scale. The original objectives that motivated the self- documentation process by involved actors were: [a] to disseminate and give visibility to existing initiatives most of the time little known even at national level; [b] to inspire their replication throughout Portugal; and, [c] to raise awareness among policy makers of the relevance of developing local food policies from a multi-actor and multi-sectoral perspectives.’

The documentation of these initiatives was carried out on a voluntary basis and falls under the priority action plan of the Alimentar Cidades Sustentaveis [Feed Sustainable Cities], a national platform consisting of 350 members. A steering committee composed of three persons stimulated the process, and a scientific committee conducted a double-blind review process. The coordination of the e-book was carried out by Cecília Delgado.

The e-book, in Portuguese, Alimentar boas práticas: da produção ao consumo sustentável, edited by Cecília Delgado, can be found on the Quercus website.

The national platform Alimentar Cidades Sustentaveis (Agroportal) can be found here.

Image: E-book cover of Innovative Practices in Portugal: From production to sustainable consumption (source: Delgado, C. (ed) 2020)