* food policy | Productive Urban Landscapes

Image: This is the third webinar in the CRFS Knowledge Exchange Webinar Series. (source: FAO www 2023)

INVITE: Capacity-building for strengthening city region food systems

The Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO), the RUAF Global Partnership on Sustainable Urban Agriculture and Food Systems – with whom Bohn&Viljoen have collaborated in the past – and the Milan Urban Food Policy Pact (MUFPP) run their third event in the CRFS Knowledge Exchange Webinar Series: Capacity-building for strengthening city region…

Katrin Bohn • 19th June 2023

Image: This food map was created for and with the Municipality as part of a participatory process aimed at making Carthage an 'edible city'. (source: Katrin Bohn with Ian Bailey, University of Brighton, and City Team Carthage 2021)

City Team Carthage finalises food advocacy note

Since Spring 2021, Katrin Bohn and her small University of Brighton team, have been advising the City of Carthage, Tunisia, in their efforts to establish sustainable urban planning strategies with a food system focus. On 5th April 2023, the City approved one of two important documents aimed at supporting this process: an advocacy note laying…

Katrin Bohn • 10th April 2023

EFUA survey cumulates knowledge on urban agriculture

Within its four year process, the European Forum on Urban Agriculture (EFUA) has just launched a Delphi Survey aiming to propose policy frameworks for sustainable urban agriculture. This highly participatory group survey method is especially suitable for structuring uncertain knowledge and forecasting. The EFUA organisation team invited members of its Innovation Board to the survey,…

Katrin Bohn • 21st December 2022

Cover of the Special Issue Planning food system transitions (source: UARFS 2022)

Special Issue “Planning food system transitions” out now !

We are happy to inform you that our Special Issue Planning food system transitions is now finalized and published in Urban Agriculture & Regional Food Systems (Wiley). Here you find the link to the full special issue (open access): https://acsess.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/toc/10.1002/(ISSN)2575-1220.Planning-Food-System-Transitions This Special Issue has grown out of selected contributions to the 9th International AESOP Sustainable…

Katrin Bohn • 29th April 2022

A Food for Cities discussion started on developing short food supply chains for Ukraine. (politpost-www 2022)

Help needed: Developing short food supply chains in Ukraine

As the sad war in Ukraine enters its sad 7th week, food activists in- and outside of the country try to establish a somewhat secure food supply for the many harassed cities and communities. One such collective effort has come to our attention only yesterday when a researcher at Wageningen University, The Netherlands, posted a…

Katrin Bohn • 8th April 2022

The 9th AESOP Sustainable Food Planning Group conference in Madrid formulated key aspects of the food system. (source: AESOP4FOOD www 2022)

AESOP4FOOD online course to start soon

Registration will open soon for this year’s online course on sustainable food planning. The course is part of the Erasmus+ project AESOP4FOOD (Action for Education, Spatial Organization and Planning for Sustainable Food) which aims to address sustainable food planning through a transdisciplinary and participatory approach. Starting from the evidence of serious gaps in knowledge and transformative…

Katrin Bohn • 6th January 2022

COP26 highlights that the urgency of climate action is being felt by all stakeholder groups of our society. (source: Sustain / NiklasPntk, Pixabay www 2021)

Sustain calls for food on the menu at COP26

The Jellied Eel, a project of London Food Link and Sustain, made us aware of an open letter to the British Prime Minister Boris Johnson calling for action to reduce the climate impacts of food and farming. Coordinated by Sustain: the alliance for better food and farming, 50 health, environment and farming organisations have written…

Katrin Bohn • 5th November 2021

Stand by me is an invitation to do something really simple that may appear really difficult: to stand next to a tree. (source: Whitehead and Lee 2021)

INVITE: COP26 stand by me

Today, COP 26, the 26th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties, has opened in Glasgow. It brings parties together to accelerate action towards the goals of the Paris Agreement and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. COP26 recognises and highlights that climate change is the greatest threat facing the world. In our Centre…

Katrin Bohn • 1st November 2021

Cover extract of one of the new titles in the Urban Agriculture Book Series (source: Springer www 2021)

Two new books in the Springer Urban Agriculture series

Seven years have passed since the first publication of the Springer Urban Agriculture Book Series in October 2014. We celebrate this with two new books: Teaching and Learning in Urban Agricultural Community Contexts and Research Approaches in Urban Agriculture and Community Contexts. The books are companion volumes, edited by the same team, and both of…

Katrin Bohn • 11th October 2021

The plenary decided on the development of the food policy council's structure based on sociocratic principles. (source: Ernährungsrat Berlin www 2021)

Food Policy Council Berlin plenary elects new board and structure

On the 1st of July 2021, the plenary assembly of Berlin’s Food Policy Council [Ernährungsrat Berlin] took place online. Almost 70 people discussed and decided on two main issues, the election of a new board of speakers and the development of the Council’s organisational structure. On its website, the initiative informs about a successful election:…

Katrin Bohn • 12th July 2021

Plant Cycle (source: UoB architecture student Lisa Daniel 2017)

INVITE: Launch of the Design of Circular Cities & Regions Research Group

We are pleased to invite you to the public launch (online) of our new Design of Circular Cities & Regions Research and Enterprise Group (REG) at the University of Brighton. The launch happens on Thursday 24th June starting at 10am UK time (11am CET). For the following 4 hours, we have planned an event full…

Katrin Bohn • 16th June 2021

Sandy Lane Farm in Oxfordshire is one of the farms considered in the report. (source: Nina Osswald Veg Cities www 2021)

Improving access to land for food production in Oxfordshire, GB

Mark Stein, author of the very active twitter feed @MarkSteinLancs, made us aware of a recently published research report on the ‘huge potential to convert land to horticulture’ in the County of Oxfordshire. The research by local network Good Food Oxford focuses on ‘how land might be made more accessible to promote a diverse, resilient,…

Katrin Bohn • 7th June 2021

The South East London Green Chain is being discussed in the paper by Katrin Bohn and Dong Chu. (source: Greenchain.com www 2019)

Special Issue on sustainable food planning released

Planning food system transitions is the title of an open access Special Issue in the journal Urban Agriculture & Regional Food Systems that has been released in April 2021. The Special Issue features selected papers presented at the 9th international conference of the Sustainable Food Planning Group at AESOP (Association of European Schools of Planning)….

Katrin Bohn • 31st May 2021

Cover page of the Ernährungsrat’s recommendations to state government for the development of the Brandenburg Food Strategy (source: Ernährungsrat Brandenburg www 2021)

LebensMittelPunkt concept becomes part of food strategy proposals in Germany

‘The German land of Brandenburg is to get a food strategy. That is what the county’s coalition agreement says.’ This March, Ernährungsrat Brandenburg, the food policy council of the land of Brandenburg, submitted its proposals for the strategy process to the state government. The paper is the result of a total of nine workshop discussions…

Katrin Bohn • 3rd May 2021

Cover page of New York's newly released food policy plan (source: Mayoral Office of Food Policy New York City 2021)

First ever 10-Year Food Policy Plan for New York released

In the last week of March, the Urban Food Policy Institute at City University of New York (CUNY) hosted the Urban Food Policy Forum Food Forward NYC: Food Policy in New York City for the Next Decade and Steps toward Implementation. You may remember that, a few months ago, we reported on the Institute’s public…

Katrin Bohn • 12th April 2021

In her project Sea-Meat Seeweed, artist Hanan Alkouh produced meat from seaweed. The project was shown at Food Revolution 5.0 where Bohn&Viljoen exhibited The Edible Terrace. (source: Tom Mannion www 2016)

Should we stop producing meat?

Last Thursday, Katrin Bohn joined Prof. Lisa Jack from the University of Portsmouth in an expert panel discussion chaired by Dr. Neale Davies, Liverpool John Moores University, as part of the one-day (online) event The Future of Food hosted by Clean Growth UK. The panel of experts examined with the audience whether we should stop…

Katrin Bohn • 26th February 2021

The event will be held online on Thursday 25th February. (source: Clean Growth UK 2021)

INVITE: Join Katrin to discuss the future of food

On Thursday, 25th February, from 10 am to 12.30 am, Katrin Bohn will be discussing the future of food with entrepreneurs and academics. Please do join in! Industry leaders will come together to share their insights on the future of food (production) in this online event hosted by Clean Growth UK, a network led by…

Katrin Bohn • 26th January 2021

“Another world is necessary. Another world is possible. Another world is happening.” An enormous message summed up by the words of Grace Lee Boggs has become the cover image of the project. (source: Hannah Lewis www 2021)

Ten policy recommendations on Food Policy Priorities for 2021 & beyond

In November and December of last year, the CUNY Urban Food Policy Institute, based at the City University New York, USA, asked the public two questions: What do you think should be the top priority for federal action on food policy in 2021? In your view, what should be the top priorities for federal action…

Katrin Bohn • 5th January 2021

The Glasgow Declaration aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. (Glasgow Declaration www 2020)

Launch of the Glasgow Food and Climate Declaration

On 14th December 2020, the Glasgow Food and Climate Declaration was launched during a special webinar gathering cities and local authorities from across the world. In the run up to COP26 in Glasgow next year the Glasgow Declaration is a pledge and call to action by subnational, local and national governments to accelerate the development…

Katrin Bohn • 21st December 2020

'An estimate of the global food system’s transgression of planetary boundaries. Here, the safe operating space (green) provides an estimate of the food-related share of the planetary boundaries [...] The zone of uncertainty (yellow) defines dangerous risk, whereas high-risk (red) indicates where production has exceeded the assessed uncertainty range in science [...] E/MSY, extinctions per million species-years; BII, Biodiversity Intactness Index; P, phosphorus; N, nitrogen [...] image credit: PIK, 2019.' (source: Rockström et al. 2020]

In 2030, Berlin feeds itself in a climate and socially just way!

Katrin Bohn took part in the action conference organised by Berlin’s Food Policy Council which happened online from the 19th to the 21st of November 2020. Under the motto ‘2030 ernährt sich Berlin klima- und sozial gerecht! [In 2030, Berlin feeds itself in a climate and socially just way!]’, the conference brought together stakeholders from…

Katrin Bohn • 30th November 2020