Breakout Session 7

After energy and transport, food is the sector with the biggest impact on our climate – responsible for over 10% of greenhouse gas emissions in Europe. The way people eat is seen as a reflection of societal values, providing children with nutritional and social principles, which are believed to remain with them into their adult life. School meals are therefore an important issue within most European countries, as they cut to the heart of citizen’s values and family life.

Sustainable food procurement is politics. And if used strategically, it is one of the most powerful tools that governments (national, regional, municipal) have at their disposal to create more sustainable economies and address today’s major challenges.

If food is such a crucial part of our lives, why is it that some cities strive to reach a 100% target of serving organic food – and are on their way to reaching it – like the cities of Copenhagen and Malmo, and others struggle to fix any target? Why have some previous local champions significantly watered down their ambitious approaches in favour of cost cutting or other issues?

How can governments make the critical connections that a public food system has with the environment, the economy and society explicit so that public food procurement is framed for what it really is: an investment and not a cost?