Researcher Ana Moragues Faus, responsible of the sustainable food manual of Barcelona City Council

Dr. Ana Moragues Faus, researcher at the UB School of Economics, has developed sustainable food manual for the Barcelona City Council. As an expert in sustainable food systems and urban food policies at the Universitat de Barcelona, she provides an accessible definition to sustainable food and identifies 9 areas of action to drive transformative change. 

Sustainable food involves feeding everyone in a way that benefits people, places and the planet. In order to achieve this, food must be produced, transformed, sold, bought and consumed in ways that create prosperity, promote social justice, preserve and regenerate our resources and ecosystems, as well as safeguard future generations’ ability to also feed themselves in a sustainable way.

In order to implement this definition of sustainable food, Dr. Moragues identifies the following areas of action:

– Guaranteeing the right to sustainable food.

– Promoting and facilitating access to local, seasonal, organic and agroecological produce and sustainable fishing products.

– Adopting healthy diets, for people and the planet; with fresh, not ultraprocessed foods.

– Eating less and better meat and derivatives.

– Reducing food waste and packaging.

– Fostering fair relations in the food chain.

– Nurturing diversity in our fields, at our tables and in our neighbourhoods.

– Creating sustainable and empowering food environments.

– Transforming the food system with everyone and for everyone.

According to Dr. Moragues, changing our food system requires not only individual changes in our diets but also collective action across sectors (economic, health, environmental, social and political), food system activities (production, processing, distribution, catering, sale, consumption and disposal) and governance levels (individual, community, local, regional, national and international) that will ensure an equitable transformation of this complex system that we are all part of. To this end, it is paramount to understand and take advantage of the interconnections between the various sectors, activities and actors in the food system, as well as to acknowledge the particular characteristics of different places and the interdependencies between them.

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