Community-led Policy Innovation for Local Food-Growing

As the wider context, community food-growing (CFG) generally means group efforts in community gardens or shared allotments. Some advocacy groups link CFG initiatives across an entire Borough to seek more helpful support measures. Their efforts have encountered systemic obstacles, in particular: CFG sites combine several activities and societal benefits, yet relevant responsibilities are fragmented across various administrative units of each Local Authority.

This project brings together five Borough-wide groups in a peer-to-peer knowledge exchange process for more effective advocacy. Project aims include the following:

1. To engage Local Authorities by clarifying and requesting relevant support measures for community food growing (CFG), especially through transversal policies that can overcome the prevalent fragmentation among units.
2. To articulate community-driven policy innovation in Local Authorities, aiming to enhance their support measures and collective capacities that can help groups to achieve the first aim.
3. To increase the resources for local food-growing and short-chain distribution, as a tangible step towards the wider aim to achieve a climate-resilient, socially just agri-food system.

Through articipatory Action Research methods, the advocacy groups have learned from experience how to strengthen future actions, e.g. to devise ways of overcoming or bypassing obstacles. More fundamentally, they seek a shift in governance modes beyond simply receiving services, towards involvement in driving policy innovation.

Speakers:

Les Levidow
Andrea Berardi

Additional resources:

Open Societal Challenges website