Sustainable Food Cities Conference 2019, Newcastle

In his opening address, Sustainable Food Cities programme manager Tom Andrews observed that this year’s conference was the largest ever, with more than 180 delegates representing 63 cities and places where food was acting as a vehicle for positive change. Tom outlined the multiple crises and challenges facing people and the planet and commented on the role of Sustainable Food Cities initiatives in addressing these and delivering positive solutions. Below: Sustainability Challenges and Solutions – Tom Andrews Connecting

In her warm and insightful welcome to the city, Newcastle City Council cabinet member Cllr Kim McGuinness highlighted the value of a whole systems approach to food and diet-related issues. Kim emphasised the need for true partnership working to meet needs observing that collaboration is a key factor in this with councils acting as facilitators.

Olivier De Schutter joined us through the internet and in a pre-recorded address highlighted the contribution of citizen led initiatives to deliver transformative sustainable food innovations.  Olivier also explained the need for Public – Civic – Business collaborations to deliver sustainable change.

In the latter vein, I took part in a pivotal workshop facilitated by Sarah Williams of Sustain on Making good food enterprises a Sustainable Food Cities mainstay.  I also enjoyed an inspiring afternoon session jointly facilitated by members of the Newcastle and Middlesbrough Sustainable Food City partnerships around the value of taking a regional approach to the sustainable food economy.  Please look out for more on this topic in future editions of this e-bulletin.

In the meantime, let’s finish for now with some words of encouragement to all of us in the Sustainable Food Cities movement from Sustain CEO Kath Dalmeny:  “It’s all about building bridges and connections … you are extra-ordinary people working hard and making a real difference in your cities and places.”