Chapter 7: Governance towards nature-based City Region Food Systems

In the wake of the Milan Urban Food Policy Pact, cities around the world have been taking the lead in designing their own City Region Food System (CRFS). A City Region Food System aims to foster the development of resilient and sustainable food systems which encompass an urban centre, a peri-urban ring, and the rural areas surrounding a city. This chapter argues that a CRFS must also focus on nature and the context it provides rather than on the social and environmental indicators typically used to describe a city and its context. This includes the nature context of the rural-urban region where a city is located. A CRFS needs to include a wide range of food system actors including those who give expression to the nature context of the region. It must also focus on cooperation, decision-making, learning, and distributive leadership among the various CRFS actors. We discuss examples of emerging CRFSs from Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Washington DC to illustrate these principles.