Urban Food Planning ─ Seeds of Transition in the Global North

This highly original work examines the rise of the urban food planning movement in the Global North and provides insights into the new relationship between cities and food which has developed over the past decade. It sheds light on cities as new spaces for food system innovation and on food as a tool for sustainable urban development. Drawing insights from the literature on socio-technical transitions theory, the book presents examples of pioneering sustainable food planning endeavors from North America and Western Europe (specifically Italy, the Netherlands and UK). These are integrated into a single mosaic helping to uncover the conceptual, analytical, design, and organizational innovations emerging at the interface of food and urban policy and planning. 

The author shows how promising “seeds of transition” to a shared food and planning agenda are in the making, though the urban food planning niche as a whole still lacks the necessary maturity to lastingly influence mainstream planning practices and the dominant food system regime. Two of the dimensions critical to the consolidation of this emergent community of practice are shown to be the analytical and the organizational. The conclusions have major implications for scholars, activists, and public officials seeking to radically transform the co-evolution of food, cities, and the environment.

Rositsa T. Ilieva has a PhD in Spatial Planning and Urban Development and MSc in Architecture from the Polytechnic University of Milan in Italy. Until 2015 she was a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow in Urban Food Systems at the Tishman Environment and Design Center (TEDC) of The New School, New York City, USA. At present, she is an adjunct lecturer at the Parsons School of Design at the same university.