Urban Food Governance Beyond 2030: Resilience, Justice, and the Politics of Sustainability Transitions

The year 2030 has been a key time horizon for sustainability and urban food governance, via the Sustainable Development Goals, the FAO Urban Food Agenda, and the Food2030 policy framework in Europe. With this horizon rapidly approaching, it is essential to reflect on the practices and impacts of urban food governance internationally and to establish a new political agenda for urban food post-2030. This thematic issue collates insights from leading and emerging scholars interrogating diverse dimensions of urban food politics, which speak to the five guiding principles for good urban food governance: time, place, relationships, diversity, and power. Collectively, the articles in this thematic issue will help define the parameters of a new post-2030 urban food agenda, recognising current and future disrupters for food system transformation. There are seeds of hope visible internationally, with creativity and innovation, focused on establishing greater urban food resilience and justice, both in established sites, such as community gardens, solidarity kitchens, collaborative food hubs, and food markets, and in experimental activities supporting broader citizen engagement, sustainability reporting, participatory governance practices, and collaborative food infrastructures for urban food sustainability. However, concerns remain that these actions will fail to transform the power inequities rooted in broader regimes without a wider commitment to just and sustainable urban food resilience via transformative urban food governance. While existing mechanisms, such as the Milan Urban Food Policy Pact (MUFPP) and the FAOs Urban Food Agenda, have made important strides in recognising the role of local governments in urban food systems, the articles in this thematic issue argue that this does not go far enough. More radical shifts in governance that recognise and centre the contributions of diverse urban food actors to how food is conceived, shared, consumed, and ultimately disposed of are needed.

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