With a global population of over 7.7 billion consumers, there is substantial potential to transform age-old dietary habits for a brighter future. Nevertheless, formidable challenges such as population growth, rapid urbanization, widespread migration, climate change, and resource scarcity loom ahead. We are on course to a world with 9 billion inhabitants, with most residing in cities, 3 billion grappling with obesity, and 2 billion confronting food insecurity.
This scenario underscores the urgency of taking immediate steps toward a sustainable transition of City-Region Food Systems and in this prospect, the Cities2030 project emphasizes that consumers should be central to both policies and solutions.
In the absence of action towards a transition to sustainable City Region Food Systems (CRFS), the environment will continue to degrade, diminishing the world’s ability to produce high-quality food for everyone while also reducing our capacity to ensure food access for all.
CRFS presents a global challenge, and Cities2030, a novel initiative, is addressing it at both local and regional levels. Our aim is to generate incremental, systemic, practical, actionable, transferable, and sustainable solutions.
The primary aim of Cities2030 is to establish a future-proof sustainable CRFS, underpinned by a connected structure that prioritizes citizens and is built on trust. We have formed partnerships that span the entire CRFS spectrum.
The result-oriented consortium of Cities2030 project is fully committed to driving transformation and restructuring across the food production, transportation, supply, recycling, and reuse systems in the 21st century.
The project vision is to create a cohesive network that links together various components of short food supply chains.
This network includes consumers, strategic industry partners, complementary businesses, civil society organizations, promising start-ups, established enterprises, forward-thinking innovators, visionary thinkers, leading universities, and cutting-edge research across a wide array of disciplines that pertain to City Region Food Systems (CRFS).
These disciplines encompass areas such as food science, social science, and the utilization of big data for improving food systems.
Over the course of the next four years, Cities2030 is committed to a multifaceted effort that involves mobilizing funds from a diverse range of sources within both the private and public sectors. This initiative is expected to attract substantial investment, thereby enabling the project to achieve its ambitious goals and make a significant impact on the future of urban food systems.
Cities2030 actively promotes citizen engagement by establishing a reliable Food System, transitioning consumers from passive recipients into motivated agents of change.
This transformation is accomplished through a range of tools and mechanisms provided by the project and shared within the Cities2030 Alliance—a community of practices and a sharing platform that spans across Europe and beyond.
This approach paves the way for innovative actions and enhancements on a pan-European scale with far-reaching global consequences. Cities and regions will strengthen their resilience and sustainability, with their leadership driving the development of short food supply chains and ecosystems that foster local, cross-border, and transnational investments.
A blockchain-based data-driven platform and a series of community platform tools ensure intelligent and coordinated efforts by delivering an accurate, nearly real-time digital representation of the entire supply chain. This encompasses all aspects, from production to waste management, as well as key elements contributing to resilience and sustainability, such as security, ecosystem services, livelihood (e.g., economic growth), and equity (e.g., inclusivity).
