The Conference “Democratizing Food Governance” will promote a reflection on the new forms of partnership and civic engagement emerging around food: the way they function, their strengths and weaknesses, their successes and failures, the opportunities they offer as well as the limitations they face in their operation.  More generally, a reflection will be encouraged on the creation of public policy spaces at different scales where different types of actors – ordinary citizens, experts from different epistemic backgrounds and civil society organizations as well as representatives of state agencies and institutions and private firms – may negotiate, deliberate and make decisions with the goal of enhancing the sustainable and democratic character of the food system.

Aims of the Conference

• To review theories and empirical evidence of reflexive, adaptive and empowered participative forms of governance of the food system:  from foodsheds, to food policy councils, to solidarity economy districts and to the construction of networks at different scales (city, region, national and international).
• To contribute to the reflection on regulatory mechanisms and policies that favor cooperation, social justice and democracy in the food economy and across different levels of development.

Themes of the Conference

• Sustainability, food security and new forms of governance
• Emerging new forms of coordination among local food initiatives at different scales
• Examples of networks and partnerships in the food economy: how they work; constraints and strengths; successes and failures.
• The role of civil society, the State, the private sector and consumers in the new forms of governance
• The role of the State in creating spaces for empowered and participative forms of governance in the food economy
• New forms of regulation and new policies for the emerging regional and local-based food system
• Institutional mechanisms striving for balance of power among actors in networks and partnerships.
• The subsidiarity principle: its role and implementation in the governance of the emerging food systems.
• The role of different forms of knowledge – local and expert – in the new forms of governance of local-based food economies
• Access to data and information in the public domain
• The voice of local actors in the new forms of governance
• Modern supply chains and local food initiatives
• Public food procurement, food banks and school lunch programs
• Innovation and learning among actors at various scales
• How to favour convergence toward the ‘common good’ in the food economy among different stake-holders
• Creating new public policy space for re-shaping food planning agendas.

Keynote speakers

Frank Baber
Professor, Environmental Science and Policy Program,  and Director, Graduate Center for Public Policy and Administration, University of California, Long Beach

Terry Marsden
Chair of Environmental Policy and Planning, Director of the Sustainable Places Research Institute, Cardiff University