Public webinar on Sustainable Public Food Procurement
Why Sustainable Public Food Procurement matters
Public food procurement is a powerful yet often underutilised policy lever for transforming food systems, with benefits including the promotion of sustainable agriculture, reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, protection of biodiversity, revitalisation of rural areas, and the promotion of healthy and nutritious diets that improve public health.
Cities and local governments responsible for food procurement have significant leverage to reshape food production and consumption patterns, thereby driving the transition towards sustainable food systems and healthy diets. From schools and hospitals to nursing homes and prisons, local authorities can use public food procurement strategically to deliver multiple benefits, including tackling food insecurity, improving public health, supporting local economies, ensuring fair wages and animal welfare, and addressing climate change.
This potential is already recognised in the EU Vision for Agriculture and Food, as well as in the European Parliament’s own-initiative report calling for more strategic use of public food procurement. Moreover, the EU Agenda for Cities acknowledges the value of public procurement as a policy lever.
Why join the training?
The training will provide participants with knowledge and practical tools to:
- Understand the latest developments and policy directions in sustainable food procurement at the EU level
- Gain an overview of European initiatives on sustainable food procurement, including local and international campaigns as well as EU-funded projects supporting its implementation
- Learn from good practices on how to effectively implement sustainable food procurement in practice
- Gain insights into how to integrate health, sustainability, and fairness into public food procurement processes
Training topics
The training will be structured around three main topics, beginning with an initial interactive session to engage participants and a final Q&A session. See the programme below.
| Interactive slides to test the audience | |
| Public Food Procurement in the EU policy landscape |
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| Changing Public Food Procurement from below |
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| Sustainable public food procurement in practice |
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| Q&A session |
Speakers
The training will be delivered by two experts from ICLEI Europe, which is a member of the Food Partnership and the Action Leader for Action 7 of the Food Action Plan.
- Jean-Marc Louvin is a food expert at ICLEI Europe, where he coordinates the Buy Better Food Campaign and represents ICLEI Europe within the EU Food Policy Coalition and the Urban Agenda Partnership on Food. He is also a PhD researcher at the University of Antwerp, focusing on food as a commons and a form of property.
- Monika Rut is a Senior Expert on Sustainable Food Systems at ICLEI Europe.