Localicious Aalborg - The Sustainable Transformation of the Aalborg Food System
Student thesis: Master thesis (including HD thesis)
- Julia Wohlers
- Anna Bereczki
4. Term, Urban, Energy and Environmental Planning, Master (Master Programme)
Awareness that society needs to adopt a sustainable food regime is disseminating amongst experts and non-experts. In this Master’s Thesis, the food system of Aalborg is looked at as a case study to map stake-holders in an urban food system. The latter is defined as a network of organization, institutions, business-es and individuals dealing with the production, processing, distribution and consumption of food. A prob-lem of this system, which is put in the focus of this Master’s Thesis, is the disconnection between the consumers and the producers which is impacting not only the environment and the planetary boundaries but also has socio-economic effects on the decision-making process and power distribution of regional, national and supranational governments. There are various reasons for the disconnection including indus-trialization, tertiarisation or urbanization, however in the focus of this report stands the trend of globaliza-tion which results in concentration issues: While Danish consumers are driven by prize and convenience, they are not aware of the effects their behaviour has since the effect is only noticed on the opposite side of the globe. This research argues for a local food system, also, to create local feedback loops where peo-ple notice the effect of their behaviour and can act immediately. Embedded in the current food system, local approaches appear already. However, they are so far not part of the conventional system but rather belong to an alternative sector. The need to reconnect consumers with producers and support circularity of knowledge and human interactions through direct sales, CSA, urban farming etc. but also circularity of resources has to be acknowledged and supported by local governments. Aalborg Municipality is on the way to do so. Within their Sustainability Strategy, they foster circularity of resources and even mention the need of reconnecting farm and fork. Nevertheless, the progress is slow and to enhance the inclusion of the alternative sector into the conventional food system, it is needed to establish a focus group on food with experts in this field, working particularly towards a sustainable food system for Aalborg. Munic-ipal food actions has to go beyond being a role model and having sustainable consumption in Municipal canteens. Municipalities have to inform and facilitate about the issue and options in the food system as well as provide a supportive legislation for food innovation. In order to carry out a stakeholder mapping, semi-structured interviews were conducted with actors from all four stakeholder categories, i.e. policy making, planning, conventional sector and alternative sector. Moreover, literature was reviewed and best-practices of food policy pioneers were analysed to provide a roadmap for Aalborg Municipality on how to successfully deal with the issue of disconnection within the local food system. Additionally, a physical map of Aalborg’s alternative food sector was created aiming to give the citizens of Aalborg the opportunity to explore the local food scene and raise awareness about responsible consumer behaviour.
Specialisation | Urban Planning and Management |
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Language | English |
Publication date | 6 Jun 2019 |
Number of pages | 110 |
Keywords | Food system, UFS, LFS, disconnection, sustainability, local, Aalborg Municipality, food policy, circularity |
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