Editorial: New directions in governance of urban food systems transitions

Increasing food poverty and insecurity for urban dwellers resulting from multiple causes have generalized fears of food shortages in cities, especially in terms of physical food access, food quality production, distribution, and retail capacity. The growing fragility of food supply chains, combined with environmental hazards related to pressing issues around food waste, food access, safety, sovereignty, and democracy seems to increase public and civic interest in transitioning to more sustainable and just food systems. Urban and peri-urban agriculture (UPA), as well as small scale-farming are being advanced by social food movements, institutional resources and the public sector that all claim new roles in governance, which affects all actors of the food chain, including citizens.

The goal of this Research Topic is to address governance and policy reforms of urban and peri-urban agriculture in diverse contexts of the transitions of food systems while discussing the role these challenges and developments play in a transition to more sustainable and just food systems. This Research Topic is focused on food policy reforms, planning initiatives and new governance models involving public engagement and the inclusion of relevant stakeholders and civil society into the decision-making processes that are required for a transition to more sustainable agri-food circuits and practices.

Questions that guide this Research Topic are: how do local governments and civil society contribute governance initiatives to overall sustainable and just food system transitions beyond addressing hunger and food insecurity during precarious times? What are the perspectives of small-scale farmers, disadvantaged consumers, civil society groups and social movement actors in new directions of governance in urban and peri-urban areas? Can we really talk about more inclusive and ‘democratized’ models of participation in the governance of agriculture and food – and even food sovereignty? How can governance initiatives of social entrepreneurship, social innovation and institutional deep reforms be triggered from social movements and craft new ways for organizing transactions and relationships around peri(urban) agriculture and food issues?

The Research Topic focuses on:
- food policy reforms and planning initiatives;
- new governance models aiming at some degree of food sovereignty;
- governance of food production and consumption within the context of social and solidarity economy and eco-social transformation in urban and peri-urban areas.

More precisely, we encourage the submission of manuscripts that explore theoretical, empirical and institutional aspects of urban and peri-urban agriculture related to the following themes:

- Critical perspectives on the emergence and evolution of alternative agri-food networks and practices that are related to UPA and their potential for creating food policy reforms and governance that enable a just transition to sustainability in this enduring crisis context;
- Governance dimensions of food sovereignty or food democracy narratives and their contribution to building resilient place-based food systems, including the role of urban and peri-urban agriculture;
- New governance directions of social movements and social entrepreneurship for food democracy and food sovereignty (UPA, producer organizations, consumer cooperatives, CSA, agro-ecological activism etc.) and their potential for transforming public policies (food justice, inclusiveness and solidarity, food security, nutrition and health policies, integrated food policies);
- The role of politics and planning for the empowerment of UPA farmers and the inclusion of producers, consumers and citizens in participatory governance schemes (sustainable food planning and urban food strategies, agroecological urbanism, local food councils, community-building, multi-stakeholder and collaborative governance).