Milan
Circular Economy as 'Food Policy'
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Circular Economy as 'Food Policy'
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City/Country
Milan, Italy
Initiative
In 2012 the Municipality of Milan developed a Framework Agreement for Territorial Development “Milan Rural Metropolis” which connects the Municipality, the Metropolitan authority, the Regional authority, 4 Agricultural Districts, 2 river basin authorities, in a public-private partnership
(PPP) to act on rural-urban linkages with a 102 actions plan.The main strategy for circular economy in Milan (the Food Policy) is part of this agreement through rural-urban links actions. In July 2014, the City of Milan and Fondazione Cariplo signed a Memorandum of Understanding to promote and implement a general strategy on food for the city of Milan called Milan Food Policy and to activate an international dialogue aimed at defining and signing an international pact on urban food policies called Milan Urban Food Policy Pact (MUFPP). The Milan Food Policy arises from Expo 2015 and represents the program for a wider circular economy food-based, promoted by the City of Milan and the Cariplo Foundation.
Level
City level
Period of
Implementation
2015-2020
Core vision
The Milan Food Policy designs and develops a framework for joint and coordinated actions on circular food-system based economy. For this purpose, a guideline document has been produced, to support the city government to make the city more sustainable starting from the issues related to food. The guideline is about many dimensions: some of these dimensions are components of the food cycle, such as cultivation, distribution and consumption of food, its waste and its treatment. Others directly or indirectly affect or are affected by the food cycle, such as: environmental and territorial factors of production, cultures and lifestyles, well-being, economies, research, infrastructure, etc., but also the food cycle. It contributes to defining a systemic vision of all these elements in the city of Milan and its territory, making explicit a general vision and promoting actions to realize this vision.
It is transversal to the ordinary and special policies that the Municipality promotes in its areas of competence and has been defined through the active involvement of citizens and all the actors who work in the city within the food system, in order to capitalize on the different resources (ideas, skills, investments, projects, etc.) capable of triggering a multiplier effect. The Milan’s Food Policy has also an European and International dimension, thanks to different networks: MUFPP (Milan Urban Food Policy Pact), Eurocities WG Food (Working Group Food), C40 Food System Network, 100 Resilient Cities, 100 Circular Economy (Ellen MacArthur Foundation), WHO Healthy Cities, FOOD2030, EU Platform FLW (European Platform for Food Losses and Food Waste), IPES-Food, CAP (Common Agricultural Policy). The various actions that can be ascribed to Milan’s Food Policy are increasingly being recognized as good practices that need to be taken up in other European cities and contexts, and Milan is progressively assuming a mentoring role in situations that are still developing.
Implementation & Governance
Milan Food Policy is the result of a 12 months path, made up of two main phases:
the first one was the analysis of the Milanese food system. At the end of this phase, “The 10 Issues of the Food Policy of Milan” document was elaborated, which represents the base for the second phase, the public consultation. The consultation was 5 months-long (February - June 2015) and involved about 700 people from many different fields (e.g. councillors of the municipality, citizens, universities, profit and non-profit companies). The public consultation identified 5 main goals to pursue for the Food Policy implementation:
Ensure healthy food and sufficient drinking water as a primary food for all;
Promoting the sustainability of the food system;
Food education;
Overcome wastefulness;
Support and promote scientific research in the agro-food sector.
The Food Policy is a project for the whole city: therefore, the Municipality also assumes the role of support, stimulus and facilitation of all forms of social, technological and organizational innovation that meet the principles set out in the Food Policy itself and that can contribute to the implementation of the guidelines contained therein. The Food Policy has been implemented by a series of actions: Local food waste hub, Mid morning fruit, Tax reduction for companies donating surplus food, Gallarese orchard, Food Policy Hot Pot, Milano Ristorazione projects, Short chains, School Canteens short chains, Recovery products from markets, Land Market, Healty meal.
Food Policy is part of a wider strategy on circular city that the Municipality of Milan has developed in other domains: waste, energy, food, creativity, manufacturing and mobility (e.g Sharing city project represents the pilot project of the mobility domain).
Instruments and Levers
Awareness-raising and networking actions (e.g. “Advancing towards zero waste” C40 declaration, Milano Food City); Regulatory actions (e.g. PAES, Sustainable Energy Action Plan, PUMS, Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan); Procurement PPP- public-private partnership (e.g. Food Hot Pot);
Tax policies and business support; Pilot projects (e.g. in European Projects: OpenAgri, Interreg “CircE”, Life + “TRiFOCAL”, Fit4Food, Sharing Cities, Reflow.
Governance
A shared governance, composed by: Municipality of Milan - Vice-mayor, Food Policy Office, Food Council (The Food Council promotes processes of co-responsibility of the actors of the Milan food system through specific inclusive participatory process), Monitoring System (Monitoring Framework of the Milan Urban Food Policy Pact)
Partners
Public Partners: Municipality of Milan - Food Policy Office - Environment Area - Economics Department, AMSA Gruppo A2A (Integrated waste management), A2A Ambiente (waste valorisation and recovery of matter management), Milano Ristorazione (Public company active in the management of school canteens) AMAT (environmental monitoring), ATS Regione Lombardia (health protection agency), MM (Milan water service), CAP Holding (Milan Metropolitan Area water service)
Private Partners: Fondazione Cariplo (Philanthropic foundation active on Food Policy issues and partner of the Municipality of Milan. 3 areas activated: Research, Environment, Personal Services)
Novamont (bioplastics and biochemistry), Cariplo Factory (Open innovation Hub of Fondazione Cariplo. Co-founder of Circular Lab with Intesa Innovation Center and Ellen MacArthur Foundation )
Intesa San Paolo Innovation Center (Business accelerator, global financial partner of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, an international leader in the circular economy)
University and Research centre: Centro di Ricerca EStà (Non-profit research centre that provides technical-scientific support to the Cariplo Foundation on Milan Food Policy), Università di Scienza Gastronomiche di Pollenzo - Slow Food ( “Circular Economy for Food” promoter, a Corporate Social Responsibility that collects 40 case studies of food companies with a focus on circularity), Politecnico di Milano
Indicators and
Monitoring system
The Monitoring Framework is composed of a set of 44 quantitative and qualitative indicators. It has been defined on the basis of a three-year field work carried out by FAO and RUAF Foundation in seven cities of the world and in relation to the state of the art of technical-scientific literature on the subject.
Budget allocated
Actions to prevent Food Waste and promote Food Donation: Municipality (1 mln euro), and Cariplo Foundation (5 mln euro).
No other information about the whole Food Policy budget
Results, impacts and learnings
By 2030 Milano aims:
to halve the per capita global food waste in retail and consumer sectors and reduce food losses along production and supply chains, including post-harvest losses.
20% greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 (PAES, Sustainable Energy Action Plan);
25% traffic (PUMS, Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan);
42% of the population served by public transport (PUMS, Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan)
70% recycling rate (“Advancing towards zero waste” C40 declaration)
Land consumption at 70% (PGT, Territorial Government Plan)
3 million trees (urban forestry programme).
Lesson learned and key factors:
Cities need to analyze their food system and public drivers to discover food losses (municipal agencies, public markets, school canteens, etc.);
Cities need to understand and reinforce the local actors active in networks of FLW (Food Losses and Food Waste) for food donation;
Cities need to create umbrella initiatives (like platforms, networks, incentives, campaigns etc.) in order to offer concrete actions to their stakeholders and reach commons goal;
Urban networks (Eurocities, FoodWIN, C40, etc.) play a fundamental role for exchanging experiences, inspire and train city officers;
Cities need municipal officers dedicated to food policy that will work with multidimensional approach engaging and facilitating common initiatives to different city departments, municipal agencies, research centers, food banks, main stakeholders and local actors, major food businesses.
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