Opening of the “Food Democracy” call for projects: inclusion and participation as levers to amplify transitions

To accelerate the transformation of food systems and make them capable of meeting the major challenges of the 21st century, the mobilization of all local actors, and in particular citizens, is necessary. Many initiatives, practices and public policies make it possible to involve civil society in decision-making concerning agriculture and food, and to strengthen their power to act to trigger and accelerate the transformations they want. This new call for projects aims to explore these concrete forms of food democracy. It is open until January 28, 2021.

Mobilising all the driving forces of the territories to make food a common good

In the face of the climate, social, economic and health challenges to which our food systems contribute, we are convinced that a large-scale transformation, including citizen participation, is necessary and urgent.

Throughout France, residents are becoming more and more involved – alongside local authorities, companies, researchers, or within associative collectives – to change the situation. They invent new modes of governance, create outlets for agroecological products, or invest in the co-construction of public policies. They are reclaiming the food systems they depend on and accelerating the transitions they want.

We can think, for example, of local currencies, participatory grocery stores, cooperative supermarkets, participatory guarantee systems, the co-construction of local land and food policies, self-managed solidarity canteens or the support of local authorities for collectives of inhabitants to create local food initiatives. These are all ways for people to reclaim food systems, in their economic and political dimensions, which need to be known and documented in order to spread.

It therefore seemed important to us to identify, understand and make known these new economic and political paradigms, which embody new ways of thinking about food, of acting together, of making society and of combining ecology, solidarity, equity and democracy.

Identify and document participatory and inclusive approaches that accelerate transitions

With this new call for projects, we want to support the identification and study of initiatives, practices and public policies, which aim to transform food systems and which rely heavily on the participation and inclusion of inhabitants and local actors to invent new ways of acting, cooperating and managing together the common goods on which food systems depend, those who make a living from it and those who contribute to it.

We particularly wish to support the study of informal practices, still little known or emerging, likely to inspire by their democratic ambition. The Foundation will be particularly attentive to strengthening the power to act of all inhabitants, in particular people in precarious or modest situations, young people, the elderly, marginalized groups, etc.

These study projects should allow for an exchange of experience and networking between the initiatives studied, on a local or national scale. They can be carried out by all actors, public or private, whether they are local authorities, distribution or processing players, producers or associations. The call for projects is therefore aimed at all structures eligible for private sponsorship acting in the field of sustainable agriculture and food, individually or as part of a consortium of actors.

Cover photo credit: Nano / Subbetica Ecologica