Montpellier Méditerranée Métropole Agriculture and Food Policy: 6 commitments for a more sustainable food system

Context

In 2014, Montpellier Méditerranée Métropole (M3M) launched a collaborative agroecological and food policy. In 2015, the Metropolis signed the Urban Food Policy Pact in Milan along with a hundred cities from around the world. (The Urban Food Policy Pact is also known as the Milan Pact, stipulating the responsibility for local public policies to take into account the food component, in an international framework and sharing good practices ). Montpellier was also the first Metropolis to be empowered by Territorial Food Projects (PAT), enabling it to boost its Agroecological and Food Policy (P2A).

For Nicolas Bricas, Director of the Unesco World Food Chair, "an urban food policy is a policy that articulates interventions in different sectors to restore their overall coherence with the objective of making the food system more sustainable".

The establishment of P2A by M3M is a first in France, due to its scale and its transversal vision of an economy applied to a living area and the challenge of social "well-being". It thus touches on issues of health, economic development and support for agriculture, but also on issues of land use,  urban planning and preservation of environmental resources.

The P2A is based on 5 objectives:

• Offer healthy and local food to as many people as possible,
• Support the local economy such as agricultural and agro-food employment,
• Preserve the landscape heritage and natural resources,
• Limit greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to climate change,
• Foster social cohesion, by cultivating the link with nature, and also the bridges between town and country.

Project

M3M includes the following commitments:

1.Health: promoting "good eating" : The territory of the Montpellier living area benefits from a rich and diversified agriculture. By bringing the producers closer to the inhabitants of the territory, it is a question of offering everyone the knowledge of what they are eating and where it comes from. 

2. The economy: preserving and developing employment in the agro-food sector : The development of local farming gives a competitive advantage which guarantees fairer remuneration for farmers and promotes the establishment of new farmers.

3. The social factor : It is a question of favoring healthy, quality food accessible to all, with a particular attention for the precarious populations. By bringing together city-dwellers, agriculture and food, it promotes direct relationships, bringing solidarity.

4. The environment : The sustainable and coherent development of the metropolitan area is a major competence of the Montpellier Agglomeration. Well-managed agricultural activity helps preserve landscapes, biodiversity and the quality of groundwater. It also plays a role in the fight against floods.

Actions carried out

The metropolis fulfills its commitments through actions such as mobilizing agricultural land on metropolitan land to welcome project leaders in agro-ecology; limiting the environmental impact of school canteens (organic bread, waste management, vegetarian menus, support in local supplies); developing shared and family gardens; mobilizing citizens around food and promoting the diversity of emblematic products of the territory by organizing various convivial awareness events; supporting the development of initiatives favoring local sourcing (BoCal platform, producer’s square in the Montpellier Market of National Interest)

The governance

P2A promotes and encourages dialogue with all the key players in politics: municipalities, neighboring territories, the agricultural profession, the world of research, civil society, part of the associative fabric, as well as all the actors of the territorial food system, always with the aim of cooperation, and of learning and supporting one another.

Project leaders

By launching its agricultural and food policy, Montpellier Méditerranée Métropole has decided to involve the 31 municipalities that make it up. To support the definition of this policy on its territory, M3M has chosen to contact INRA (National Institute for Agronomic Research). In this context, the researchers proposed to help the Metropolis by leading a collective diagnosis on the agricultural and food situation of the territory, and a reflection on possible orientations and actions for a future P2A (in particular thanks to the study of experiments carried out in other cities of the world).

The role of the researchers was to gather, synthesize and communicate existing knowledge on agriculture and food in Montpellier and its region; to organize and facilitate exchanges between elected officials and agents of the communities that make up the Metropolis, in the form of workshop discussions.

The Little Extra

For the 5th consecutive year, Montpellier Méditerranée Métropole and its partners have organized the “Agroecological Transition and Sustainable Food Month”. This important Metropolis event highlights the daily commitment of associations, producers and citizens.

There are over sixty events open to all, co-organized in collaboration with associations and professionals, extending far beyond the metropolitan territory.

On the program : participate in organized visits, (re) discover markets, participate in festivities, attend screenings, stroll through exhibitions and take part in workshop-conferences.

Get to know them :

Le Site de Montpellier Méditerranée Métropole 

Sur le site "Entreprendre à Montpellier", découvrez la politique agroécologique et alimentaire

Written by Lise Oudda, LFC volunteer - March 2020.

Last modification : 22 Apr 2020.