AESOP4Food — Action for Education Spatial Organisation and Planning for Sustainable Food

The Erasmus+ cooperation partnership AESOP4Food aims to develop future leadership in sustainable food planning, to contribute to food security, food justice, and healthier environments. The partnership builds upon the need for sustainable food planning that is argued by the International Panel of Experts in Sustainable Food Systems in their “Common Food Policy for the European Union” and a “Long Food Movement”. These are setting a reform for the whole food system, bringing together the various sectoral policies that affect food production, processing, distribution, and consumption, and refocusing all actions on the transition to sustainability. Planning for sustainable food production and food provision is more than ever urging us to look for more effective, equitable, and just approaches that radically change, not only the way we grow food, but the very core of our living space. 

The University of Ghent and De Stadsacademie are partners in this AESOP4Food Erasmus+ collaboration, which involves three years of collaboration on curriculum development in Sustainable Food Planning. The project uses an action learning methodology. Each academic partner works together with a local collaboratorium or living lab. The Stadsacademie takes on this role in Ghent. In the Stadsacademie we will focus on space for agriculture in the urban fringe and the strategic role the Ghent owned farmland may play in securing a future for peri-urban farming.