Urban agriculture: Access to production sites, rentability , reorientation of periurban production for the citizens, short supply chains logistic ...

Since 2008, for the first time in history, the world’s urban population outnumbered its rural population (UNFPA, 2007). City authorities are in need of innovative strategies that strengthen the resilience and the sustainability of the urban food system. Urban and periurban agriculture provides such a strategy by enhancing access of the citizens to fresh and nutritious food and reducing food expenditures while also contributing to the greening of the city, the reconnection of urban dwellers to the nature, the productive reuse of urban wastes, and adaptation to climate change. In January 2016, the Brussels-Capital Region launched the 5-year ‘Good Food’ strategy "Towards a sustainable food system in the Brussels-Capital Region". The "Good Food" initiative targets, among others, the development of new urban farming projects with an objective of producing 30% of fruit and vegetables locally by 2035. Brussels urban agriculture experienced big developments since the launch of the initiative but is still facing big challenges, some of the biggest being the following: - Access to production sites - rentability of the urban agriculture projects - reorientation of existing periurban agricultural production for the citizens - reconversion of traditional periurban agriculture into sustainable agriculture - short supply chains logistic