As part of the EU’s Green Deal, the Farm-to-Fork strategy will attempt to make Europe’s food systems fair, sustainable and healthy. But what role do cities have in this journey?
Born from the work of Eurocities’ WG Food and the Milan Urban Food Policy Pact, Food Trails will tackle this issue with a series of high-profile breakfast dialogues to discuss what role cities can play in transforming food systems and achieving climate goals through food.
The first dialogue on 27 April will look at the role of cities for fair food systems, the collaboration with farmers in the surrounding areas and ensuring access to food to all citizens. This discussion will feature Vice-Mayor of Milan in charge of food policy, Anna Scavuzzo, and Member of the European Parliament, Herbert Dorfmann, member of the Agricultural Committee and rapporteur in charge of the European Parliament report on the Farm to Fork. This debate will be in Italian with live English interpretation.
Following this, on 5 May, Councillor Paulette Hamilton from the city of Birmingham will discuss with Alexandra Nikolakopoulou, Head of Unit at Directorate General on Health and Food Safety (DG SANTE), in charge of Food Sustainability and Farm to Fork strategy, how to ensure that all citizens have access to healthy food, food education is guaranteed in schools and how cities can establish collaboration with retailers.
Lastly, on 6 May, Gijs Schilthuis, Head of Unit, Directorate General in charge of Agriculture and Rural Development (DG AGRI) and Franciska Rosenkilde, mayor of culture and leisure, for the city of Copenhagen, will discuss the role of cities in supporting the EU food and environmental ambitions with tools such as public procurement, promotion of sustainable diets, rural-urban linkages and urban food production.
Speaker profiles
Gijs Schilthuis is a Head of Unit at the Directorate General in charge of Agriculture and Rural Development (DG AGRI), where he leads a team assessing agricultural policy perspectives. Gijs has worked on agricultural policy reform at DG AGRI since 2008. He first joined the European Commission in 2005 at the Directorate-General for Health and Consumers.
Franciska Rosenkilde is the Mayor of Culture and Leisure at the city of Copenhagen. Before taking up the post in 2018, Rosenkilde was a member of the Health and Care Committee and the Children and Youth Committee. Rosenkilde has also sat on the City of Copenhagen’s Culture and Leisure Committee. She has a professional bachelor’s degree in health and nutrition from Metropol University and a master’s degree in geography from the University of Copenhagen. Before working in politics, Rosenkilde worked as a professional chef.
