​NAT Commission external seminar on Encouraging urban-rural cooperation in inventing new sustainable food systems in Nantes, France on 16 April 2018.

 Consumers want to choose what they eat, and know and understand where it comes from and how it is produced. The distance that has gradually developed between urban and rural areas presents an obstacle to a new European food pact. The solution lies not in fully autonomous cities that are cut off from rural areas, but in dialogue and cooperation between people and between localities. Developing urban agriculture, bringing together farmers and city-dwellers, developing local supply chains, promoting the quality of regional products – including processed products – and guaranteeing the traceability, taste, safety and environmental quality of food in all cases: these are all topical issues throughout Europe. Initiatives are emerging all over Europe that further the development of new sustainable food systems. This applies in particular to the Nantes metropolitan region. By studying innovative experiments, this conference aims to consider how urban-rural cooperation on food can be integrated into future European agricultural policies.