Planning for Food Systems in Urban Settlements: Lessons and Challenges from North America

Members of the UB Food Systems and Healthy Communities Lab attended Habitat III, the UN Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development in Quito, Ecuador in October 2016. In collaboration with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, UB students and faculty organized a training on food systems planning at Habitat III. A team of five from the Food Lab, including Dr. Raja, staff, graduate students, and a volunteer facilitated the training.  The mayor of Sucre, Bolivia, which has many innovative policies pertaining to food, opened the session, along with Cecilia Marocchino from FAO headquarters. Participation exceeded the anticipated number of attendees - about 75 individuals from across the globe attended the training. The training was simultaneously translated in Spanish, as many attendees were from South America.