Urban food policies and their influence on the development of Territorial Short Food Supply Chains: The case of cities in Colombia and Spain

Abstract

Urban food policies (UFPs) have emerged as a key mechanism to drive the transition towards more sustainable food systems, with cities as the appropriate scale for their implementation. The aim of the paper is analysis of the boost that UFPs have given to one of the most widespread forms of Alternative Food Networks, these are Territorial Short Food Supply Chains (TSFSCs). For this, the territorial factors that strengthen TSFSCs in the cities of Bogotá (Colombia) and Córdoba (Spain), one being UFP, are prioritised using a multi-criteria model based on the Analytic Network Process. Based on this prioritisation, the way the UFPs interrelate with the other prioritised territorial factors in both cities is identified. Consequently, the influence of UFP implementation on social capital of TSFSCs is analysed through Social Network Analysis. The results indicate that there are four types of priority territorial sub-factors on which UFPs should have an impact in order to promote TSFSCs in the two cities. The first group is classified as means to achieve the other sub-factors. The other sub-factors are classified as ends. The main means are UFPs and partnership linkages. The territorial sub-factors included in the UFP are in the design and implementation phases of the policy cycle. Furthermore, UFPs foster bridging social capital, with actors connecting unconnected nodes. Finally, some of the reflections on the implications of UAPs indicate that the promotion of participatory governance mechanisms involving civil society is an important element to include in UFPs, given their influence on strengthening collective action and social capital in cities. This shows that a territorial approach in UFPs can have greater results in policy implementation. In this way the paper contributes, at the theoretical and empirical level, to recent debates on UFP approaches and the integration of key factors for food transformation in cities