The Food Charter of the Barcelona Metropolitan Region (CARM) has taken a step forward today with the organization of the first meeting to launch its governance space and has done so with the support of the Barcelona Provincial Council. Sònia Callau, coordinator of the BCN Smart Rural strategy and head of the corporation's Agrarian Spaces Support Unit, has been invited to open the session electronically with a presentation titled "Why a Food Charter and a Governance Space?".

In her presentation, Sònia Callau highlighted the need for towns and cities that want to move towards healthy, healthy, sustainable, resilient and fair food systems to do so by avoiding specific actions and encouraging themselves to work from a holistic vision that integrates the different links of the food system: from agricultural production to waste management, through the transformation, distribution, sale, consumption and waste of food. He has also defended the importance of betting on the design and implementation of a territorial food strategy that includes, among other actions, the creation of a Food Council in which the different economic, social and political actors who want to improve their food governance converge. And, in this regard, it has announced the upcoming publication of a practical guide aimed at city councils and local entities.

The CARM governance space is the forum that brings together the institutions and organizations that have approved their accession to the Food Charter, an accession that the Barcelona Provincial Council formalized during the ordinary plenary session on October 29. In that institutional declaration, the corporation committed to "develop its own programs on sustainable food during the year 2021 and in cooperation with local governments", in addition to "supporting the activities of the World Sustainable Food Capital of Barcelona 2021, with the collaboration of the town councils of the district that may be interested" and "seek internal coordination mechanisms to promote food governance."

The CARM governance space is coordinated by the Barcelona Metropolitan Strategic Plan and has five fundamental objectives:

1. Generate messages related to sustainable and healthy eating and communicate them to society.
2. Promote the exchange of knowledge and experiences among its members, identify good practices and give them public recognition.
3. Act as a space for reflection and contributions to the local and supralocal food strategies of the different administrations or other actors.
4. Explore collaboration possibilities to promote metropolitan projects related to sustainable and healthy eating.
5. Monitor and, where appropriate, review the commitments contained in the CARM.

— BCN Smart Rural Editorial —