Experiments for Food System Transformation

“I am the only organic food producer in Riemst, supplying the urban centre in Maastricht (3km away). This wasn’ t always like this. In the 1950s and 60s we had lots of people that worked in the fields doing horticulture. These people are gone, and with them, the farming knowledge,” said a local producer, in a session organized by the DUT project SURFIT: Scaling Urban Regenerative Food Systems In Transition project, in Maastritch. 

The SURFIT project aims to support the scaling of existing food initiatives through convening local actors in Maastricht, Malmö, Krakow, and Trento's Urban Living Labs. 

In a book chapter, researchers apply "experimental prefiguration" to Urban Living Labs, a concept which refers to “leading by example” and is a pragmatic, instrumental effort to build counter-structures that support transformation. 

Authors mention how most participants in Urban Living Labs are individual entrepreneurs, such as flower, soap, or agricultural producers. Others are engaged in educational nature programmes or managing an organic kitchen or are cooks. "These networks must navigate and resist a dominant export-oriented model", as authors put it. 

Read the publication and find out how collaborative experimentation can contribute to systemic transformation of food systems: https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-032-07395-2_23 

Learn more about the SURFIT project: https://dutpartnership.eu/projects/surfit