By RFF
Following our previous magazine on innovative urban agriculture in practice, we’re delighted to share a major new resource from FOODCITYBOOST: the Urban Agriculture policy and governance catalogue of good practicies.
This catalogue was prepared by the Leibniz Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research (ZALF) as leader of FOODCITYBOOST’s Work Package 4 on Policies and Governance Mechanisms for Resilient Urban Agriculture, working with partners across the consortium. ZALF is a German research institute in the Leibniz Association that develops evidence-based solutions for economically, environmentally, and socially sustainable agriculture and governance, integrating land-use, policy, and systems research to support resilient food and landscape transitions in cities and regions.
It aims to bring together what cities, regions, and practitioners need to better integrate urban agriculture into spatial planning and policy, without defaulting to one-size-fits-all solutions.
Across Europe, municipalities are looking for tested, adaptable approaches that connect food, climate resilience, health, biodiversity, and social equity. The catalogue zeroes in on two pillars that repeatedly determine success, policy integration and multi-stakeholder approaches, and turns them into practical guidance. Inside, you’ll find a navigable template for using the guide; a walkthrough of policy principles and process; living-lab-grounded examples; and a set of actionable recommendations to move from commitment to implementation, monitoring, and evaluation.
Policy officials, planners, advocacy groups, and community partners seeking concrete ways to recognise, enable, and scale the benefits of urban agriculture while managing trade-offs. Whether you’re drafting a local food strategy, updating zoning, or building cross-departmental coalitions, the catalogue offers evidence-informed options and the reasoning behind them. If you’re mapping your city’s current governance landscape (actors, mandates, data flows). Then select relevant “good practice” entries to design an inclusive process, engage motivated stakeholders, diagnose constraints, co-develop a strategy, and build an adaptive implementation plan with clear indicators. The catalogue’s flexibility keeps core elements intact while allowing you to adapt to context and new evidence.
