Sustainable Food

This Sunday, Plaça Catalunya was the setting of an event that would be hard to forget: a huge calçotada, which involves grilling calçots over open fires, at which more than a thousand people demanded a move towards greater food sovereignty. It featured a farmer’s market with around twenty stalls, workshops, lots of live music, tables and, above all, the open fires on which the calçots were grilled, which were the star feature of an event organised by the platform Ruralitzem – Veus per a la Sobirania Alimentària at which a total of 18,000 zero kilometre calçots were cooked.

From the country to the city

“We have brought the country to the city so the city can no longer ignore it,” explained Arnau Montserrat, the spokesperson for the platform, who added that “in the context of a climate and water emergency, cities need to take responsibility for where we produce our food and favour local farmers”.

Among other demands, the platform called for the need to maintain the agricultural land still in use around Barcelona and to recover the farmland of the Baix Llobregat, Maresme and el Vallès.

Between 1990 and 2012, Barcelona lost around 50% of its agricultural land, but if we want to “move towards a sustainable, healthy, just and local food system, it is essential that we recover this land,” say those from the platform.

A symbolic setting: Plaça Catalunya

Another important aspect of this year’s event was its location. It was not chosen on a whim, quite the opposite. Plaça Catalunya has a very important symbolic weight, and the organisation was aware of this.

According to Montserrat, “Barcelona is now more of a megalopolis than a city, and it has an unsustainable metabolism. And there is nowhere that represents this more starkly than Plaça Catalunya”.

Leading international figures

Lastly, another aspect of the event worth noting was the participation of leading figures from the international agroecological sector who were keen to take part. Among them was the director general of the World Farmers Market Coalition, Carmelo Troccoli, and the coordinator of the farmers market network Slow Food Internacional, Elena Sandrone, who shared many of the challenges faced by the food system and, in particular, reflected on the market chains of small-scale farmers.

A network for demanding change

The organiser of the gathering, the network Ruralitzem – Veus per a la Sobirania Alimentària, brings together all the leading organisations in Barcelona’s agroecological movement, and since autumn 2021, it has been working to make known the different voices and demands of the city with regard to food sovereignty, generating debate and fostering transformations in the city.

This year, thanks to the economic support it has received from Barcelona Activa’s programme “Impulsem el que fas” [We promote what you do], the network has been working to consolidate the Ruralitzem platform, a space for giving visibility to agroecological projects and also continuing with its political impact work.

The new call for subsidy applications from this programme is now open, and until 11 May, organisations with sustainable food projects can submit their applications for funding.