Liège Métropole supports the manifesto to free up public procurement

France urbaine, Eating City, Agores, the Lascaux European Center for Transitions and the Walloon Manger demain unit, with the support of the municipalities of Brussels and Mouans Sartoux, are calling for a change in the European framework to support local food supply chains. Willy Demeyer, President of Liège Métropole and Mayor of the City of Liège, explains his region’s commitment to this approach.

Willy Demeyer: Liège Métropole is the association that brings together the 24 mayors of the municipalities in the district of Liège and the President and Vice-President of the provincial College of Liège. Located at the heart of the cross-border Euroregion Meuse-Rhine, the Arrondissement of Liège, the territory where Liège Metropolis reflection and action are carried out, is home to 17% of Wallonia’s population and constitutes the 1st largest conurbation in Wallonia and the 4th largest in Belgium.

Our association, a supra-municipal initiative recognized by the Walloon Region, has as its main fields of action :

• territorial development in the broadest sense, including mobility and food transition policies,
• coordination of the regalian missions devolved to burgomasters,
• promotion and enhancement of the metropolitan area.

The Arrondissement of Liège, like other regions in Belgium, has lost 60% of its farms since 1980. The average surface area per farm has increased by a factor of 3 over the same period, reaching 48 hectares in 2020. However, the area dedicated to agriculture has increased in the metropolitan area by 2% over the period 2012-2022, and the City of Liège has a positive balance of farms over the same period. Our territory, made up of 24 municipalities, is very densely populated in its central part. This territory is essentially urban and rurban, rural at its extremities, where more than 40% of farms are concentrated in 4 communes.

France urbaine: Could you remind us of the levers you are mobilizing today to support agriculture and food policies in your area?

Willy Demeyer: At its level, Liège Métropole took up this issue in 2015 when drawing up the Development strategy of the district, and it was during this process that collaboration was initiated with the Food belt from Liège, which had been formed the previous year. Our plan identified the need for our territory to expand both rural and urban agriculture, as well as to develop alternative farming and short-distance circuits. The development of a local food system that is more sustainable and self-sufficient, with the growth of economic sectors and associated jobs, has since been one of the major objectives pursued by Liège Métropole.

To mobilize all players around these issues, we have decided, alongside the Food Belt, to set up a Metropolitan Food Policy Council. This participative governance body is designed to bring together players in the food system in the broadest sense of the term, to address issues such as food transition, the development of short distribution channels, raising public awareness, training in sustainable food professions and the fight against food insecurity… Since December 2022, the Food Policy Council has brought together 120 members, for an initial 2-year term. The profiles are very diverse, coming from all parts of the Liège Arrondissement, and making up a group bringing together a wide and varied panel of players in the food system, from producer to consumer. The 120 members of the Food Policy Council are the ambassadors of the food transition in our metropolitan area. Through this lively community, actions and projects will be carried out to advance towards a more resilient and sustainable food system.

The Metropolitan Food Policy Council was the first of its kind to be set up in Wallonia on an agglomeration scale. 6 working groups have been set up for one year from March 2023 to March 2024:

• access to quality food for all
• improving the quality of food aid supplies,
• understand changing consumer habits in order to adapt supply to demand in short distribution channels,
• improve training opportunities for sustainable food actors, with a pilot project on bakery,
• support producers: economic viability and access to manpower,
• improve practices in community kitchens
• share best practices,
• actions at local authority level (public contracts for community kitchens and public agricultural land).

Liège Métropole worked with Food Policy Council members to co-lead working groups on food aid and local government action.

Through the work of the « local authorities levers » working group, this was an opportunity to share the approach pursued by the City of Liège in favor of access to land for new farmers (for market gardening, with the CRE@FARM project), as well as, in terms of public procurement, the remarkable work carried out by the metropolis’s main public authority kitchen within “ISoSL”, to offer school meals using local and sustainable foodstuffs. Still on the subject of collective catering, schools, nurseries and hospitals have signed up to the Walloon Green Deal Sustainable Canteens Cantines initiative. On the initiative of the City of Liège and the Food Belt, a new « Short circuit food cluster » is also being developed: a first Short circuit food cluster building in 2022 and, by 2025, a second « Logistic Hub  » building that will house a vegetable factory, a processing laboratory and a canning facility.

France urbaine: Why do you think that the territorial scale can be a relevant level? And why do you support this advocacy for public procurement?

Willy Demeyer: We believe that the level of inter-municipalities and local authorities is an appropriate scale for action in this area, and in particular with public orders for community kitchens, we have considerable leverage to act in favor of the food transition.The challenge of a more sustainable food system will also have a major impact on the health of our residents, the economic health of our farmers, and the health of our region through the preservation of soil quality, our landscapes and biodiversity.

We are also aware that, in a rapidly changing world, food security risks are becoming a growing concern.

Potential threats linked to climate disruption, conflict and health crises can compromise the stability of our food supply. It is therefore becoming imperative to strengthen our collective resilience by developing sustainable and robust strategies to guarantee the food security of our communities. With this in mind, we feel it is important to support the advocacy work you have carried out with your partners, including the Cellule Manger Demain with whom we collaborate on various projects, both at the level of Liège Métropole and the City of Liège.