English Pathways for an Agroecological Urbanism (PAU) is a one year scoping study, involving the Centre for Agroecology, Water and Resilience at Coventry University (CAWR), the Permaculture Association, the Urban Agriculture Consortium and the Landworkers’ Alliance. PAU aims to address institutional barriers to agroecological food production, by raising awareness of the ways in which it can address climate, health and other challenges faced by local and national decision makers.
What is our aim?
PAU aims to support urban institutions and decision-makers to drive agroecological transitions, increase local food production, achieve carbon reduction and improve health outcomes.
By applying the ‘Food Zones’ model and an ‘Agroecological Urbanism’ approach in two city regions (Bristol and Leeds), we will identify a selection of diverse ‘agroecological actors’ (farms, market gardens, food distribution hubs, caterers and landed community kitchens), that offer prototype agroecological models, potentially scalable to urban and peri-urban areas across the UK.
What will the project involve?
Together with these ‘agroecological actors’, we will build a portfolio of evidence illustrating the multifunctional benefits of agroecology, and the barriers to its expansion. The evidence will be at the centre of an interactive and multi-sensory on-farm event in each city in March 2025, where we will bring policy makers (the ‘institutional actors’) together with the ‘agroecological actors’, to deepen an understanding of the systemic benefits of, and barriers to, shifting to agroecological food systems.
Following the on-farm event, we will continue to work with all participants online, to co-develop ways in which barriers could be overcome. Potential outcomes include training for civil servants, toolkits, policy development and an action-research project to test implementation pathways in and beyond the two city regions. Each institutional actor will be interviewed before and after the on-farm event and codesign process about how the project has influenced their views. We will explore their attitudes and needs around their own role in creating the conditions for agroecology to thrive and the benefits to their landscapes and communities and their food and climate strategies.
Get in touch
LWA Project Officer: Rebecca Laughton, rebecca.laughton@landworkersalliance.org.uk
Find out more on the AFN Network webpage.
