LiveSeeding aims to raise awareness about organic seeds, breeding, and biodiversity in cities by integrating these elements into local food policies. It has launched a European process involving key stakeholders to promote agroecologically oriented and organic local food systems. The initiative centers on two main actions: developing guidelines to support organic seeds and biodiversity in local food policies, and organizing the first European symposium in spring 2025 to accelerate agroecological food systems. The goal is to foster cultivated biodiversity and sustainable food practices through municipal action.
The event included speeches and debates featuring various entities such as the Rete dei Semi Rurali (Italian Seed Network), FAO, INRAE, ITPGRFA, ProSpecieRara, Let’s Liberate Biodiversity, and UCLG. Additionally, MUFPP signatory cities of Geneva, Rennes, and Granollers shared their practices.
The Milan Pact Awards (MPAs) can become a great opportunity to in raising awareness and sharing best practices on this topic. Furthermore, Europe can draw inspiration from other regions of the world, especially the Global South, where there is a strong commitment to agroecology and traditional diets. The ‘Food Production’ category is the most relevant one. And from the latest Milan Pact Awards, some cities are leading urban agroecology efforts, including:
- Rosario, the category winner, with the preservation from building preservation of its Green Belt
- Bandung’s Buruan SAE, a program that fosters food security by utilizing vacant land,
- Curitiba’s Urban Farm, educating a large number of citizens and
- Ciudad de Mexico’s escuela chinampera, which trains farmers in traditional agricultural practices.
More details about these practices are available at this link on our website.
Sharing practices through the MPAs means not only sharing knowledge with fellow signatory cities but also demonstrating that cultivated biodiversity is a priority topic for the whole membership.
The morning saw a round of presentations by the Liveseeding project representatives and by the cities involved and a panel with international organisations describing how they saw the present and future collaboration of the project in international processes and networks. In the first part of the afternoon, delegates worked in a workshop on a set of actions to foster cultivated biodiversity at the city level, which was developed by the Liveseeding team and organised according to the MUFPP framework.
At the end of the workshop, the city of Milan organised a field visit to Cascina Battivacco, a farmhouse within the municipal area of Milan that spreads over 220 hectares, partly owned by the municipality, partly by the hospital and partly by Fedeli’s family. Out of those hectares, 170 are dedicated to rice farming.
Cesare Fedeli, fourth generation farmer from his family caring for the Cascina, explained to the group the rice varieties they cultivate in an integrated manner (with as low pesticides and fertilizers as possible): they are farmer-breeders and work every day to create in a traditional way varieties that can meet eaters demands as well as being as resistant as possible to the most common funghi that affect rice cultivations.
He also explained to the group the reasons why in the Cascina they cultivate the Ribe rice variety that is cultivated specifically for Milano Ristorazione, the publicly owned organisation that supplies meals to public institutions in the city, particularly to kids: in his opinion, it is the tastiest variety that can be parboiled to meet the needs of the canteen system and that can be cultivated in an integrated manner as they do.
Cascina Battivacco also farms cattle for meat and in the remaining fields they have, Cesare’s team cultivates soy and corn to feed these Milanese cows.
The Liveseeding’s innovative approach should be at the forefront of urban food policies and can be included in systemic approaches such as sustainable public procurement as well as traditional diets restoration and the MUFPP would like to support it to the whole cohort of signatory cities.
