Local Food and Sustainable City-Regions: The Potential of Public Procurement

1
Local Food and Sustainable City-Regions The
Potential of Public Procurement

• Dr. Roberta Sonnino
• School of City and Regional Planning
• Cardiff University

2
Searching for Sustainable Development The Power
of the Public Sector

• Public procurement as the sleeping giant of
  economic development policy
• in the EU, the public procurement spend amounts
  to ca. 16 of the gross domestic product
• In the UK, the public sector spends some 150
  billion/year, or around 13 of its GDP
• Significant opportunity to promote socially and
  environmentally friendly products and services
  concept of sustainable procurement

3
Sustainable public procurement

• Bringing together the business and the policy
  arms of government is what sustainable
  procurement is about. It is about how the
  government s immense buying power can be used to
  make rapid progress towards its own goals on
  sustainable development. Sustainable
  procurement in short using procurement to
  support wider social, economic and environmental
  objectives in ways that offer real long-term
  benefits, is how the public sector should be
  spending taxpayers money (Neville Simms, UK
  Sustainable Procurement Task Force, 2006)

4
Sustainable Public Procurement The Potential of
Local Food

• Food re-localization as a necessary (but not per
  se sufficient) aspect of sustainable public
  procurement systems
• Environmental benefits
• Multiplier effect on the local economy
• Shared commitment to the objectives of
  sustainability

5
Re-localizing the Public Food Systems The
Barriers

• Cost-cutting culture best value wrongly
  interpreted as low cost
• Wrong perception that food re-localization is not
  allowed by the EU legislation. In fact
• Article 6 of the Treaty of the European Union
  (1997) requires the integration of environmental
  and social objectives into all EUs policies
• Article 26 of the 2004 Public Sector Directive

6
Re-localizing the Public Food Systems The
Opportunities

• If it is set out in a non-discriminatory way,
  theres no doubt whatsoever that you can use as
  your technical specification that all foodstuff
  must be organic, full stop. It is legitimate
  to say we want foodstuff that is not older
  than, its a legitimate ideaIf that means in
  practice that it will have to be locally-grown,
  so be it! It remains a legitimate criterion, but
  it is not a legitimate criterion if you say that
  it has to be produced within 10 kilometres from
  the school. Interview at DG INTERNAL MARKET, 2006
  

7
Re-localizing the Public Food Systems The
Benefits

• The County of East Ayrshire (Scotland) has
  re-localized its school food chain
• Products broken into 9 lots to attract local
  producers
• Innovative award criteria based on quality,
  rather than price

8
Re-localizing the Public Food Systems The
Benefits

• Multiplier effect of 160,000/12 schools on
  local economy
• Local sourcing has helped the Council to save
  almost 100,000 in environmental costs -- food
  miles, packaging waste
• Increased citizens satisfaction with the service
• Social Return on Investment Index of 6.19

9
Re-localizing the Public Food Systems The
Benefits

• The City of Rome (Italy) has also partly
  re-localized its enormous school food system
  through creative procurement
• Emphasis on PDO/PGI products
• Products from bio-dedicated food chains
• Guaranteed freshness

10
Re-localizing the Public Food Systems The
Benefits

• In 2009
• 67.5 of the food was organic
• 44 of the food came from bio-dedicated food
  chains
• 26 of the food was local
• 14 of the food was Fair Trade
• 2 of the food came from social cooperatives

11
Re-localizing the Public Food Systems Some
Conclusions

• Municipal governments as food chain innovators
• food security as a matter of production and
  access
• Need to establish mechanisms that
• facilitate the diffusion of knowledge (good
  practice is a bad traveller)
• scale up and protect urban food strategies to
  create sustainable city-regions - regions that
  are characterised by reciprocal and synergistic
  relations between urban, peri-urban and rural
  areas