The Role of Cities in the Circularity Transition

In 2050, cities are projected to be responsible for consuming 80 % of all food produced. While only covering 2% of the surface, cities are not only characterized by unproportionally higher resource flows, but also by larger number of economic activities, more dense and multilayered social network structures, higher levels of political power, and distinctive food-related behaviors. Therefore, a crucial pathway to push transition towards a more circular food system will be through the engagement of cities. Still, the central role of cities in sustainability transitions, generally, and in food system transitions, specifically, is largely neglected. Specifically, we argue that greater consideration should be given to the spatial dimension of circular food systems, the agency of cities on it, and the complex local, national and global interlinkages. In this presentation, we propose how we can take advantage of the agency of cities, spatial agglomeration, and cross-scale complexity to provide unprecedented momentum to materialize transitions to circularity at multiple scales.