During this installment of the Breakfast at Sustainability's series, titled Sustainable Urban Food Supply, presentations and interactive discussions took place, centered around sustainable food supply in the framework of European agricultural policies, urban-rural linkages, urban agriculture, farmer’s markets and food security. A key question was what role cities could play in this field.

After welcoming HE Mr Kuneralp, Ambassador of the Turkish Embassy, Hannes Lorenzen, Greens/EFA adviser on agriculture and rural development called upon Turkey not to repeat the mistakes of EU policies, most notably in the framework of hygiene rules, and instead, to preserve the richest seed biodiversity in Europe.

He also underlined the strong support of Agricultural Commissioner Ciolo for local markets. Dr. Inci Sieber from the City Council of Munich told the 50 participants about the GMO-free Biostadt Munich which runs its own farms, combines organic food supply with education in schools and kindergardens and offers organic food at the famous Tollwood Winter Festival.

Victor Ananias, chairman of Turkish Bugday Association, who presented together with Zeynep Öz, daughter of the Mayor of the soon-to-be ICLEI Member Kartal (Istanbul municipality), showed a video from one of the 100% organic food markets they are running in Istanbul. He emphasised the importance of constantly controlling the prices at these markets. Claudio Baffioni gave a passionate presentation on why Rome is European Capital when it comes to sustainable food supply (150.000 mostly organic food meals/day) and urban-rural linkages. The next meeting in the series addressed sustainable events & meetings and took place around March/April 2011.

If your organisation in Brussels is interested in hosting an event, please contact peter.defranceschi@iclei.org.