Our food system requires an urgent transformation

The way we produce and consume food is putting an impossible strain on the planet while many still go hungry. It’s clear that our food system needs to change – urgently. With the majority of the world’s population set to live in urban areas, cities offer the perfect arena for action. Our goal is to accelerate the creation of sustainable urban food systems by consolidating and spreading key resources for practioners globally.

Why we created the Toolkit

Food systems, particularly those in urban environments, are complex. They are fluid, interacting with every system around them, which can make creating change difficult. However, when it is accomplished it is transformational. We aim to help practioners do just that. This toolkit is organized as a living library, with tools, guides, and case studies from WWF and beyond that offer the best insights into shaping sustainable urban food systems. Covering cities across the globe, we invite you as a citizen, urban practitioner, or policy-maker to explore this rich collection of tools and put them to work in your city.

Our Team

The Urban Food System Working Group (UFSWG) is a cross-practice collaboration between WWF’s Climate & Energy Practice and WWF’s Food Practice, led by WWF Sweden. With the growing recognition of the urgent need to address consumption-based emissions in cities, UFSWG is working to reduce cities’ global food footprint and increase food security and resilience through demand-side action on diets and waste.

How to use this Toolkit

Each item in the toolkit is tagged according to theme, approach, and resource type. To search, simply select the thematic area(s) you would like to focus on, the approach(es) you would like to use, and/or the kind(s) of resource you are looking for. Use all of these filters to create a more specific search, or fewer/none for a broader search. Most resources in the toolkit are adaptable, though some are created for cities in a particular country context with the local language. To increase the specificity of your search further, you can also select these components as filters using the “More filters” option.