The Turin food System toward a Metropolitan Food Policy: An Actorial Perspective

Among other cities, Turin is moving toward an urban food strategy, gathering in an integrated perspective many practices and policies from local authorities, market actors and food movements. Universities (University of Turin, Politecnico of Turin, University of Gastronomic Science) play various role in this perspective, both in promoting and supporting policies and practices, both producing, collecting (among the different food actors at the local level) and sharing knowledge about how the actual urban food system that nourish Turin works. That is necessary background to go further in defining goals and targets for a food policy at the local-metropolitan level. In this perspective, the proposed contribution presents the theoretical background, the aims and the design of a research-action and the first results of Turin Food Atlas project. It is being implemented by an interdisciplinary group or research based in Turin (Italy), including geographers, planners, IT experts, agronomists, designers. The core of the project is the development of a methodology of analysis of urban food systems based on the realization of a multimedia, interactive, participated Atlas of Food, centered on the metropolitan city of Turin. At the moment we have completed the first report of Turin food system, with a first version of Food Atlas web platform. The general goal of the project is to develop and implement an interdisciplinary methodology of food system analysis and assessment, at the metropolitan scale, through traditional charts and maps, participatory mapping and a strict relationship with social networks, for field action. The principal idea of the Atlas as space of representation, place of sharing knowledge and tool for policy is that knowledge about urban food systems is owned and produced by a huge amount of actor, active at the local scale, in particular activist, food movements and other actors of the civil society. The Atlas, which aims at being considered as a box for the collection and the production of knowledge about food in Turin, is divided into three main sections: a) a review of already existing maps and representations about the food system (a map of maps), which are critically reviewed and organized, in order to produce a catalogue of the different existing representations; b) a collection of static maps, specifically produced for the atlas, representing data about the food system coming both from official archives (e.g. census) and from users and actors of the food system. The static maps will be open to updates and corrections, following the suggestions of users; c) a platform for users-generated, dynamic, interactive maps, based on crowdmapping and the integration with social networks.