Metropolitan Food Systems

Focusing on Milan, Barcelona, and the Ruhr area, this book reveals how three leading European city-regions are reshaping the relationship between planning, agriculture, and sustainability. Bringing together fieldwork, interviews, and comparative analysis, it highlights the often-overlooked power of peri-urban agriculture and the complex dynamics that underpin truly local food systems. Farmland preservation emerges as only one piece of a much larger puzzle—one that spans governance, policy design, farm business models, land tenure, biodiversity, and resource management. Through vivid case studies, the book uncovers the tools, strategies, and actors driving innovation on the ground, as well as the structural obstacles that still stand in the way. The result is a compelling call for a more integrated, multi-scalar approach to planning—one capable of supporting resilient local food systems and sustainable peri-urban landscapes.