The current debate on food policy navigates between two major paradigms on how food is valued and governed: The well-established post-exceptionalist public/private state/market binary in which food is still largely considered a commodity but with a sector that slowly moves from state-protected to be market-regulated; and the old-new paradigm supported by commons scholars, contemporary food initiatives and customary food systems who advocate for a holistic and multi-dimensional view on the agri-food sector taken care of in common (SAPEA-Consortium, 2020; Vivero-Pol, 2019; Carceller-Sauras & Theesfeld, 2021). For this event, we are focusing on the latter. Consequently, the aim of this one-day event is thus digging into the recent development in the discussion on the valuation, provision, and use of food as a commons. Commons play a fundamental role as inputs (i.e., seeds, land, water, knowledge) and outputs (food, oxygen, soil fertility, landscapes) in the food system along the agricultural value chains. Commoning also provides a third way of governing resources essential for communities and societies, aside from market mechanisms and public provision. Food commons comprise natural and cultural resources (material and immaterial) held collectively, including traditional institutions with centuries of tradition and newly evolving and very innovative forms of shared governance.

This one-day virtual conference is unique in bringing interested people together that deal with food commons issues directly or who study food governance in a manner that provides room for the idea that food can be reframed and governed as a commons.

The conference will showcase food commons cases in Europe and abroad and provide a unique forum to explore the broad spectrum of “food as a commons” research and food policy implications. The event will spell out and systematize the various value-based narratives and place-based understandings of “food-commons.” Additionally, the meeting will connect experts, early career scholars, and commoners to this new field. Finally, the meeting will have a specific aim to platform the debate on policy interventions on the European Common Agricultural Policy in Europe, but most likely also for other regions of the world. It will provide an opportunity for European commoners and scholars to learn from other food commons’ experiences and vice versa.

This one-day virtual conference aims to broaden a dialogue between traditional food-commons scholars and practitioners engaging with natural input resources to primary production with scientists and activists shaping innovative collective forms of participating in food waste distribution up to experts exploring traditional and contemporary knowledge on food and agriculture as a knowledge commons.

There will be a webinar with invited speakers, focusing on the debate around various epistemologies of food narratives, theory, methodologies, and schools of thought around the food as commons idea; development of initiatives, and finally, the political implications at European and global level. Here, we will debate “food as commons” narratives, different forms of food system governance, and finally, questions about how reframing and governing food as a commons may unlock unpermitted or unexplored policies, thus opening up a new set of policy and legal tools that can facilitate a transition towards fairer and more sustainable food systems within planetary boundaries.

Later, panels will be held to substantiate the debate. Four moderated discussions based on pre-recorded talks that came in via a call for papers will be held.

The day continues with the presentation of the European Network of Territories of Commons (an ongoing initiative with 67 researchers and commoners from 35 countries aimed at understanding how many hectares are owned or governed as a commons in Europe, how many peoples are involved, and how much food is produced). A final session will allow brainstorming on policy impacts, both at the local and national levels, and strategies to promote those transitions.