Thinking about food processing systems in a holistic way: towards a more sustainable agriculture

The visit from the Professor Harriet Friedmann, sociologist and geographer from the University of Toronto, gave rise to very fruitful scientific discussions on the question of the sustainability of agro-food systems. Harriet Friedmann contributed in different respects to a large number of seminars, part of which had been organised specifically in the context of her visit to deal with questions related to the evolution of agrofood systems and their sustainability. These seminars were critical in particular to discuss the linkages between agriculture and food systems. Harriet Friedmann’s visit provided a unique opportunity to put into perspective different conceptual approaches that have been developed to analyse agro-food system and this contributes to proposing ways for renewing the thinking about these systems in a way that better addresses environmental and social sustainability concerns. Interestingly a significant number of researchers took advantage of her visit to have her participating to different seminars and scientific discussions.
Her visit contributed to enrich the collective thinking currently being developed within the Montpellieran scientific community about the sustainability of urban agrofood systems as part of designing the SurFood project and in particular about the urban rural linkages from a sociological and territorial point of view. Her experience as past Chair of the Toronto Food Policy Council was a critical element in this regard.