The International Forum on Public Food Procurement, held this week in Valencia, has emphasized the need for "political will, resources, regulatory changes, and a public structure capable of sustaining" this type of policy in order to "transform territories, strengthen peasant and family agriculture, and improve the food of the citizenry."
This idea is captured as one of the central conclusions of the Valencia Manifesto on public food procurement linked to family and peasant agriculture, signed this Friday after two intense days of debate. In the meeting, which combined in-person and online formats due to the red alert for storms in Valencia, more than 150 people from peasant organizations, public administrations, universities, international organizations, and social entities participated. The Forum has been organized by the Center for Rural Studies and International Agriculture (CERAI) and the Mundubat Foundation, with the collaboration of the Polytechnic University of Valencia.
The Manifesto emphasizes that "we have scientific evidence, we have legal tools, and civil society is organized. There are no shortages of diagnoses; what is needed are structural political decisions that turn public food procurement into a state policy endowed with stability and continuity beyond government cycles," as the Mundubat Foundation has disseminated in a statement.
The text proposes that public food procurement cease to be conceived as a simple administrative procedure and become a "strategic public policy, capable of directing resources towards family and peasant agriculture, guaranteeing fair prices, strengthening rural territories, improving the food of the citizenry, reducing waste, and protecting human rights in supply chains."
In this line, the general coordinator of Mundubat, Antonio Montoro, has insisted that "human rights and the Declaration on the Rights of Peasants (UNDROP) should never be lost sight of," including the right to food, access to land, and to receive fair prices. He also highlighted "the role of the public in ensuring the effective exercise of these rights."
Exchange of experiences and successful policies
During the second day of the Forum, round tables and working spaces have been developed in which representatives from FAO, the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food of the Spanish State, small municipalities, peasant organizations, and civil society have participated. The objective has been to share successful experiences that prove that alternatives exist and that the transformation of public food procurement is viable when there is political will, planning, and public investment.
The Manifesto incorporates learnings from initiatives promoted in different regions of the planet, such as Brazil, Cape Verde, Colombia, Indonesia, or India, among other countries, where public policies have used institutional food procurement to support small agriculture and, at the same time, guarantee access to food for communities.
The document also includes European and municipal examples that have advanced in adapting public contracting, in the implementation of logistical infrastructures, and in improving coordination between administrations and producing sectors.
The president of CERAI, Txaran Basterrechea, has emphasized that "every euro allocated to school canteens, hospitals, and residences can contribute to healthy eating and to fairer and more sustainable food systems."
To achieve this, he has demanded that "administrations must adapt contracts, overcome the predominance of the lowest price, and ensure transparency about the origin and production conditions of food."
The proposals debated in Valencia raise a fundamental question: what is decided to be financed with public money and what model of food, agriculture, and territory is wanted to be supported by the institutions.
The Forum has maintained that "Public food procurement has the power to redirect public investment towards agroecological transition, protect family farming through fair prices that cover production costs, act as a preventive measure for comprehensive public health by reducing exposure to agrochemicals, and ensure diets of nutritional quality," among other benefits.
In the same line, the participants have argued that "to ensure the right to food for society, it is necessary to guarantee the rights of the peasantry, including a decent wage, remunerative prices, coherent public policies that support the agroecological transition and generational change," and that for this, constant dialogue is essential, as well as political support and resources from local, state, and European authorities.