Collaborative Governance

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The Mértola Food Network seeks to build a local food system that simultaneously promotes a seasonal diet, the production of organic and regenerative foods, and the food sovereignty of the territory.

Based on a collaborative governance model that brings together farmers, public entities and local consumers, the Network develops and implements an innovative approach to the food system, as an alternative to supply chains dominated by conventional agribusiness.

With the goal of achieving the municipal target of locally supplying 75% of the products for public canteens, the Food Network is today a central element in the connection between producers and consumers, strengthening relationships of interdependence and trust that underpin the path to territorial food sovereignty — an essential condition for the social, economic and ecological resilience of Mértola.

The project’s success inspired studies and replications in other territories, and the Food Network will now be an integral part of the TerrAlimenta 2.0 project — a regional scale initiative that seeks to develop a regional Food Basin, intertwining various local food system initiatives in a common strategy for innovation and regeneration.

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