Manchester Metropolitan University and Oldham Council will host the conference "Feeding Regions: Turning Plans into Action", on Wednesday 23rd October, as part of the Food Chains 4 Europe project. The event will highlight the work of the project over the past 3 years and take stock of recent developments in the region, including becoming signatories to the Milan Urban Food Policy Pact, as well as nationally and in the EU.

Partners from across Europe will consider challenges for regional policy making that supports more sustainable food. 

The programme features a mixture of keynote speakers and action-oriented workshops. 

Speakers include: 

  • Carolyn Steel, leading thinker on food and cities, author of Hungry City: How Food Shapes Our Lives and the forthcoming book Sitopia: How Food Can Save the World. 
  • Professor Kevin Morgan, Professor of Governance and Development at Cardiff University and globally renowned expert on urban food, public procurement and regional innovation systems. 
  • Yota Nicolarea, Food Policy Officer for the MUFPP Secretariat in Milan, who will outline inspiring action taking place in other global cities and how the MUFPP framework can support action in Greater Manchester. 

The DEFRA National Food Strategy team will be running an interactive workshop in the afternoon as part of the consultation for the new strategy due to be published next year. 

Parallel workshops exploring how city-regions can progress action will be held on the following themes: 

  • Action Through Partnership: building regional partnerships to make food better; 
  • Getting Food Growing: developing large scale projects to raise the profile of urban growing; 
  • Making the Business Case: promoting the role of enterprise to support more sustainable city-regions; 
  • Momentum Building: effective processes to translate ideas into impact. 

The sessions will be independently facilitated, with inputs from experts including partners from the Food Chains 4EU project. 

The conference will be held in the Engine Hall at the People’s History Museum in Central Manchester on Wednesday 23rd October. This event is free to attend. Lunch and refreshments will be provided. 

Conference Programme