Participative Agri-Food Projects in the Urban Bioregion of the Vega of Granada (Spain)

Abstract

The Vega of Granada is a traditional peri-urban agricultural bioregion that includes important environmental and heritage values. As it belongs to the urban agglomeration of Granada, the agricultural land has been affected by the urban sprawl and other impacts of the contemporary metropolitan model. The strategic position of this fertile land and the growing interes in local and organic food products give an opportunity to the Vega of Granada to recover the basic role that it played before the new trends imposed by the global food system. Following to a bioregional approach, this chapter explains some of the participative processes that were activated to develop the alternative food system, mainly considering the use of short food supply chains to distribute and sell the agricultural products of the Vega of Granada. The success of some of those activities and the increase in the consumption of local products demonstrate the importance of participation as a key question in relocalising the food systems and increase the resilience of the peri-urban agricultural land.