In the last decade, efforts to re-localize the food system have been gaining ground in a way that is intended to induce changes in the primary sector, thereby improving its conditions and sustainability. The European Union has identified food as one of the ten key sectors with outstanding potential for an ecological transition, and public procurement of (organic) food as an appropriate policy to foster agricultural development and support small farmers. In this study, we analyze changes in land use and farming dynamics in three municipalities close to the metropolitan area of Madrid (Spain). We also explore how stakeholders and farmers perceive the driving forces of these changes and the potential for public procurement in providing stability for farmers and more specifically, boosting the articulation and consolidation of the emerging agroecological sector in an up-to-date hostile peri-urban environment. Some urban policies and food strategies in nearby cities, such as Madrid, have introduced measures to promote sustainable food in public procurement. The procurement could drive 10% of the total food grown in the Comunidad de Madrid, with large variations in the impact on different food subsectors. However, if public procurement is to be organic, local production has no capacity to meet increases in demand, except for honey and oil. Food procurement would not lead to improved stability and increases in farmers’ incomes if public policies to boost ecological transition are not adopted in parallel. For farmers, economic viability takes precedence over other problems, and although public procurement has been mainstreamed as a valuable tool to support local agriculture, stakeholders do not have high expectations for it. The research shows that farm size and specialization have a strong influence on market orientation, and the agroecological farmers and social movements that support them are primed for innovation adoption and may act as catalysts for the process.

Agricultural land is a key resource for territorial resilience. In the European context, fertile soils are under pressure not only from urbanisation processes, abandonment and the establishment of non-agricultural uses but also from agriculture that is not well adapted to territorial resources. In order to inform urban planning, a methodology is proposed and applied to the Madrid region to analyse the suitability of agricultural land uses with respect to agrological quality. The majority of agricultural uses in the region are well adapted to the agroecological quality of the land; larger areas of over-exploited land are located along some of the region’s rivers and in the Campiña, while under-utilised land is mainly found in the south-west and in the metropolitan comarcas. This methodology is based on official and open-access information, so it can be easily replicated and used to inform land planning. We propose three strategies depending on the suitability of land use: the introduction of crops in priority areas for horticulture or arable crops, agricultural protection areas and ecological regeneration areas.

The potential of periurban agrarian ecosystems is recognized as one of the cornerstones for improving urban sustainability; however, this potential has been disregarded in spatial planning and decision making. The main goal of the PAEc-SP project was to assess the feasibility of integrating periurban agricultural areas into spatial planning by developing a viable ecosystem services-based methodology.

Food is back on the agenda. After the global financial crisis of 2008, food insecurity became rampant even in high‐income countries, and COVID‐19 has only worsened the situation. Action is needed to build emancipatory practices dealing with food insecurity. The cultural and technical legacy of urban planning can be seized and enriched with the principles of the commons and the ethics of care. A case study in Madrid, Spain, provides clues about how to envision a future in which urbanism backs agroecological and right to food movements to design resilient urban food systems. More than 400 free food distribution nodes operate in the city, yet over 14% of the population is food insecure. This study analyzes public, private, and community programs to address food poverty, as well as community gardens, municipal markets, food‐related business incubators, and public centers with potential community kitchens. Urban planning helps broadening horizons of possibilities, activating the collective imagination of new ways to connect needs and—often unnoticed—resources. Such an approach contributes to progress in reducing dependencies from the large industrial food sector. Urban planning provides tools for applying the qualities of agroecological food systems supported by the community to define strategies adapted to each specific context. In mature contexts, it helps transposing the social reorganization into the material space in the neighborhood.

Diversas propuestas internacionales promueven sistemas alimentarios sostenibles, como por ejemplo el Pacto de Milán, la iniciativa de C40, el ICLEI (Gobiernos locales por la sostenibilidad) Food System, la Declaración de Glasgow o la propia estrategia europea “De la granja a la mesa”. Pero aún no se aplican con claridad en el urbanismo, a pesar de que puede jugar un papel clave en la transición hacia sistemas agroecológicos y sostenibles. Para dar ese salto cualitativo, planteamos la necesidad de sistematizar el conocimiento sobre las experiencias que aprovechan de manera innovadora los mecanismos de ordenación. Por ello presentamos dos ejemplos significativos con diferente grado de desarrollo: el Plan Director Urbanístico del Área Metropolitana de Barcelona y el Plan de Biodistritos en Andalucía. En ellos se han tenido en cuenta la dimensión ecológica: el manejo sostenible de agua y suelo y la interacción con estrategias de mitigación y adaptación al cambio climático; la dimensión económica por el potencial de generación de empleo y reactivación local; y la dimensión social relacionada entre otros aspectos con la cohesión social y el refuerzo de vínculos urbano rurales. De estos planes se extraen lecciones críticas que permitirían hacer operativas las recomendaciones de reorganización espacial adaptada a las especificidades de los sistemas agroecológicos.