There’s something quietly powerful in a group of people walking together through a field. That’s where food officers from Milan and Oostende met actors of the Nantes Metropole food system last spring as part of the EU funded Cleverfood project.
Visits like this are not just a tour, they are an act of trust. Farmers, organisations, schools, food system innovators, and civil servants opened their doors, shared their methods, and spoke candidly about their struggles and future plans. For participants from Milan and Oostende, this was an invitation into the living, breathing ecosystem that Nantes Metropole has been building for years: a network rooted in land, sustained by relationships, and shaped by a clear vision for the future of food.
“We join programmes like Cleverfood to learn from each other, not only in France, but with other European cities,” says Laurent Comeliau, Head of the Climate, Food and Citizen Participation Unit at Nantes Metropole.
While EU projects can sometimes feel far from the soil, exchanges like this show how a city can lead not just through policies, but through openness, sharing what works and what’s still evolving. Funding remains an essential driver for cities to join EU projects, yet many local governments also see these collaborations as vital spaces for learning, exchange, and joint advocacy.
Nantes Metropole’s territorial approach to food
At the heart of Nantes Metropole’s food strategy lies the Projet Alimentaire Territorial (PAT), a 10-year territorial food project running until 2030. Developed through wide democratic consultation – including 150 organisations and 500 participants – the PAT set a path from farm to fork, linking land use, farmer support, education, procurement, and governance.
A Metropolitan Food Council, active until 2023, provided citizen-driven accountability, producing a 66-page evaluation report and prompting a formal response from the elected government.
Even if the approach evolves, the commitment to food will remain, it belongs to this territory.
But the work didn’t end there. With the Council’s mandate concluded, the Metropolis transitioned to more agile ‘PAT workshops’ – lighter, operational spaces that still connect elected officials, city staff, and food actors in a spirit of co-creation. This flexible governance reflects a deeper political choice: to move from deliberation to implementation, while keeping food as a central thread in its green and social agenda.
Through innovative land use policies, support for young and transitioning farmers, and food education partnerships such as ‘1 farm, 1 school’ – which pairs local organic farmers with schools for joint activities like classroom workshops and farm visits – Nantes links urban priorities to rural needs. Its work shows that food policy is not an add-on but a strategic tool for climate action, social inclusion, and economic development.
Food policy has become deeply rooted in Nantes Metropole, woven into the territory’s identity, with support that spans political cycles. As Comeliau remarked, “Even if the approach evolves, the commitment to food will remain, it belongs to this territory.”
How Nantes grows food and trust
Nantes Metropole’s food policy doesn’t live in documents, it lives in its people. During the study visit, participants met farmers and food actors who embody the city’s territorial strategy through their everyday work.
Vincent, whose farm integrates refugee workers, grows twenty tonnes of vegetables a year for local markets, restaurants, schools and solidarity baskets. He coordinates with social services and city staff to ensure his produce reaches vulnerable families – with dignity, not as leftovers but as planned, quality deliveries. His work is part of an integration pathway that includes language support and employment.
Nearby, Olivier and Marie care for the iconic Vache Nantaise, a breed of cattle used both for its milk and its meat and adapted to the wetlands around Nantes. Their farm operates on public land, where cattle grazing is used not only for food production but as a tool for ecological land management. By replacing mechanical maintenance with natural grazing, they help preserve biodiversity protecting local plant life, bird species, and insect habitats. Supported by Nantes Métropole, their work goes beyond farming: the site doubles as a classroom, welcoming school groups, young people in social inclusion programmes, and aspiring farmers. Their collaboration with school canteens and hospitality schools extends into culinary education as well, teaching the next generation how to cook sustainably and respectfully, nose to tail.
At the Marché d’Intérêt National (MiN), one of France’s oldest wholesale markets, sustainability is part of the infrastructure. The market is powered by renewable energy, collects and redistributes all food waste, and is planning last-mile delivery by cargo bikes from a renovated building in the city centre. Local producers benefit from reduced rents, and unsold produce is turned into soups or meals by social reintegration workers. As Director Amaury Hanotaux puts it, “We are using the market not just for trade, but to connect and support everyone in the food system.”
We are using the market not just for trade, but to connect and support everyone in the food system.
The city’s approach to land is equally thoughtful. Nantes uses zoning tools to legally bind specific lands to agricultural or natural use, reducing speculation and ensuring access for sustainable farming. Through incubators, land-matching services, and targeted investment aid – exclusively for organic projects – more than 30 new farmers have already been supported. With climate adaptation now part of the city’s food and land strategy, the goal is clear: resilient food systems, built on real commitments.
Learning across borders
The visiting delegates didn’t just observe, they connected. For Chiara Mandelli, Food Policy Officer in Milan, the visit was a reminder that “urban and peri-urban agriculture are key to reconnecting with the land. As we face the challenges of climate change, it’s crucial to rebuild that connection to ensure a sustainable future.”
Milan’s own policies on public land management and canteen procurement found echoes in Nantes Metropole’s work, but the visit added a new layer: seeing how local authorities, farmers, and schools collaborate not only to supply food, but to educate students and foster a deeper connection between food, land, and learning.
Both Milan and Oostende were also struck by the Metropolis’ practical approach to working with the land as it is. Rather than imposing visions of food production, Nantes Metropole begins by mapping the true capacity of its territory. Much of the land around the city is wet and not well-suited for intensive vegetable or cereal production. Nantes has embraced its strengths, supporting cattle farming that aligns with ecological grazing and helps preserve the biodiversity of wetlands. This approach is then matched by matching food demand accordingly, particularly through public procurement. For the visiting cities, this was a refreshing reversal of the usual logic: rather than forcing land to meet demand, Nantes Metropole adapts demand to what the land can sustainably offer.
Another key takeaway was the scale and coherence of the local food network. Milan and Oostende were impressed not only by the diversity of actors involved – from farmers and cooperatives to education centres, social integration projects, markets, NGOs and public institutions – but by how genuinely engaged they were. Each actor had a clear role and connection to the broader food strategy, and their sense of ownership was palpable. As one delegate noted, it felt less like a policy and more like a living system knit together through years of trust-building, shared goals, and mutual respect.
Kathy Belpaeme Food Policy Officer in Oostende captured this sentiment: “Nantes demonstrates on a practical level how food can be a driver for a sustainable city and society, where farmers have a crucial place and organic food can feed nature and people.” Oostende’s own food work has gained momentum in recent years, and seeing how Nantes Metropole ties together land use, education, and economic inclusion provided a blueprint to aspire to.
Nantes demonstrates on a practical level how food can be a driver for a sustainable city and society, where farmers have a crucial place and organic food can feed nature and people.
Travelling seeds
What Nantes has built is a model to adapt with several core practices standing out as particularly transferable. The land-matching and farm incubator programmes provide practical support for a new generation of farmers offering access to land, technical guidance, and investment aid thus providing a strong response to the ageing of the farming population. The ‘1 farm, 1 school’ initiative, with its modest €28,000 starting budget, demonstrates how even small investments in food education can create long-term links between producers and communities.
Nantes shows how public procurement can serve both as a reliable market for local farmers and as a tool for education, linking producers to school canteens while also using food supply to teach children about sustainability and healthy eating. It’s a strategy that any city can begin to explore.
Equally important is governance. Nantes Metropole has experimented with deliberative food councils, thematic workshops, and co-designed actions. These mechanisms, though evolving, offer valuable lessons for how to structure participation, build trust, and align diverse actors around shared goals.
Nantes Metropole already has plans to go further, possibly expanding the incubator to cattle farming, strengthening educational partnerships, and refining its climate adaptation strategies. As Milan and Oostende left the fields they took home ideas and intentions the study visit planted.
