Source: website of the Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Metropolitan Solutions (AMS), visited on the 6th of October 2015.

How will we feed our cities in the future?
To produce sufficient food for a global population under the impact of climate change and at the same time reduce the negative impact of food production – this challenge is one of the largest, which mankind faces today.
Cities could contribute to this challenge. Producing more food in and around them could help to secure food supply and make cities less dependent on food import. And it can help to produce food in a more ecological way, putting less pressure on the climate. In any case, this will have an impact, not only on food production, but also on cities.

Case Study Paris
In this project we take Paris as an example. We will speculate and visualize how Paris would change, if it would embrace urban food production, for the better and the worse. During an intense five-day workshop with an international group of students and young professionals, we dare to speculate and paint a visionary picture of the future. We do this in the shadow of the 2015 Paris Climate Conference, we aim to make a statement, to provoke, surprise and inspire, to provide food for thought and to feed the debate on climate change and the future of urban life.

Workshop on site
The workshop will take place from December 3rd to 7th 2015 in the Atelier Néerlandais in the centre of Paris.
We start on Thursday, December 3rd at 18.00 with the introduction. We will visit the site together and work in a very intense and productive setting throughout the weekend. On Monday evening, the results will be presented to a board of experts, followed by a debate around our findings.

The workshop will be chaired by Prof. Louise O. Fresco (President of Wageningen UR) (tbc) and Prof. Arjan van Timmeren (Scientific director AMS Institute) and led by Arjen Spijkerman (AMS Institute/WUR) and Ulf Hackauf (TU Delft).

Participate
The workshop is open for master students and young professionals from the fields of urbanism, spatial planning, landscape architecture, management, industrial ecology, biology and other related fields. An affinity with scenario-making and visionary thinking is a pro. The willingness to work very productively and intensely is a must.

The fee for participation is EUR 100,- (participants who need accomodation). This will include accommodation for four nights, including breakfast and lunch. The participants will need to arrange their own travel to and within Paris.

If you are interested in joining this workshop, please send an email with a short CV and a letter of motivation to arjen.spijkerman@ams-institute.org