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Food Policy Act

Sustainable food policies, Lodi networks its projects

Deputy Tagliaferri: we want to build a system that reduces inequalities and enhances our economy and history

by Raffaella Ciceri

20 October 2025

Uno degli eventi in piazza della Vittoria a Lodi per le Forme del Gusto. La manifestazione quest’anno ha raccolto circa 30mila presenze in tre giorni

3' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

3' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

Last Saturday in September in the historic centre of Lodi: by a strange combination, various events and cultural proposals in the city revolved around the same theme, food.

The event Le Forme del Gusto; an exhibition, Echi di Risaia, on the work of the rice-workers; the inauguration of the 37th Rassegna Gastronomica. But also the new edition of the Festival della Fotografia Etica, with a series of exhibitions focusing on inequalities in access to food. Coincidence? Perhaps not.

Deputy Mayor Laura Tagliaferri chooses that very weekend to start the path towards a Food Policy for the city. And two weeks later, the city council resolves to join the Milan Urban Food Policy Pact in order to also participate in the Global Forum 2025, which ends today in Milan and brings together the world network of cities committed to the future of food.

Established in Milan during Expo 2015, the Milan Urban Food Policy Pact now links around 330 cities, which share actions on the theme of food poverty, health, sustainability, combating waste, but also promoting the local economy. In Lombardy, Bergamo, Cremona and Lecco have joined the network, and now Lodi has joined as well: 'In recent years we have never had a structured organisation, but we have done a lot, and various services and physical spaces have sprung up that are now reference points,' explains Laura Tagliaferri. Now, thanks also to funding from the Cariplo Foundation, we want to unite this network to integrate the various actions better and reach as many people and age groups as possible.

La “rete” a cui si riferisce la vicesindaca include un ecosistema di progetti che stanno cambiando la mappa di Lodi: «C’è la Fondazione Casa di Comunità, che porta avanti l’esperienza dell’Emporio Solidale e funziona come un supermercato per la distribuzione gratuita delle eccedenze dei negozi e degli aiuti alimentari, anche grazie al filo diretto con diverse aziende del territorio (è sostenuta per esempio anche da Assolombarda e dal Consorzio di tutela del grana padano, ndr). C’è Sanfereorto, dove si fa comunità attraverso l’agricoltura sociale. C’è il festival Le forme del gusto, che era nato come mostra mercato delle eccellenze agroalimentari e negli anni è diventato anche un’occasione per riflettere sulle sfide legate al cibo. Si sta ricostituendo a Lodi una condotta Slow Food. È attiva una consulta che si occupa di promozione della salute, e sappiamo bene quanto la salute dipenda da una nutrizione adeguata».

Then there is the chapter on school canteens, a delicate issue in a city that a few years ago was in the spotlight for a resolution that complicated access to meals for foreign children (other administration, opposite colour junta). 'Lodi's canteens serve 2,500 meals a day, from this year they are entirely organic and also supply meals to the Caritas canteen,' continues Laura Ferrari. In several schools, educational gardens are being created. One objective we have set ourselves is to integrate the canteens with the Community House to reduce food waste.

The first steps of the Lodi Food Policy? 'Malnutrition and food poverty are not distant issues for us: the Casa della Comunità has 900 users, a third of whom are children and young people. By networking the realities already active, we want to build from the bottom up a system that helps reduce inequalities and at the same time contribute to enhancing our history and economy'.