Context
The report “The food system of the city of Padua” was produced as part of the NetZeroCities project, led by Klimate-KIC, an agency that supports cities, regions and countries in achieving
their climate targets. The project supports the cities involved in the “100 Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities by 2030” mission — an initiative funded by the European Commission’s framework programmes for scientific research and
innovation, Horizon 2020 and Horizon Europe — in the process of co-creating Climate City Contracts. Although these contracts are not legally binding, they represent a shared commitment with local stakeholders and set out the path to follow to achieve climate neutrality by 2030. In this process, the complex urban food system – from food production to the management of related waste, including support initiatives for people experiencing food poverty – plays a decisive role that is difficult to quantify, as it is pervasive, has boundaries (including geographical ones) that are hard to define, and is managed by a multitude of actors who often have no connection with one another. For this reason, it is important both to make it visible as an integrated system and to understand its individual components, in order to manage it more effectively and steer it towards greater sustainability.
Objectives
The main objective of the report is therefore to create an integrated framework of knowledge that can guide future actions more effectively, supporting the development of an urban food policy. This policy represents a fundamental tool for the city’s governance and, for the Municipality of Padua, forms part of a broader strategy aimed at reducing all climate-changing emissions in the city.
The report offers a comprehensive overview of the city’s food system, analysing its main stages – production, processing, logistics, distribution, consumption, redistribution of food surpluses and waste management – and providing a summary of the city’s economic and social context. Through this analysis of the food system, the document highlights its complexity, estimates its climate-changing impacts, builds on existing knowledge and identifies policies, projects and stakeholders involved. The report, which also highlights the main critical issues and proposes concrete, inclusive and cross-sectoral courses of action, is designed both as an operational tool for the local council and the main actors in the food system, and as an accessible guide for citizens interested in understanding the importance and pervasiveness of the food system in daily life. The work is based on the principle of making knowledge accessible and shared amongst all those involved.
Method
The analytical method adopted combines field research — through interviews and workshops with key individuals, defined as ‘privileged witnesses’ — with documentary research. In this way, qualitative and quantitative data and information gathered directly are integrated with those from secondary sources. In particular, field research enables the collection of data not publicly available, provides an in-depth understanding of the main mechanisms of interaction between actors in the food system, fostering dialogue amongst them, and gathers assessments of the key challenges and potential of the sectors and themes examined. This approach also allows for the identification of the fundamental issues that need to be addressed to make the city’s food system more sustainable. To present the various aspects analysed in a clear and integrated manner, maps and infographics were used, as these are useful tools for making the results accessible. Finally, ongoing consultation with the municipal administration, in particular with the Environment Department and the Green Spaces, Parks and Urban Agriculture Department, ensured access to a wealth of information and facilitated relations with the stakeholders involved in the field research. All information was collected between January and May 2025.
