ABSTRACT
Public food procurement programmes (PFPP), including school feeding, are receiving increasing attention as an important policy instrument with the potential to deliver multiple benefits for multiple beneficiaries, including food consumers, food producers and local communities. A key characteristic of PFPP is that it has the possibility – based on sound policy and regulatory frameworks – to determine not only the way food is procured, but, in particular (i) what food will be purchased (such as local, diverse, nutritious, healthy, culturally adequate, environmentally-friendly); (ii) from whom (for example from local and/or family farming producers, small and medium food enterprises, women, youth and/or other vulnerable groups); and (iii) from which type of production (for example from agricultural production that ensures environmental sustainability as well as biodiversity). In doing so, PFPP has considerable potential to influence both food consumption and food production patterns, contributing to the transformation of local food systems. This chapter examines the role of agrobiodiversity and the development of linkages with family farming, agroecological production and the promotion of sociobiodiversity in diversifying institutional food procurement, identifying the key opportunities as well as the barriers and constraints to the better inclusion of more food biodiversity.
