In the year 2030 nutrition is seen as a bridge builder between the city and the countryside. Food is exchanged between the city and its rural surroundings. Graz has created a short food supply chain which is able to provide more than 80 % of its food demand all year round. Food is transported within 1-2 days from the farmers’ fields and storage facilities to the consumers. Supplier and customer are only up to 50 or a maximum of 200 km away from each other. Graz is supplied from this area, but does not absorb all the resources. There is enough food deliverable to all the other towns and villages that are also located in this area. A vivid, proactive and well-connected network of civil society, politics, public administration and SME has achieved that. This network is constantly evolving, reflecting and informing itself. It is open to other influences. The metropolitan area of Graz is acting in a food recycling economy, i.e. it can sustain on the existing resources, maintains them for a multi-generational future and produces even exportable surpluses for other regions. The majority of eaters draws its raw food and meals directly from regional farms or they are delivered from there. If there is a need for intermediaries, it’s ideally only one, for instance, a distribution warehouse or a restaurant. This enables true diversity, since various goods are delivered to many customers from various farmers. Diversity is kept up in between … as in nature … neither standardized nor rationalized to any smallest common denominator.

Food is “real” and tastes good. It consists of ingredients which are grown close to nature. These ingredients are nurtured from diverse species and kinds, which are grown by all sorts of farms: full or part-time farmers, families, cooperatives, specialised processing farms and craftsmen. Graz and its inhabitants have managed to persist the good and to make it accessible to a vast population majority by the aid of organisational and technical aids. Human beings work for human beings and their fundamental needs. A big community of people evolved whose aim and achievement is to live freely, consciously, independently and far-sightedly in exchange with nature. Eating is regarded as a binding element in growing, exchanging, buying and indulging food. Being a farmer is a highly appreciated profession which is desirable and enabling a good living for the performing individuals and their families. Food, its ingredients and living creatures that are involved in this food cycle are also treated with respect. Social contacts are more important than documents or certificates. Food exchange creates trust among the individuals who also foster appreciation across the food supply cycle by working together.

Graz has achieved to make its nutrition in a regional, seasonal, close-to-nature, diverse, waste-avoiding and fair manner!