SCORAI Belmont Project: Webinar Series

The Role of Municipalities and Food Policy Councils in Sustainable Food Supply Chains

Time/Date: November 17, 2025 at 8 am Chicago/ 3 pm Sweden/ 5 pm Turkey

This webinar will focus on the role of municipalities and food policy councils to support the development of sustainable, resilient, and cooperative short food supply chains. We will highlight experiences from cases in Sweden, Turkey and Germany. After a short introduction to the topic, a panel of Swedish and Turkish practice partners will discuss experiences, learnings and challenges and how to overcome them.

SPEAKERS

Rebecka Milestad is a researcher in sustainable and resilient food systems with a PhD in Rural Development. With a background at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences and the Royal Institute of Technology she is now at the Swedish Defence Research Agency. Rebecka coordinates the Swedish hub of CO-SFSC that involves research together with Södertälje municipality and Beras International.

SofiGerber is the coordinator of the Bio-district Sörmland that is being developed together with municipalities, farmers, processors and other food actors in the region Sörmland, that is just south of the Swedish capital Stockholm. Sofi holds a PhD in European Ethnology and is employed at Beras International Foundation, a partner of CO-SFSC.

Aylin Topal is a Professor of Political Science and Public Administration at Middle East Technical University. She holds a PhD in Political Science from the New School for Social Research in New York. Aylin Topal’s research interests lie in the political economy of development and agrarian change. She is the author of Boosting Competitiveness through Decentralization: A Subnational Comparison of Local Development in Mexico, (Ashgate Publishing, 2012; Routledge 2016)

Öztürk Kurt received his undergraduate degree in Economics from Anadolu University and his master's degree from Ege University. He began working at the İzmir Metropolitan Municipality in 2004. Formerly, he worked for the foundation of İZENERJİ LTD. and later served as the General Manager of İZELMAN LTD. He is currently the General Manager of İZTARIM LTD. İZTARIM is a subsidiary of the Izmir Metropolitan Municipality with the responsibility of bringing affordable and safe food to the city's tables.

Elif Şener received her undergraduate degree from the Industrial Engineering Department at Yaşar University. Since 2023, she has been working at İZTARIM LTD: She is responsible for coordinating the logistics, order and stock management procedures. She is also supporting the food safely and supply chain management targets of the municipality.

Organized and funded by: