Headline: Réduire l’impact climatique de notre alimentation: ce que des collectivités territoriales françaises et allemandes peuvent nous apprendre

Food and food policy is central to social-ecological transformation. It is also an everyday issue that is easy to communicate to citizens. Municipalities in Germany and France have recognized the potential of innovative local food policies and have developed and tested innovative approaches to transforming local food systems. However, they are encountering structural barriers that cannot be overcome at the municipal level. The Franco-German Forum for the Future has researched the opportunities and obstacles of local nutritional change and brought engaged municipalities from both countries into exchange with each other. Together with experts from academia, public administrations and civil society, it has developed the seven recommendations for the national governments, one of which concerns "Prioritizing the development of local and sustainable food systems" with five proposals for action. This study is intended as a background paper to the Recommendation. With recourse to the concrete example of Mouans-Sartoux and other municipalities in France and Germany, it describes the potentials of a sustainable municipal food policy and provides – from concrete local practice – the background knowledge for each of the five proposals for action.