As goals are set for greenhouse gas emissions, self-sufficiency in energy, and adaptation to climate change, much prominence is given to urban plans for sustainable mobility and energy efficiency in the built environment. This Special Issue draws attention to the food issue within the planning and its strong implications on space, use of resources, and emissions connecting the already mainstream claims for territorialized food systems based on solidarity relationships and shifting diets to the challenges related to climate change and ecosocial threats.

Insights and experiences presented in this issue are from China, Germany, Great Britain, Japan, the Netherlands, Spain, South Africa, and the United States on how a critical and visionary food debate has moved—and still is moving—to the center stage of planning discourses in many urban communities and local councils. 

The issue further helps to shape the discourse by underpinning that (and how) sustainable urban food planning can address power inequalities and facilitate emancipatory planning practices. It highlights the structural changes necessary—from the allotment garden to the infrastructural landscape, from the urban individual to national governments—for food justice to become a driver of societal change and transformation.