A circular food system is promising, but cities often find themselves mired in its complexity. This handbook showcases practical tools and instruments— including planning, communication, education, collaboration, and financing from the three cities, and will provide invaluable references for other local and regional governments, as well as relevant urban actors to develop their own localized approaches that lead to sustainable, resilient, and circular food systems.

Funded by the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, ICLEI East Asia conducted a research project in 2020, which thoroughly reviewed the urban food circular economy practices in Seoul, Hiroshima and Sapporo through a circular lens. With contributions from the local governments, the project result has been synthesized as the publication Best Practices of Circular Food Production and Consumption in Japan and Korea: A Handbook for Local Governments. By diving into the strategies, actions and interventions on regenerating urban farming and reducing food loss and waste for a more circular urban food system in the three East Asian cities, the handbook provides detailed step-by-step practical references for other local and regional governments in the region and beyond.