In highly urbanized contexts a strategy for improving food provision and a
sustainable use of resources is needed. In order to ensure this, specific interventions should be
supported by a background analysis, deepening the potentialities of the local system in
responding to urban food demand.
The paper proposes a methodology to describe and assess these capacities in a metropolitan
agro-food system from a multidimensional perspective, through an approach combining
productive and economic aspects, and describing simultaneously the conformity of
productions to food demand, and their contribution to the economic balance of the territory.
The methodological approach introduced has been applied to Milan Metropolitan Region.
