Practical information
Description
Timeline
Stakeholders
Strengths and offer
Urban logistics
Positive impacts
Needs
Logistical challenges
Practical information
What?
In the Belly of the City is presented as an artistic platform and a call to rethink food systems. The project turns the Brussels–Charleroi canal into a logistical support for transporting food from a network of agroecological farms in the Pajottenland to the heart of Brussels.
Who?
Futurefarmers × GLUON, with De Groentelaar / Tijs Boelens, Groote Eiland, Recyclo, a network of partner farms, cooperative shops and collective kitchens.
Where?
Brussels — Brussels–Charleroi canal, with a Halle / Pajottenland → Brussels connection.
When?
The project is documented in 2024, notably between September and October. First season / public launch from 11 to 13 October 2024 at the I Love Science Festival, Akenkaai, Brussels. The project is presented as continuing in 2024–2025.
Contact
Amy Franceschini — Futurefarmers
info@futurefarmers.com
Resources
GLUON — In the Belly of the City; Futurefarmers / GLUON project pages; Good Food Brussels — A farmer by boat; Rabbko / SamenDurable — presentation and discussion on 18 November 2024.
Description
In the Belly of the City proposes to consider the canal not only as a landscape or industrial infrastructure, but as a possible support for local food logistics. The project tests transport by boat for products from agroecological farms in the Pajottenland to Brussels, replacing part of the journeys usually made by diesel vehicles.
The project relies on a wooden boat navigating between Halle and Brussels. Tijs Boelens / De Groentelaar coordinates produce from a network of twelve farms, transported to Brussels twice a week. Once the goods arrive in the city, they are sorted, packed and delivered by bicycle to cooperative shops and collective kitchens.
The project’s interest is also cultural and political: it makes visible the logistics chain between food-producing territory and city, opens a discussion on the role of the canal in Brussels food systems, and combines transport, research, art, debates, films and encounters within one platform.
Timeline
September–October 2024
Period of documentation and public visibility for the project.
11–13 October 2024
First season / public launch at the I Love Science Festival, Akenkaai, Brussels.
2024–2025
The project is presented as an ongoing experiment.
Stakeholders
Futurefarmers, as the artistic collective carrying the overall concept and experimental logic.
GLUON, as a partner for research, culture, programming and project framing.
De Groentelaar / Tijs Boelens, as agricultural coordinator and central actor in organising flows from the farms.
A network of twelve agroecological farms, supplying the products transported to Brussels.
Groote Eiland, Recyclo and bicycle delivery partners, involved in the articulation with the city and the last mile.
Cooperative shops and collective kitchens, which receive the products in the city.
Research and innovation partners, including Innoviris, VUB, UGent and EIT Food.
Canal, navigation and waterway infrastructure actors.
Strengths and offer
Food transport by water between the Pajottenland / Halle and Brussels.
Reuse of an existing infrastructure instead of simply adding more road vehicles.
Articulation between boat transport, urban sorting and final delivery by bicycle.
Visibility of the logistics chain between productive territory and consuming city.
Multifunctional platform: transport, artistic programming, films, discussions, research and awareness-raising.
Stacked functions: the project can connect with existing trips, programmes or infrastructures, for example by filling bicycles that would otherwise return empty.
Support for public discussion on the place of the canal in Brussels food logistics.
A strong image for the exhibition: farm, canal, boat, city, sorting, bicycle, cooperative shops and collective kitchens.
Urban logistics
How does it work?
Products are gathered on the Pajottenland / Halle side, notably through De Groentelaar and a network of farms. They are then transported by boat along the Brussels–Charleroi canal to Brussels. On arrival, the goods must be unloaded, sorted, packed and then delivered by bicycle to cooperative shops and collective kitchens. The project therefore combines inland waterway transport, break of load, urban sorting and a cyclable last mile.
Why is it interesting?
Because the project tests an alternative to road transport for part of local food supply. It treats the canal as an existing but underused logistics infrastructure for small food flows. It also shows that sustainable transport does not depend only on the mode used: loading and unloading points, travel time, product compatibility, cold chain, boat size, people on board and articulation with the last mile must all be considered.
Which obstacles does it respond to?
Dependence on diesel-based trips, difficulty making local food logistics visible, lack of credible alternatives to road transport for small producers, underuse of the canal for local food flows, and the need to connect agroecological production, the city, culture and public debate.
Identified nodes / obstacles
Inland waterway transport; multimodality; loading; unloading; travel time; cold chain; boat size; profitability; canal regulations; boat maintenance; last mile by bicycle; articulation between farms, boat, sorting place, shops and collective kitchens.
Positive impacts
Environment — potential reduction of certain diesel-based trips if boat transport genuinely replaces road journeys and if the last mile is done by bicycle.
Space — possibility of shifting part of food flows towards the canal and reducing the presence of vans for certain journeys, provided that loading and unloading points are suitable.
Neighbourhood — more discreet logistics if the arrival of products is well organised and if urban redistribution remains cyclable, local and not cumbersome.
Social relations — stronger links between producers, cooperative shops, collective kitchens, urban publics, artists, researchers and logistics actors.