Alimenta Summit’26 will be held at the Polytechnic Institute of Portalegre on 29 and 30 October 2026, establishing Portalegre as a site for collaboration, systems thinking, and experimentation regarding the future of food systems.
Situated in the interior of Portugal, Portalegre provides a significant context for a summit focused on developing healthier, more sustainable, and culturally relevant food systems. Its distance from major urban centers encourages consideration of alternative geographies of innovation, shaped by local knowledge, food production, cultural memory, and the specific challenges encountered by low-density regions.
Hosting Alimenta Summit’26 in Portalegre acknowledges that the future of food systems is shaped not only in large cities or decision-making centers, but also in regions where food remains closely linked to land, culture, care, the local economy, and daily practices. The interior of the country therefore serves as both the location and a central element of the summit’s discourse.
Within this context, the Polytechnic Institute of Portalegre serves as both host and platform, facilitating connections among academic knowledge, applied innovation, territorial dynamics, and society. The summit aims to highlight the potential of places, communities, and local ecosystems as catalysts for food system transformation, emphasizing the need to address health, sustainability, gastronomy, tourism, hospitality, and food design through tangible and culturally embedded approaches.
Portalegre thus hosts the inaugural edition of Alimenta Summit as a territory of possibilities, where research, practice, education, and experience converge to envision more conscious, inclusive, and sustainable food futures.
