Ongoing climate change, demographic pressures, and socio-economic differences are likely to increase vulnerability to food insecurity, whilst the challenge of providing sufficient, nutritious, and affordable food for everyone has never been greater. In this sense, the concept of food justice is gaining prominence in urban strategies and decision making worldwide. Gothenburg, like several other European cities, grapples with significant gaps between its geographical areas and various sectors of society. One of these gaps relates to the need of developing a sustainable food system, which would comprise the whole chain from food production, via processing, distribution and marketing, to consumption. In this dimension, many research studies have identified unutilized social capital and natural resources as the main causes of fragmentation, stressing the need for strengthening bottom-up initiatives through projects that could affect the local food strategy in a positive way. Here, participatory approaches have shown to be useful tools for joint development of possible futures and have laid bare overlooked possibilities for successful implementation of food strategies. In this vein, the City of Gothenburg has developed a project (Urban Rural Gothenburg ) that systematically tests and demonstrates innovative methods for new creative interactions between the city and the country, some of which explore novel developments within food security, food affordability and access to food. This presentation focuses on the role of Gothenburg’s food strategy for local production and logistics, and as a green basis for rural-urban linkages by focusing on the employed assumptions and methods set out to create beneficial environmental, social and economic effects.