Toward Adequate Food Systems: Collaboration and “Nonsovereign” Food Futures

Author(s):  
Hanna Garth
2006 ◽  
Vol 65 (2) ◽  
pp. 182-189 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy Johns ◽  
Pablo B. Eyzaguirre

Simplification of human diets associated with increased accessibility of inexpensive agricultural commodities and erosion of agrobiodiversity leads to nutrient deficiencies and excess energy consumption. Non-communicable diseases are growing causes of death and disability worldwide. Successful food systems in transition effectively draw on locally-available foods, food variety and traditional food cultures. In practice this process involves empirical research, public policy, promotion and applied action in support of multi-sectoral, community-based strategies linking rural producers and urban consumers, subsistence and market economies, and traditional and modern food systems. Implementation of the International Plant Genetic Resources Institute's Global Nutrition Strategy in Sub-Saharan Africa offers a useful case study. Relevant policy platforms, in which biodiversity conservation and nutrition are and should be linked, include the Millennium Development Goals, Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, Convention on Biological Diversity, Global Strategy on Diet, Physical Activity and Health, Food-Based Dietary Guidelines, Right to Adequate Food and UN Human Rights Commission's Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. The largely unexplored health benefits of cultivated and wild plants include micronutrient intake and functions related to energy density, glycaemic control, oxidative stress and immuno-stimulation. Research on the properties of neglected and underutilized species and local varieties deserves higher priority. In tests of the hypothesis that biodiversity is essential for dietary diversity and health, quantitative indicators of dietary and biological diversity can be combined with nutrition and health outcomes at the population level. That traditional systems once lost are hard to recreate underlines the imperative for timely documentation, compilation and dissemination of eroding knowledge of biodiversity and the use of food culture for promoting positive behaviours.


Author(s):  
Abiodun Elijah Obayelu ◽  
Simeon Olusola Ayansina

Policy plays significant role in defining the food system of any country, and a sustainable food system is necessary for food security. This chapter maps out the causal interactions between food systems, food security and policy, and the challenges in transition to a sustainable food system while respecting the rights of all people to have access to adequate food in Nigeria. Explicit, rigorous, and transparent literature search was undertaken and many articles were assessed and reviewed. Although the results established a mutual relationship between food system and food security, existing literature have widely failed to take interactions between food systems, food security and policy into account. While food production is used as an entry point to improving food system sustainability, the quest for food security are undermining transition towards sustainable food systems. It was found that without right policies in place, it may be difficult to have food systems that are sustainable and ensure food security. This chapter provides a useful contribution to policy, and research on transitions towards sustainable food system. Any policy intervention to address one part of the food systems will impact on other parts and will determine whether a country is food secure or not. Enabling policy environment is therefore essential in ensuring a sustainable food system and for the attainment of food security.


2005 ◽  
Vol 8 (6a) ◽  
pp. 743-748 ◽  
Author(s):  
Micheline Beaudry ◽  
Hélène Delisle

AbstractObjectiveTo promote the new field of ‘public nutrition’ as a means to address, in a more efficient, sustainable and ethical manner, the world-wide epidemic of malnutrition – undernutrition and specific nutrient deficiencies, and also obesity and other nutrition-related chronic diseases.StrategyGrounded in the health promotion model, public nutrition applies the population health strategy to the resolution of nutrition problems. It encompasses ‘public health nutrition’, ‘community nutrition’ and ‘international nutrition’ and extends beyond them. It fits within the conceptual framework of ‘the new nutrition science’ and is an expression of this reformulated science in practice. Its fundamental goal is to fulfil the human right to adequate food and nutrition. It is in the interest of the public, it involves the participation of the public and it calls for partnerships with other relevant sectors beyond health. Public nutrition takes a broader view of nutritional health, addressing the three interrelated determinant categories of food systems and food security; food and health practices; and health systems. It assesses and analyses how these influence the immediate determinants that are dietary intake and health status so as to direct action towards effective progress. To further enhance the relevance and effectiveness of action, public nutrition advocates improved linkages between policies and programmes, research and training. A renewed breed of professionals for dietetics and nutrition, trained along those lines, is suggested.ConclusionThere is a critical need to develop new knowledge, approaches and skills to meet the pressing nutrition challenges of our times.


foresight ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 18 (5) ◽  
pp. 551-560 ◽  
Author(s):  
Albino Maggio ◽  
Tine Van Criekinge ◽  
Jean-Paul Malingreau

Purpose A foresight process was put in place to examine potential developments that can affect the world food situation in 2030 to identify the most useful areas for European Union (EU) policy intervention. Design/methodology/approach Four interactive workshops involving over 100 experts were organised. The structure of the foresight was designed based on the following five objectives: envision the future of food systems, agree on the most crucial drivers of change affecting food security, reach a consensus on a likely vision for 2030, challenge this vision and analyse current policies and policy needs in terms of responsiveness and resilience to food security future challenges. Findings The study contains four key messages accompanied by several related policy recommendations for the immediate and medium term to enable the EU to contribute to achieving food security by 2030. These refer to the transformation of agriculture production systems, the enabling environment, trends in production and consumption and demand-driven food systems as important determinants of sustainable food security. The study recommends a stronger coherence and coordination between different EU policies impacting food security. The development of urban areas is an overlooked challenge for food security as well as the contribution of trade and demand-side dynamics. Originality/value This is one of the very few attempts to look at food security with a system approach. A new paradigm shift is proposed: securing “regular” access to adequate food for the majority of the 8-9 billion people who will live on earth in the period 2030-2050, while addressing the food insecurity of a fraction of that total, is how a future European food security policy should be approached.


Author(s):  
Abiodun Elijah Obayelu

Food is indispensable to life. It plays an important role in the economy but what is not well known is the impact of production and consumption that food has on the environment. The nexus of food systems and the environment are complex and driven by many economic, socio-cultural, and environmental factors considered to be important in the contemporary global arena. As the world population grows, there is an increased demand on the already stretched food system and fragile environment. Processes along the food chain from agricultural production to food consumption produce outputs other than consumable food that are returned to the natural environment such as pollution or waste. This chapter sheds light on the links in food systems and environment in developing countries. A major finding is that the existing food systems that were supposed to produce adequate food for all are placing major stress on environmental assets including soil, water, fisheries, and biodiversity. For food systems to be sustainable, all hands must be on deck.


Global Jurist ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jorge Freddy Milian Gómez ◽  
Yanelys Delgado Triana

AbstractFood systems and trade of agricultural products have been affected by States measures in response to the evolution of the Covid-19 pandemic. Cuba, a Caribbean island, is equally hard hit by Coronavirus pandemic. Cuba’s reality becomes much more complex when it has to face the economic and financial blockade imposed as a unilateral coercive measure by the US government, causing the impossibility of buying raw materials abroad to produce first need products and food. This essay, framing the global problem of Covid-19, aims to understand how trade of agricultural products is regulated in Cuba in times of pandemic for quarantine areas, taking specific municipality experiences as a model. It is necessary to disseminate the good experiences following three main constitutional principles: right to adequate food, food safety and municipal autonomy. Main results are based on demonstrating if there is an appropriate articulation between local government, producers and trader’s direct benefits to strengthen the food security of population will be obtained.


Author(s):  
Rodrigo Machado Moreira ◽  
Karina Rúbia Nunes ◽  
José Giacomo Baccarin ◽  
Beatriz Stamato

The article presents probable impacts from COVID-19 on 5 components of the food system: social organizations; markets; science and technology; nature (biophysical environment); and public policies. It investigates which proposals contained in the State Plan for Food and Nutritional Security of the State of São Paulo (PLANSAN-SP) can respond to these impacts, mitigating them. The impacts of COVID-19 on food systems are broad and profound, considering the different realities raised by bibliographic research. These impacts directly affect the food consumption of the population from the quarantine dynamics adopted worldwide, in various forms, with negative effects on access and availability of food in the short, medium and long terms. PLANSAN-SP contains several proposals to guarantee the Human Right to Adequate Food (DHAA) and to stimulate Food Sovereignty and Food Nutrition and Security (SAN). The article considers that the dialogue between the organized civil society and the public power is fundamental for the construction of proposals adjusted to a diversity of challenges and realities present in the State of São Paulo. It considers also that PLANSAN-SP, if implemented and monitored could respond positively to the impacts of COVID -19 in the São Paulo food system.


Author(s):  
Abiodun Elijah Obayelu

Food is indispensable to life. It plays an important role in the economy but what is not well known is the impact of production and consumption that food has on the environment. The nexus of food systems and the environment are complex and driven by many economic, socio-cultural, and environmental factors considered to be important in the contemporary global arena. As the world population grows, there is an increased demand on the already stretched food system and fragile environment. Processes along the food chain from agricultural production to food consumption produce outputs other than consumable food that are returned to the natural environment such as pollution or waste. This chapter sheds light on the links in food systems and environment in developing countries. A major finding is that the existing food systems that were supposed to produce adequate food for all are placing major stress on environmental assets including soil, water, fisheries, and biodiversity. For food systems to be sustainable, all hands must be on deck.


2016 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 240-255 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amy B Smoyer ◽  
Giza Lopes

Women’s perceptions of the prison experience and the punishing dimensions of their confinement are under-examined. To expand knowledge in this area, Sexton’s theory of penal consciousness is used to analyze formerly incarcerated women’s narratives about prison food. This analysis builds understanding about the lived experience of incarceration by explicating one dimension of prisoners’ understandings and perceptions of punishment. Women’s narratives describe both concrete and symbolic punishments associated with food. Participants spoke about poorly designed, sloppy food systems that left them feeling uncared for, ignored, frustrated, and humiliated. Women articulate experiences of hunger that reflect both a deprivation of adequate food and a rationing of humane attentions. These punishing perceptions may inhibit the efforts of social service and health providers to engage incarcerated and formerly incarcerated women in care. In contrast, exceptional participant narratives about positive, non-punishing food experiences suggest that ameliorated food systems could improve the lived experience of incarceration and promote the engagement in services that is needed to improve the outcomes of incarcerated and formerly incarcerated women.


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