scholarly journals Transforming food systems: Multi-stakeholder platforms driven by consumer concerns and public demands

2022 ◽  
Vol 32 ◽  
pp. 100592
Author(s):  
Marion C. Herens ◽  
Katherine H. Pittore ◽  
Peter J.M. Oosterveer
Author(s):  
Sérgio Pedro

The contemporary food system, in its global and local dimensions, is a central element of the debate on the sustainability of the planet, a debate that increasingly involves more stakeholders and areas of knowledge in the search for answers to the multiple questions related to the attainment of more sustainable patterns for food and agriculture. The present chapter analyses the participative multi-stakeholder and multilevel model of food governance of the Community of Portuguese Speaking Countries (CPLP), in which stakeholders from different societal and expertise sectors participate in equal manners in the process of co-construction of institutional, technical, and financing measures for the functioning of a given food system. The present chapter has the main goal of sharing and critically analysing the CPLP´s institutional context for the promotion of sustainable food systems as an example of an integrated methodological approach to support the creation of coordinated public policies and institutional conditions to implement a transition to more sustainable food systems and diets.


New Medit ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Roberto Ridolfi ◽  
Sandro Dernini ◽  
Jamie Morrison ◽  
Árni M. Mathiesen ◽  
Roberto Capone

The Coronavirus pandemic has revealed the fragility of our food systems, affecting all dimensions of food security and nutrition across the world. It has highlighted how deeply our world is interconnected and the importance of better recognising and understanding the interconnections that are intrinsic to these systems and their key role in pursuit of the SDGs of the 2030 Agenda. There is now, more than ever, a stronger need for a “route change” towards a common action on food systems transformation. Dialogues among all stakeholders to redesign the future of tomorrow’s food systems are needed to trigger collective, multi-stakeholder actions on the ground, at local, regional and global level, towards more sustainable food systems, linking sustainable food production to more healthy and sustainable food consumption. In this context CIHEAM, FAO, and the Union for the Mediterranean Secretariat (UfMS) initiated in 2019, a joint collaborative effort for the establishment of a multi-stakeholder platform on Sustainable Food Systems in the Mediterranean to accelerate the shift towards the Agenda 2030 in the Mediterranean region, with the Mediterranean diet acting as a driver.


Author(s):  
S. Wigboldus ◽  
H. Jochemsen

Abstract Engaging appropriately with sustainability transformations requires adopting an integral perspective on related system dynamics. This view underpins the sustainable development goals. Informing policy and decision making from a consistently integral perspective, however, remains a key challenge. To some extent, the leverage points approach has proved useful in doing so in terms of providing an encompassing view on related options for intervening in systems. There are, however, a number of points in which it needs to be complemented by other approaches to better address the need for an integral perspective on sustainability transformations as well as to better address the need for being able to articulate normative perspectives on transformation processes and outcomes. We argue that the theory of modal aspects is a good candidate for doing so. To illustrate its potential, we explore its characteristics, we illustrate its application opportunities in the analysis of sustainability in food systems transitions, we systematically compare leverage points and modal aspects, and close with an exploration of ways in which the leverage points approach and theory of modal aspects can be considered complementary perspectives. The authors conclude that the theory of modal aspects offers opportunities for enriching both the leverage points approach and wider approaches in sustainability transformations by offering a consistently integral perspective across scale levels, and by offering a number of ways of engaging with normativity in related processes without resorting to fixed political views. This articulates its potential for playing a useful role in related multi-stakeholder processes and sustainability governance.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (20) ◽  
pp. 11219
Author(s):  
Raquel Ajates

Farming cooperatives are organisations fundamentally based on social capital. However, the neoliberal and globalisation turn in the food system have led to the economisation of agricultural cooperatives as their main objective and criteria for evaluating their performance, and to a retreat from their participation in the wider cooperative movement. Nevertheless, new models of cooperation may provide a method to divert from this neoliberalisation trend by promoting social capital and mutual learning amongst different actors committed to a transition to sustainable food systems. This paper applies the anthropological concept of third spaces to examine the case of multistakeholder cooperatives. This type of food and farming cooperatives are composed of a diverse membership groups (e.g., producers, consumers, coordinators, buyers, etc). A nuanced analysis of these cooperatives’ capacity to generate social capital, and more specifically to blur the boundaries between bonding, bridging, and linking social capital, is presented. Evidence from five case studies suggests that multistakeholder cooperatives that remain at the border of their game, operating in both real and symbolic third spaces, are more likely to be based on and reproduce different types of social capital as well as social and environmental sustainability, while in turn reducing the risk of co-optation of their transformative practices.


2021 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
Author(s):  
Trang Nguyen ◽  
Marrit van den Berg ◽  
Jessica E. Raneri ◽  
Tuyen Huynh

With increased burden of malnutrition on global health, there is a need to set clear and transparent priorities for action in food systems at a global and local level. While priority settings methods are available for several adjacent domains, such as nutrition and health policies, setting priorities for food system research has not been documented and streamlined. The challenges involve food systems' multisector, multi-stakeholder and multi-outcome nature. Where data exists, it is not easy to aggregate data from across food system dimensions and stakeholders to make an informed analysis of the overall picture of the food system, as well as current and potential food system trade-offs to inform research and policy. Once research priorities are set, they risk staying on paper and never make their ways to concrete outputs and outcomes. In this paper, we documented and assessed the inclusive process of setting research priorities for a local food system, taking Vietnamese food systems as a case study. From this exercise, we examined how priority setting for food systems research could learn from and improve upon earlier priority setting research practices in other domains. We discussed the lessons for research and policies in local food systems, such as the need for a concrete follow-up plan accompanying the priority setting process.


New Medit ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  

There is an abundance of actions that could positively change the way food systems operate in the Mediterranean region. However, the uptake of these actions at local level has proven to be slow and often limited in their scope and impact. Considering the diverse nature of agri-food systems challenges in the region, trade-offs in interventions and the diversity of stakeholders, a radical shift from focusing on top-down, global solutions for sustainable food systems, to adapting demand driven, country-led actions is required. This review uses a food systems lens to identify four levers which are essential to “enable” and accelerate the adoption of game changing solutions to food systems challenges by local actors in the Mediterranean region. These are namely: 1) Multi-stakeholder collaboration; 2) Data and evidence; 3) Technological innovation; and 4) Coherent policies and investment. We recognize that each of these enablers is a powerful mean of change, but the evidence suggests that a sustainable and inclusive transformation is only possible when they are deployed together in an integrated and inten-tional way. Results of this review outline some of the barriers to unlocking the potential of enablers and provide insights on how to use their power to transform Mediterranean food systems.


Author(s):  
Jean Fincher

An important trend in the food industry today is reduction in the amount of fat in manufactured foods. Often fat reduction is accomplished by replacing part of the natural fat with carbohydrates which serve to bind water and increase viscosity. It is in understanding the roles of these two major components of food, fats and carbohydrates, that freeze-fracture is so important. It is well known that conventional fixation procedures are inadequate for many food products, in particular, foods with carbohydrates as a predominant structural feature. For some food science applications the advantages of freeze-fracture preparation procedures include not only the avoidance of chemical fixatives, but also the opportunity to control the temperature of the sample just prior to rapid freezing.In conventional foods freeze-fracture has been used most successfully in analysis of milk and milk products. Milk gels depend on interactions between lipid droplets and proteins. Whipped emulsions, either whipped cream or ice cream, involve complex interactions between lipid, protein, air cell surfaces, and added emulsifiers.


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