scholarly journals Framing Good Food: Communicating Value of Community Food Initiatives in the Midst of a Food Crisis

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
Author(s):  
Irena Knezevic
Keyword(s):  
Market Economy ◽  
Food Systems ◽  
Food System ◽  
Food Policy ◽  
Environmental Benefits ◽  
Non Profit ◽  
Diverse Economies ◽  
Community Engaged Research ◽  
The One ◽  
Returns On Investment

Community-embedded food initiatives exist in market economies, but make more-than-market contributions. They challenge the dominant, industrialized food system, while generating non-monetary benefits in their communities. Yet food policy, regulation, and public spending in much of the world is still framed by the values of market economy. Revenue, yield, and technological advancements remain key formal measurements of the wellbeing of food systems. Community-embedded food initiatives like small local businesses and non-profit organizations, are often committed to advancing social and environmental benefits of non-industrialized food, and they call for clearer recognition of their more-than-market contribution to community wellbeing. The Nourishing Communities network has worked with such initiatives for more than a decade, undertaking community-engaged research with practitioners across sectors. The network has found that these initiatives are impeded by a communication conundrum. On the one hand, they are expected (by funders, governments, and other institutions) to demonstrate their value using market-economy measurements and translating what they do into “social returns on investment.” On the other hand, many of those initiatives need non-market terminology to express the values that they espouse and generate. To balance these needs, Gibson-Graham’s framing of “diverse economies” can potentially offer a pathway to better communication and thus more accurate valuing of the work of such initiatives. Their notion of diverse economies offers endless opportunities to frame community food work as valuable in ways that go beyond market-economy measurements. As such, the diverse economies framing offers new possibilities for alternative food, and for more general discussions of social reform.

Agricultural and Food Policy

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-15
Author(s):  
Abiodun Elijah Obayelu ◽  
Simeon Olusola Ayansina
Keyword(s):  
Food Security ◽  
Food Systems ◽  
Food System ◽  
Food Policy ◽  
Policy Intervention ◽  
Sustainable Food Systems ◽  
Sustainable Food ◽  
Adequate Food ◽  
System Sustainability ◽  
Sustainable Food System

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.

scholarly journals Social justice-oriented narratives in European urban food strategies: Bringing forward redistribution, recognition and representation

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sara A. L. Smaal ◽  
Joost Dessein ◽  
Barend J. Wind ◽  
Elke Rogge
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Food Systems ◽  
Food System ◽  
Food Policy ◽  
Political Representation ◽  
Decision Rules ◽  
Food Justice ◽  
Three Dimensions ◽  
Target Groups ◽  
Theory Of Justice

Abstract More and more cities develop urban food strategies (UFSs) to guide their efforts and practices towards more sustainable food systems. An emerging theme shaping these food policy endeavours, especially prominent in North and South America, concerns the enhancement of social justice within food systems. To operationalise this theme in a European urban food governance context we adopt Nancy Fraser’s three-dimensional theory of justice: economic redistribution, cultural recognition and political representation. In this paper, we discuss the findings of an exploratory document analysis of the social justice-oriented ambitions, motivations, current practices and policy trajectories articulated in sixteen European UFSs. We reflect on the food-related resource allocations, value patterns and decision rules these cities propose to alter and the target groups they propose to support, empower or include. Overall, we find that UFSs make little explicit reference to social justice and justice-oriented food concepts, such as food security, food justice, food democracy and food sovereignty. Nevertheless, the identified resources, services and target groups indicate that the three dimensions of Fraser are at the heart of many of the measures described. We argue that implicit, fragmentary and unspecified adoption of social justice in European UFSs is problematic, as it may hold back public consciousness, debate and collective action regarding food system inequalities and may be easily disregarded in policy budgeting, implementation and evaluation trajectories. As a path forward, we present our plans for the RE-ADJUSTool that would enable UFS stakeholders to reflect on how their UFS can incorporate social justice and who to involve in this pursuit.

scholarly journals ‘There Is No Alms to Live by, Everyone as Poor as the Next.’ The Activities of the Tsesarevich's Special Committee in the Context of the ‘All-Russian Ruin’ of 1891-1892

2018 ◽  
pp. 770-782
Author(s):  
Angelina S. Rogozhina ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Food System ◽  
Food Policy ◽  
Public Works ◽  
Social Forces ◽  
Special Committee ◽  
Crop Failure ◽  
Women And Children ◽  
The Government ◽  
The One ◽  
Significant Support

The famine of 1891-1892, known in the modern Russian historiography as the ‘all-Russian ruin’ of early 1890s, on the one hand, revealed the shortcomings of the state food policy, the carelessness of the gubernia authorities and local self-government bodies, the imperfection of principles underlying the food system, and on the other hand, caused an unprecedented rise of social forces, which translated into unprecedented activity of the Russian charity. At the head of all the charitable assistance was the Special Committee, chaired by the Heir Tsesarevich. Its purpose was to create conditions for unity of action of all charitable institutions. In the various gubernias most affected by the crops failure, the Committee consistently provided assistance: purchased food, funded seeding of the fields, fodder, handicrafts and public works, assistance to burned-out peasants, and medical assistance. In these spending activities, private parties from nobility took an active part; their active participation in the assistance to the famine victims provided a significant support to the government combating the consequences of the crop failure and the famine of 1891-1892. Free public canteens (stolovayas) were organized everywhere, home industry was organized for women and children. Public need rallied both nobility and peasants in a common struggle against the famine. But afterward, hopes for class unity were disappointed. This was largely due to the Russian peasant mentality with its belief in a free ‘tsar’s ration’ and landlords’ duty to feed them. Generally speaking, the Special Committee achieved its goal. The food campaign of 1891-1892 became a people's struggle with want and famine.

scholarly journals How to guarantee food supply during pandemics? Rethinking local food systems from peri-urban strategic agents’ behaviour: The case study of the Barcelona Metropolitan Region

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sònia Callau-Berenguer ◽  
Anna Roca-Torrent ◽  
Josep Montasell-Dorda ◽  
Sandra Ricart
Keyword(s):  
Food Supply ◽  
Food Systems ◽  
Food System ◽  
Food Policy ◽  
Local Food ◽  
Metropolitan Region ◽  
Mutual Aid ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Strategic Agents ◽  
Agricultural Areas

The Covid-19 pandemic has acted as a warning for the world’s current food system, especially in urban contexts with global food dependence. This article aims to analyse the food system behaviour of the Barcelona Metropolitan Region (in the northeast of Spain) during the first stage of the pandemic by deepening the behaviour of different peri-urban agricultural areas in which local food supply is promoted. Semi-structured interviews to 11 entities and institutions located in the peri-urban area of the BMR based on its productive and management profile have been carried out from March to May 2020. The results obtained highlight the socio-economic, environmental, and health perspective of food supply during the pandemic. Main results show 1) shortcomings in the operation and logistics of the metropolitan food system; 2) the complicity between the local producer and the urban consumer through new sales and distribution initiatives, 3) the role of peri-urban agricultural areas for ensuring food supply and land preservation, and 4) the need to initiate cooperation and mutual aid activities between the different agents involved in the food system. Furthermore, agents underlined the need for rethinking the agroeconomic model to strengthening the producer-consumer nexus and promoting local food policy based on food sustainability, sovereignty, and governance.

Food, the Environment, and Global Justice

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Budolfson
Keyword(s):  
Integrated Assessment ◽  
Global Justice ◽  
Food Systems ◽  
Food System ◽  
Standard Form ◽  
Ideal Theory ◽  
Industrial Agriculture ◽  
Food Science ◽  
Science Literature ◽  
The One

This chapter identifies and critically examines a standard form of argument for organic and vegan alternatives to industrial agriculture. This argument faces important objections to its empirical premises, to its presumption that there is a single food system that minimizes harm and is best for the environment, and to the presumption that the ethically best food system for us to promote is the one that would be best in ideal theory or the one that would be best from the perspective of our own society. Instead, determining which food system should be promoted arguably requires a complex global, empirical, and ethical integrated assessment that includes a proper accounting for values of global justice in nonideal theory. This proper accounting arguably recommends sustainable intensification of food systems (as it is called in the food-science literature), which is importantly distinct from contemporary systems as well as from organic, local, and/or vegan-centered alternatives.

scholarly journals Rome, a Policy without Politics: The Participatory Process for a Metropolitan Scale Food Policy

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 479 ◽  
Author(s):  
Giampiero Mazzocchi ◽  
Davide Marino
Keyword(s):  
Social Relations ◽  
Food System ◽  
Food Policy ◽  
Careful Analysis ◽  
Participatory Process ◽  
Study Case ◽  
The One ◽  
The City ◽  
Further Development

In light of the challenges that all cities face today, food is offered as a prism through which to read and intervene on various areas that affect the quality of life of the population: circular economy, urban metabolism, social relations, economies, and food quality. In the Roman context, in recent years, numerous initiatives have revitalized the debate on food and brought the discussion to the center of the interest of an ever-increasing number of citizens. However, these experiences appear unrelated and there is a lack of coordination and political coherence. Faced with this evidence, starting from a territorial analysis, this contribution analyzes the process that led a local group of stakeholders to formulate a proposal for a food policy for the city of Rome. The proposal contains a series of possible actions that aim, on the one hand, to recompose the relations between the city and its territory, with a view to re-localization and re-territorialization of agro-food productions and, on the other hand, to reconnect the economic and social relations that the industrialization of food chains has compromised. The network analysis of the bottom-up process, which mainly investigates networking and negotiation skills between various interests, is carried out and related to a careful analysis of the food system in the Roman context. Furthermore, an overview of the state of the art of urban food policies in Italy has been provided to better contextualize the study case. The findings show actors and topics involved in the process, identifying further development towards a more comprehensive participatory process for a systemic food strategy at the metropolitan level.

scholarly journals The importance of food systems and the environment for nutrition

2020 ◽  
Vol 113 (1) ◽  
pp. 7-16
Author(s):  
Jessica Fanzo ◽  
Alexandra L Bellows ◽  
Marie L Spiker ◽  
Andrew L Thorne-Lyman ◽  
Martin W Bloem
Keyword(s):  
Food Systems ◽  
Food System ◽  
Environmental Changes ◽  
Food Policy ◽  
Sociocultural Factors ◽  
System Transformation ◽  
Policy Changes ◽  
Local Food System ◽  
Nutrition Research ◽  
Global And Local

ABSTRACT Global and local food system transformation is necessary in order to ensure the delivery of healthy, safe, and nutritious foods in both sustainable and equitable ways. Food systems are complex entities that affect diets, human health, and a range of other outcomes including economic growth, natural resource and environmental resiliency, and sociocultural factors. However, food systems contribute to and are vulnerable to ongoing climate and environmental changes that threaten their sustainability. Although there has been increased focus on this topic in recent years, many gaps in our knowledge persist on the relation between environmental factors, food systems, and nutritional outcomes. In this article, we summarize this emerging field and describe what innovative nutrition research is needed in order to bring about food policy changes in the era of climate disruption and environmental degradation.

scholarly journals Urban Food Strategy in the Making: Context, Conventions and Contestations

Agriculture ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 177
Author(s):  
Mattia Andreola ◽  
Angelica Pianegonda ◽  
Sara Favargiotti ◽  
Francesca Forno
Keyword(s):  
Food Systems ◽  
Food System ◽  
Food Policy ◽  
System Failures ◽  
Direct Observations ◽  
Food Policy Councils ◽  
Political Economic ◽  
The City ◽  
Depth Interviews

Contemporary food systems face several paradoxes regarding equity and sustainability. Considering food production—an issue that simultaneously affects both the supply (production) and demand (consumption) sides—several cities have begun to implement new strategies, called Urban Food Policies. These approaches aim to address the various challenges presented by food system failures, while also involving the existing network of grassroot initiatives. For this reason, these have established Food Policy Councils, arenas where institutions can engage with supply chain actors and food activists, deciding through the processes of participatory democracy their Urban Food Strategies. This article investigates the evolution of a new Urban Food Strategy in a middle-sized Italian town, Trento. Despite a growing number of case studies discussing the promises and problematic aspects of UFS, empirical research and analysis tend to overlook the role of the context in which these processes are embedded and how the system of political, economic, cultural, and environmental opportunities weigh upon the success of these policies. The paper draws upon a multi-method qualitative approach combining in-depth interviews, document analysis, and direct observations of the construction process of an Urban Food Strategy for the city of Trento.

scholarly journals Food security policy choices: A review of the usefulness of public policy taxonomies

2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (06) ◽  
pp. 16717-16737
Author(s):  
Filippo Fossi ◽  
◽  
Sheryl L Hendriks ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Food Security ◽  
Security Policy ◽  
Food Systems ◽  
Food System ◽  
Food Policy ◽  
Security Policies ◽  
Four Dimensions ◽  
Dependent Variables ◽  
Variable Problem

This paper addresses the "dependent variable"problem in food security policies, namely the difficulty in classifying food security policies that limits comparative policy studies. Policy comparisons require criteria that are general enough for broad application but sensitive to the context. A rigorous and objective basis for comparisons would allow for studying how policies, and food security policies in particular, emerge. This is important in Africa as, in the past, food security and nutrition crises have been attributed to the failure of government policies. This paper reviews the main key available public policy classifications based on their predictability, mutual-exclusivity and relevance. These include Lowi's and Wilson's typologies, the agricultural policies' classification by Norton and the FAO-FAPDA classification. The review found that available typologies do not accommodate multi-sectoral actions and are not entirely applicable to food security public policy classification. The domain shift from food policy to food security,and more recently to food systems demands that all elements in the food system to be taken into consideration in the policy process. This limits the use of policies as "dependent variables"and hence the study of how they emerge, particularly in Africa. A critique of available policy classes shows that these cannot be treated as "dependent variables". It is argued that a potential solution to the "dependent variable" problem of food security policies lies in the development of a taxonomy, simplifying their complexity with analytical shortcuts. Having reviewed Candel and Daugbjergs’ recent taxonomy, refinements are proposed to be applied in the African context. The proposed taxonomy represents an alternative to classify food security policies in Africa along four core dimensions. This classification offers prospects for researchers to study what factors drives policy-classes in one direction or the other, along the four dimensions. Although the scales and calibration of the four dimensions will need to be developed and tested, the proposed typology offers a way to treat the dimensions as “dependent variables”.

scholarly journals A collaborative approach to COVID-19 response: The Center for Environmental Farming Systems community-based food system initiatives

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-6
Author(s):  
Shorlette Ammons ◽  
Sarah Blacklin ◽  
Dara Bloom ◽  
Shironda Brown ◽  
Marcello Cappellazzi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Food Systems ◽  
Food System ◽  
Food Policy ◽  
Local Food ◽  
Farming Systems ◽  
Local Food Systems ◽  
Community Based ◽  
Community Partners ◽  
Racial Lines ◽  
Structural Inequities

The Center for Environmental Farming Systems (CEFS) has spent the past two decades developing local food systems to support communities and increase resilience. The COVID-19 pandemic has shown how existing structural inequities, primarily along racial lines, are exacerbated. It has also shown the value of community-based food systems work that helps communities network, sharing valuable resources and funding to respond to the ongoing crisis. In this article, we document how CEFS’ community-based food systems initiatives are responding to the pandemic. Some of CEFS programs are community-based, working with food policy councils, offering racial equity trainings, networking schools and early care and education sites, and supporting youth convenings and internships. Others are focused on production and supply chains for meat, seafood, and produce in order to develop stronger local food systems. Through­out the work of all of CEFS’ community-based food systems initiatives in response to the pandemic, we have learned that our past efforts have increased local food systems resilience. We also note the impor­tance of flexible funders who allowed grant dollars to be reallocated to community partners to address urgent needs. We have found that online programming has increased participation and access to resources. Finally, we have been inspired by the creativity, flexibility, and adaptability of our community partners, and we are energized to continue to support them while also offering the resources we have developed to a broader audience.

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