scholarly journals Organizing Joint Practices in Urban Food Initiatives—A Comparative Analysis of Gardening, Cooking and Eating Together

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (11) ◽  
pp. 4457 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin Hennchen ◽  
Michael Pregernig
Keyword(s):  
Time Management ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Food Systems ◽  
Setting Time ◽  
Community Supported Agriculture ◽  
Knowledge Based ◽  
Development Agenda ◽  
Recent Emergence ◽  
Key Dimensions ◽  
Community Kitchens

The topic of food is highly relevant to the UN sustainable development agenda. The agenda particularly challenges cities to take on more responsibilities and to initiate processes that change unsustainable food practices. The recent emergence of urban food initiatives, such as community-supported agriculture, urban gardening, food sharing or community kitchens, promises great potential in leveraging sustainability. Although a great deal of research is already available on the societal impacts of food initiatives, little is known about organizational aspects surrounding them. The following study aims to address this gap by systematically analyzing how joint practices of gardening as well as cooking and eating are organized in different urban food initiatives, taking five initiatives in two smaller cities in southern Germany as case studies. Data were acquired through qualitative research methods including interviewing, participatory observations and document analysis. The analysis covers five key dimensions: institutional integration, recruiting mechanisms, goal-setting, time management and types of knowledge. Based on these dimensions, the results portray two distinctive organizational profiles of urban food initiatives. The article concludes with a reflection on how local governments can support food initiatives and thus contribute to sustainable urban food systems.

Sustainable Food Logistics Systems

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhaohui Wu ◽  
Madeleine Elinor Pullman
Keyword(s):  
Supply Chain ◽  
Food Supply ◽  
Food Systems ◽  
Food System ◽  
New Technology ◽  
Cold Chain ◽  
Community Supported Agriculture ◽  
Food Supply Chain ◽  
Sustainable Food ◽  
Chain Management

Food supply chain management is becoming a critical management and public policy agenda. Climate change, growing demand, and shifting patterns of food production, delivery, and consumption have elicited a series of new challenges, such as food security, safety, and system resiliency. This chapter first introduces the typical players in a food supply chain and examines the global food system characterized by consolidation and industrialization. It then discusses some critical topics of the sustainable food supply chain that aim to address these challenges. These topics include traceability, transparency, certification and standards, and alternatives to industrialized food systems, including cooperatives, community-supported agriculture, and roles of small and medium-sized growers in regenerative agriculture. The chapter ends with a discussion of several important emerging logistics management topics, including last-mile delivery, new technology, and cold chain management.

Managing Water for Food and Agricultural Transformation in Africa

2019 ◽  
pp. 469-487
Author(s):  
Timothy O. Williams
Keyword(s):  
Water Resources ◽  
Food Systems ◽  
Integrated Management ◽  
Farming Systems ◽  
Rural Transformation ◽  
Agricultural Transformation ◽  
Development Agenda ◽  
Policy Measures ◽  
Technical Solutions ◽  
Food Value

This chapter examines the links between water, food and society in Africa. Agricultural transformation to promote growth, eliminate poverty and hunger and sustain ecosystems is one of the central pillars of current development agenda in Africa. Achievement of this agenda will crucially depend on sustainable water management. However, agri-food systems and water resources are under greater pressure than ever before due to demographic, economic and climatic changes. The nature and scale of these changes suggest that only a holistic and integrated management of all shades of water resources, green, blue and grey, will allow Africa to eliminate hunger and poverty. Research-based technical solutions as well as institutional and policy measures are proposed that would allow available water resources to be sustainably used to promote climate-resilient farming systems, improve agricultural productivity and food security and spur the development of viable food value chains needed for agricultural and rural transformation.

scholarly journals Financial sustainability: An annotated bibliography

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 35-60
Author(s):  
Shivam Kakati ◽  
Arup Roy
Keyword(s):  
Research Methodology ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Annotated Bibliography ◽  
Three Dimensions ◽  
Financial Sustainability ◽  
The Public ◽  
Research Areas ◽  
Sectorial Analysis ◽  
Key Dimensions ◽  
Analytical Tools

The literature on financial sustainability is scattered in such a way that a synthesis is indispensable. The present study on an annotated bibliography of financial sustainability seeks to fill this particular gap by presenting a collation of published literature in the sphere. The sectorial analysis depicted that ability to cover the costs from its own resources and ability to pay debt were the key dimensions to measure financial sustainability. The majority of the studies were found in the public sector covering local governments and central governments particularly in such European countries as Spain, Italy and England. Earning enough resources, asset sustainability and the ability to repay obligations are the three dimensions to assess financial sustainability. The study also pointed out the key research areas, variables and analytical tools among other trends in the literature. The present study assists the future researchers in reviewing the literature on financial sustainability and developing research methodology.

The New Sacred Farm

2017 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 113-133 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gretel Van Wieren
Keyword(s):  
Food Systems ◽  
Food Justice ◽  
Religious Community ◽  
Religious Communities ◽  
Community Supported Agriculture ◽  
Farm To School ◽  
Ethical Challenges ◽  
Sacred Spaces ◽  
The Social ◽  
School Programs

The food and faith movement in the U.S. is a loose amalgamation of religious communities and organizations, clergy members and lay volunteers, activists and agricultural practitioners who are working, in varied and diverse ways, to address the social, ecological, political, and ethical challenges posed by current food systems. Oftentimes these groups work hand-in-hand with secular food and food justice organizations in organizing community supported agriculture projects, farm to school programs, educational efforts around health, nutrition, cooking, and gardening, and public policy advocacy efforts. What distinguish religious approaches to this work are the ritual practices and narrative tropes that oftentimes orient them. This paper explores some of these motifs by examining the work of three religious, community-based farming projects. It concludes that these religious farms and others like them should be considered sacred spaces for how they ritualize and symbolically interpret agricultural and food practices.

scholarly journals TOWARDS SUSTAINABLE FOOD SYSTEMS: A HOLISTIC, INTERDISCIPLINARY AND SYSTEMIC APPROACH

AGROFOR ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Silvana Moscatelli ◽  
Hamid El Bilali ◽  
Mauro Gamboni ◽  
Roberto Capone
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Food Systems ◽  
Biodiversity Loss ◽  
Resource Scarcity ◽  
Systemic Approach ◽  
Community Supported Agriculture ◽  
Sustainable Food Systems ◽  
Sustainable Food ◽  
Multiple Challenges ◽  
Seafood Processing

One of the biggest challenges facing humanity is achieving sustainable foodsecurity in the face of population growth, resource scarcity, ecosystem degradationand climate change. Transitioning towards sustainable food systems (SFS) is amust for achieving sustainable development. This review paper highlights the needto adopt a holistic, multidimensional, interdisciplinary and systemic approach forbetter understanding food systems, which is a prerequisite for fostering transitiontowards sustainability. A better understanding of food systems meanscomprehending issues at play from ‘farm to fork’ i.e. production (crop, animal,seafood), processing, trade and distribution, and consumption. For gaining a fullawareness also cross-cutting issues such as gender, innovation and technologyshould be considered. Such a deep knowledge and consequent corrective actionsare crucial to address the multiple challenges and dysfunctions of the current globalfood system such as food insecurity, obesity, food waste, climate change,biodiversity loss, land degradation, water depletion, deforestation, marketconcentration and food heritage erosion. It is fundamental to foster transitiontowards sustainable and resilient food systems to achieve sustainable food andnutrition security for present and future generations. All dimensions (environment,economy, society and culture, nutrition and health) of food sustainability should betackled while considering policy and governance. Different food consumption andproduction models can help speeding up journey towards sustainability. Theseinclude, inter alia, organic agriculture and different alternative food systemsallowing to link consumption and production such as urban agriculture,community-supported agriculture and short food chains. While the challenge istitanic, there is a menu of options that can be jointly used to foster shift towardsSFS such as sustainable and eco-functional intensification, sustainable diets, foodloss and waste reduction. Nevertheless, a holistic and systemic approach isnecessary to develop a systems thinking for generating interdisciplinary knowledgeneeded to support transition towards sustainable food systems.

scholarly journals COVID-19 and food security in Africa: Building more resilient food systems

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
pp. 27
Author(s):  
Helena Shilomboleni
Keyword(s):  
Food Systems ◽  
Agricultural Research ◽  
Research Priorities ◽  
Policy Decision ◽  
Transformational Change ◽  
Radical Change ◽  
Adverse Outcomes ◽  
Change Of Direction ◽  
Development Agenda ◽  
Large Numbers

The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the fragility of our food systems. Despite increased efficiencies in producing and supplying large volumes of food, our current food systems have generated multiple adverse outcomes comprising high greenhouse gas emissions, persistent hunger, and livelihood stress for farmers around the world. Nowhere else than in Africa have large numbers of people experienced more acutely these adverse shocks emanating from our food systems. Thus, building more resilient African food systems, which take a radical change of direction, is fundamentally a matter of survival. While there is broad consensus around a need for transformational change in food systems, what that entails is not always clear, and there are divergent views amongst experts on how to re-orient research priorities and agricultural solutions in ways that effectively address hunger and inequality while also protecting agrobiodiversity and the environment more broadly. This article engages with this debate and proposes an agricultural research for development agenda in Africa that balances technology transfer with realigning societal values, institutional arrangements, and policy decision-making towards the realization of greater sustainability and inclusive outcomes.

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