scholarly journals Beyond Sustainability in Food Systems: Perspectives from Agroecology and Social Innovation

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (18) ◽  
pp. 7524
Author(s):  
Livia Marchetti ◽  
Valentina Cattivelli ◽  
Claudia Cocozza ◽  
Fabio Salbitano ◽  
Marco Marchetti
Keyword(s):  
Food Production ◽  
Food Systems ◽  
Social Innovation ◽  
Food Sovereignty ◽  
Farming Systems ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Economic Relations ◽  
Production Models ◽  
Diversified Farming Systems ◽  
Family Based

Food security faces many multifaceted challenges, with effects ranging far beyond the sectors of agriculture and food science and involving all the multiscale components of sustainability. This paper puts forward our point of view about more sustainable and responsible approaches to food production research underlying the importance of knowledge and social innovation in agroecological practices. Increased demand for food worldwide and the diversification of food choices would suggest the adoption of highly productive, but low-resilient and unsustainable food production models. However, new perspectives are possible. These include the revitalization and valorization of family-based traditional agriculture and the promotion of diversified farming systems as a social and economic basis to foster social-ecological conversion. Additionally, they encompass the forecasting of the Participatory Guarantee Systems (PGS) and the drafting of a new agenda for food sovereignty. Thanks to a desk analysis, the study describes and discusses these perspectives, their trajectories and action research implications. The results suggest the need to adopt a more inclusive and systemic approach to the described problems, as the solutions require the promotion of responsibility within decision makers, professionals and consumers. This appears essential for reading, analyzing and understanding the complex ecological-functional, social and economic relations that characterize farming systems, as well as mobilizing local communities.

scholarly journals A global database of diversified farming effects on biodiversity and yield

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah K. Jones ◽  
Andrea C. Sánchez ◽  
Stella D. Juventia ◽  
Natalia Estrada-Carmona
Keyword(s):  
United Nations ◽  
Food Production ◽  
Food Systems ◽  
Biological Diversity ◽  
Meta Analysis ◽  
Farming Systems ◽  
Convention On Biological Diversity ◽  
Sustainable Food ◽  
Global Database ◽  
Diversified Farming Systems

AbstractWith the Convention on Biological Diversity conference (COP15), United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26), and United Nations Food Systems Summit, 2021 is a pivotal year for transitioning towards sustainable food systems. Diversified farming systems are key to more sustainable food production. Here we present a global dataset documenting outcomes of diversified farming practices for biodiversity and yields compiled following best standards for systematic review of primary studies and specifically designed for use in meta-analysis. The dataset includes 4076 comparisons of biodiversity outcomes and 1214 of yield in diversified farming systems compared to one of two reference systems. It contains evidence from 48 countries of effects on species from 33 taxonomic orders (spanning insects, plants, birds, mammals, eukaryotes, annelids, fungi, and bacteria) of diversified farming systems producing annual or perennial crops across 12 commodity groups. The dataset presented provides a resource for researchers and practitioners to easily access information on where diversified farming systems effectively contribute to biodiversity and food production outcomes.

scholarly journals Peasants’ Transnational Mobilization for Food Sovereignty in La Vía Campesina

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Delphine Thivet
Keyword(s):  
Food Production ◽  
Food Systems ◽  
Food Sovereignty ◽  
National Level ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Rural Workers ◽  
Global Institutions ◽  
Leading Role ◽  
Food Activism ◽  
La Via Campesina

This paper examines how small farmers and landless rural workers have developed new modes of food activism at the transnational level. It explores in particular how the international peasant movement La Vía Campesina advocates and seeks to build – through the concept of the “food sovereignty” – an alternative frame for food production and distribution enabling communities and people to determine at the local/national level their own food systems. Based on a multi-sited fieldwork including participant observations and interviews with organizations’ members from three different countries involved in La Vía Campesina (France, Brazil and India), my study analyses the various and unstable definitions of the concept of “food sovereignty” in the movement. It examines the process of adding new meanings to its definition according to its circulation across different scales and specific cultural and geographical contexts, its attempted legal translations, and its local reconfigurations in sometimes nationalistic and protectionist ways. The aim is first to show how the demand for “food sovereignty” has emerged at the international level so as to reframe politically global food relations and compete with a more technical response to world hunger promoted by global institutions - the notion of “food security”. The paper then traces the various strategies used by La Vía Campesina’s activists to legitimize and promote their cause, trying to make small-scale farmers “visible” – both in international and national public arenas – and recognized as those assuming a leading role in food production throughout the world. Finally, it addresses the way the food sovereignty framework catalyzes social mobilization across borders by constituting transnational interests and provides to marginalized social agents in the countryside a conceptual frame for making sense of the process of dispossession from the means of production they have been undergoing since the early 1980s.

IMPACT OF THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC ON THE FOOD SITUATION IN RUSSIA

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (6) ◽  
pp. 960-971
Author(s):  
N.N. Shurakova ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Supply Chains ◽  
Food Systems ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Food System ◽  
Import Substitution ◽  
Industrial Sector ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Income Loss ◽  
Economic Relations ◽  
Global Challenge

The article examines such a new global challenge as the coronavirus pandemic. The features of this large-scale, unprecedented shock and the economic crisis agent are analyzed. It was noted that among the affected sectors of the world economy, there is the global agri-food system: a demand shock is superimposed on the supply shock, world trade is paralyzed, logistics flows are disrupted, supply chains are disrupted, and agricultural production is likely to decline. The outbreak of COVID-19 has led to a fall in the Russian economy. It is concluded that currently nothing threatens food security from the point of view of physical accessibility. However, the economic availability of food may not be ensured due to income loss and rising prices. In addition, COVID-19 may negatively affect the country’s export-oriented food course, foreign economic relations in the agro-industrial sector and the current import substitution policy. Despite the fact that the country is currently provided with food, there are still problems connected with the dependence on the import of technologies and components, machinery and equipment, breeding products and seeds. It has been substantiated that in order to prevent food crisis in the foreseeable future, the restructuring and stabilization of food systems at the national and global levels is required, which could ensure their sustainability and smooth operation in terms of creating backup channels and reserves to prevent disruptions and blockages in supply chains that are observed in period of COVID-19.

scholarly journals Transforming Food Systems Through Food Sovereignty: An Australian Urban Context

2015 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 34-45 ◽  
Author(s):  
Federico Davila ◽  
Robert Dyball
Keyword(s):  
Transformative Learning ◽  
Food Production ◽  
Food Systems ◽  
Production Systems ◽  
Food Sovereignty ◽  
Urban Context ◽  
Human Right ◽  
Alternative Food Systems ◽  
Environmental Support ◽  
Urban Food Production

AbstractThis article draws on La Via Campesina's definition of food sovereignty and its potential for reconceptualising food as a basic human right within the dominant Australian food discourse. We argue that the educative value that emerges from urban food production in Australia stems from the action of growing food and its capacity to transform individuals’ social and environmental concerns over food systems. Community participation in urban food production can promote a learning process that generates political understanding and concerns over food systems. We use the education theories of transformative learning and critical consciousness to discuss how Australian urban food production systems can create this social and environmental support for alternative food systems. By having control over food production practices and building collective understandings of how food choices impact global food systems, elements of food sovereignty can develop in an Australian urban context.

scholarly journals Food Sovereignty as an Alternative to Reduce the Serious Hunger Problem or Food Shortage Worldwide

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Edú Ortega Ibarra
Keyword(s):  
Food Systems ◽  
Food Sovereignty ◽  
Trade Policies ◽  
Ecological Processes ◽  
Production Models ◽  
Corporate Globalization ◽  
Management Policies ◽  
The Right ◽  
And Control ◽  
Agriculture Water

In 1996 Via Campesina launched an initiative claiming that peoples had the right to affordable, nutritious and culturally appropriate food produced using sustainable and ecological processes, as well as the right to define their own management policies related to agriculture, water, fisheries, land, seeds and biodiversity. This initiative, which constitutes a broad framework for the enforcement of the right to food, has emerged as a response and an alternative to the neoliberal model fostering corporate globalization. Also, it is global and provides a framework to understand and transform governance. This concept -consisting of six well-defined pillars (focuses on food for people, values food providers, localizes food systems, puts control locally, develops knowledge and skills, work with nature) can help avoid food poverty, since it aims to guarantee access to healthy and sufficient nutrition for all people, especially the most vulnerable sectors, such as children, pregnant women and older adults, who hardly achieve a proper living. The World Forum on Food Sovereignty, shares objectives and actions to also help through seven areas: trade policies and local markets, knowledge and local technology, access to and control over natural resources, the exchange of territories in all sectors, response to conflicts and natural disasters, migration and production models.

scholarly journals Envisioning the Future of European Food Systems: Approaches and Research Priorities After COVID-19

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matteo Vittuari ◽  
Giovanni Bazzocchi ◽  
Sonia Blasioli ◽  
Francesco Cirone ◽  
Albino Maggio ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Food Production ◽  
Food Systems ◽  
Food System ◽  
Production Systems ◽  
Food Sovereignty ◽  
Research Priorities ◽  
Policy Framework ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
City Region ◽  
Research And Innovation

The COVID-19 pandemic unveiled the fragility of food sovereignty in cities and confirmed the close connection urban dwellers have with food. Although the pandemic was not responsible for a systemic failure, it suggested how citizens would accept and indeed support a transition toward more localized food production systems. As this attitudinal shift is aligned with the sustainability literature, this work aims to explore the tools and actions needed for a policy framework transformation that recognizes the multiple benefits of food systems, while considering local needs and circumstances. This perspective paper reviews the trends in production and consumption, and systematizes several impacts emerged across European food systems in response to the first wave of pandemic emergency, with the final aim of identifying challenges and future strategies for research and innovation toward the creation of resilient and sustainable city/region food systems. The proposal does not support a return to traditional small-scale economies that might not cope with the growing global population. It instead stands to reconstruct and upscale such connections using a “think globally act locally” mind-set, engaging local communities, and making existing and future citizen-led food system initiatives more sustainable. The work outlines a set of recommended actions for policy-makers: support innovative and localized food production, training and use of information and communication technology for food production and distribution; promote cross-pollination among city/region food systems; empower schools as agents of change in food provision and education about food systems; and support the development of assessment methodologies and the application of policy tools to ensure that the different sustainability dimensions of the food chain are considered.

Female farming and the evolution of food production patterns amongst the Beti of south-central Cameroon

Africa ◽  
1980 ◽  
Vol 50 (4) ◽  
pp. 341-356 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jane I. Guyer
Keyword(s):  
Economic History ◽  
Food Production ◽  
Food Systems ◽  
Farming Systems ◽  
Population Pressure ◽  
Independent Effect ◽  
Cropping Patterns ◽  
Alternative Employment ◽  
South Central ◽  
History Of

Opening ParagraphIn his Economic History of West Africa (1973) Hopkins points out that relatively little attention has been paid to the history of food production by contrast with export crops, even though it has been clear since early research on African food systems (e.g., Johnston 1958) that patterns of production have been changing. The determinants of shifts in land use and crop rotations are complex but two major factors have been suggested: population pressure on land resources, and the relative prices of different crops. The population pressure argument tends to assume that subsistence is maintained, so that any change in the relationship of population to food land requires shifts in farming practice to allow the maintenance of the same level of living (Boserup 1965). The price argument tends to assume that the agriculture system is penetrated by the market principle, so that farmers' decisions to maintain subsistence production patterns depend on projections about the prices of the cash crops available for sale and the food items needed to purchase (Chibnik 1978). From work on African farming systems comes a modification which suggests that the management of both these constraints depends to some extent on the broader social and economic context in which decisions are made. In particular it has been suggested that the position of women farmers in both indigenous social organisation and national economies is different from men's; they work under different constraints in their farming and have different opportunities for alternative employment (Boserup 1970; Meillassoux 1975). If the sexual division of labour is an important aspect of farming, men's and women's differential access to resources might be expected to have an independent effect on cropping patterns.

PREREQUISITES FOR THE FORMATION OF A MECHANISM FOR STATE REGULATION OF SOCIAL GUARANTEES IN THE REGION

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vitaly Lobas ◽  
◽  
Elena Petryaeva ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Social Protection ◽  
Well Being ◽  
State Regulation ◽  
The State ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Periodic Review ◽  
Cost Of Living ◽  
Economic Relations ◽  
State Management ◽  
The Cost

The article deals with modern mechanisms for managing social protection of the population by the state and the private sector. From the point of view of forms of state regulation of the sphere of social protection, system indicators usually include the state and dynamics of growth in the standard of living of the population, material goods, services and social guarantees for the poorly provided segments of the population. The main indicator among the above is the state of the consumer market, as one of the main factors in the development of the state. Priority areas of public administration with the use of various forms of social security have been identified. It should be emphasized that, despite the legislative conflicts that exist today in Ukraine, mandatory indexation of the cost of living is established, which is associated with inflation. Various scientists note that although the definition of the cost of living index has a well-established methodology, there are quite a lot of regional features in the structure of consumption. All this is due to restrictions that are included in the consumer basket of goods and different levels of socio-economic development of regions. The analysis of the establishment and periodic review of the minimum consumer budgets of the subsistence minimum and wages of the working population and the need to form state insurance funds for unforeseen circumstances is carried out. Considering in this context the levers of state management of social guarantees of the population, we drew attention to the crisis periods that are associated with the market transformation of the regional economy. In these conditions, there is a need to develop and implement new mechanisms and clusters in the system of socio-economic relations. The components of the mechanisms ofstate regulation ofsocial guarantees of the population are proposed. The deepening of market relations in the process of reforming the system of social protection of the population should be aimed at social well-being.

Fulfilling the Right to Food for South Africa: Justice, Security, Sovereignty and the Politics of Malnutrition

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 112-152
Author(s):  
Busiso Helard Moyo ◽  
Anne Marie Thompson Thow
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Food Systems ◽  
Food System ◽  
Food Sovereignty ◽  
Food Justice ◽  
System Transformation ◽  
Right To Food ◽  
Economic Rights ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Right

Despite South Africa’s celebrated constitutional commitments that have expanded and deepened South Africa’s commitment to realise socio-economic rights, limited progress in implementing right to food policies stands to compromise the country’s developmental path. If not a deliberate policy choice, the persistence of hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition in all its forms is a deep policy failure.  Food system transformation in South Africa requires addressing wider issues of who controls the food supply, thus influencing the food chain and the food choices of the individual and communities. This paper examines three global rights-based paradigms – ‘food justice’, ‘food security’ and ‘food sovereignty’ – that inform activism on the right to food globally and their relevance to food system change in South Africa; for both fulfilling the right to food and addressing all forms of malnutrition. We conclude that the emerging concept of food sovereignty has important yet largely unexplored possibilities for democratically managing food systems for better health outcomes.

Micro and Macro-level Analysis of Crop Diversification: Evidence from an Agrarian State West Bengal

2020 ◽  
pp. 489-499
Keyword(s):  
Crop Production ◽  
West Bengal ◽  
Farming Systems ◽  
Field Studies ◽  
Farming System ◽  
Structure Questionnaire ◽  
Crop Diversification ◽  
The Status ◽  
Block Level ◽  
Diversified Farming Systems

The farming system in West Bengal is being shifted by integration between the set of cash crops and the main food harvest process. This change in diversified farming systems, where smallholders have a production base in rice can complement production; affect technical efficiency and farm performance. The goal of this study was to investigate the status of crop diversification on smallholders in West Bengal. First, crop diversification regions were developed in West Bengal based on the Herfindahl index, which were categorized into three regions. Three sample districts were studied separately at the block level, and 915 small farmers from 41 sample villages of 9 sample blocks were interviewed through a good structure questionnaire for field studies from the sample districts. West Bengal was gradually moving towards multiple crop production. Furthermore, increasing rice production reduced the marginal use of inputs for the production of other crops. Farming and other vital factors such as HYVs area to GCA, average holding size and per capita income in some districts of West Bengal can be identified as determinants of crop diversification.

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