scholarly journals A Food-Circular Economy-Women Nexus: Lessons from Guelph-Wellington

2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 192
Author(s):  
Christopher Coghlan ◽  
Paige Proulx ◽  
Karolina Salazar

Resource nexus approaches have been expanding to include additional sectors beyond standard water, energy, and food approaches. Opportunities exist by re-imagining the resource nexus approach with the framework of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Emerging research and policy themes, such as the circular economy and gender, can provide additional context to traditional nexus arrangements. To illustrate this, we analyze SDG implementation and interaction from 40 unstructured interviews from SMEs participating in Guelph-Wellington’s Seeding Our Food Future (SOFF) program, part of the wider Our Food Future (OFF) initiative led by the City of Guelph and Wellington County in Ontario, Canada. Results show that 16/17 SDGs and associated targets were present on the program. Environmental SDGs were implemented the most, followed by social and economic ones. SDGs 2, 12, and 5 had the most general implementation and direct paired interactions and were associated with the broadest number of SDGs across the project. These findings support the existence of a Food-Circular Economy-Women nexus in Guelph-Wellington’s agri-food sector. Further analysis shows that this nexus is most active in agriculture, and that women are responsible for introducing a social aspect, which addresses food security. Results can inform food system and circular economy researchers and practitioners.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Franco Fassio

Food, the basic connecting unit of all the UN's Sustainable Development Goals, plays a crucial role in the ecological transition towards a circular economic paradigm. This paper takes scientific considerations as a starting point in order to contribute to the definition of a theoretical-operational framework in which to grow the Circular Economy for Food. This is a still-open question in a sector of the circular economy that is emerging as vital to sustainable development. The 3 C's of Capital, Cyclicality and Co-evolution offer a systemic, holistic vision of the food system's role. Within this conceptual framework, the designers can find the main boundaries of the system, within which to express their creativity. The aim must be to avoid damaging relationships with the best supplier of raw material known to humanity (Nature), respecting planetary boundaries and at the same time offering a fair space to civil society.


Author(s):  
Natalie Herdzoia ◽  
Ernst Worrell ◽  
Floris van den Berg

A shift towards more environmentally friendly and socially responsible food systems is a key step in the achievement of global sustainable development goals. To obtain significant results, however, it is essential to find participative ways to frame food sustainability objectives, so they can speak to a wide array of actors of change. This article addresses the promising potential of empowering actors across the food system to make a shift in their food choices, by facilitating the association of food sustainability values with contemporary moral issues. In this context, a conceptual framework for a transition towards food sustainability is proposed, based upon the concept of the moral circle. This approach transcends the human-centred methods enacted in traditional sustainable development agendas, offering an alternative with a more holistic perspective. It is expected that emphasising moral reflection around sustainability might encourage societal participation in the creation of sustainable, fair and healthier food systems.


2020 ◽  
Vol 38 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
José Miguel Rodríguez-Antón

No one has the slightest doubt about the enormous potential that the African continent has as a tourist destination. The diversity of cultures, the great biodiversity that it possesses, the multiple artistic manifestations that it offers and the beauty of the seas that surround it are key pieces in continuing to promote its capacity as a tourist attraction, which is approximately 60 million tourists per year who generate seven percent of exports and employment. However, in order for Africa to take off, it is necessary that a number of conditions related to security, health, education, eradication of poverty, reduction of inequalities, peace and justice and quality of its waters, among others, are intimately related to the Sustainable Development Goals defined in the 2030 Agenda. In this context, we maintain that the implementation of the Circular Economy in Africa will be a key tool in this process of improving the sustainability of this continent in its three aspects, economic, social and environmental, and raising its level of tourism competitiveness.


2021 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sebastian Kretschmer ◽  
Johannes Kahl

Interacting driving forces in food systems, resulting in cumulative driver effects and synergies, induce non-linear processes in multiple directions. This paper critically reviews the discourse on driving forces in food systems and argues that mindset is the primary predictor for food system outcomes. In the epoch of sustainable development goals (SDGs) and the Anthropocene, mindset matters more than ever. Transformative narratives are beginning to transcend the dominant social paradigm, which is still driving the food system's overall trajectory. The psychosocial portrayal of the systemic mindset found in organic food systems presented in this paper “flips the script” and hypothesizes that worldview and paradigm have the most causal linkages with unsustainable driver synergies and reversely the biggest leverage on the mitigation thereof. Borrowing from ecological economics discourses, the paper sharpens the driver definition by applying the DPSIR analytical tool as a modified diagnostic framework and modeling approach for food systems. This research sheds new light on the nature of drivers of change, which are often portrayed as almighty and inevitable trends shaping food systems. Instead, it is proposed that drivers emerge from the actors' mindset, affecting food system behavior in a non-linear way. Mindset drives reinforcing feedback loops, resulting in vicious and virtuous cycles. These driver motives manifest in subsystems and continue to drive their interaction across food system elements. Mindset acts as an encapsulated input of food systems, all the while responding to feedback and releasing new drivers. A transformation framework along leverage points of the food system is presented that features the concept of SDG drivers.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shanta Dutta ◽  
Iris K. M. Yu ◽  
Jiajun Fan ◽  
James H. Clark ◽  
Daniel C. W. Tsang

This study provides new and critical insights into sustainable catalytic conversion of food (bread) waste to platform chemicals for achieving sustainable development goals and fostering a circular economy.


2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (0) ◽  
pp. 1-20
Author(s):  
Stephanie Butcher

We live in an increasingly urban, increasingly unequal world. This is nowhere more evident than in cities of the global South, where many residents face deep injustices in their ability to access vital services, participate in decision-making or to have their rights recognised as citizens. In this regard, the rallying cry of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to ‘leave no one behind’ offers significant potential to guide urbanisation processes towards more equitable outcomes, particularly for the urban poor. Yet the SDGs have also faced a series of criticisms which have highlighted the gaps and silences in moving towards a transformative agenda. This article explores the potentials of adopting a relational lens to read the SDGs, as a mechanism to navigate these internal contradictions and critiques and build pathways to urban equality. In particular, it offers three questions if we want to place urban equality at the heart of the agenda: who owns the city; who produces knowledge about the city; and who is visible in the city? Drawing from the practices of organised groups of the urban poor, this article outlines the key lessons for orienting this agenda towards the relational and transformative aims of urban equality.


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