A new understanding and evaluation of food sustainability in six different food systems in Kenya and Bolivia

Johanna Jacobi,Adriana Bessa,Aymara Llanque,Veronica Mwangi,Stellah Mukhovi,Markus Giger,Theresa Tribaldos,Chinwe Ifejika Speranza,Elisabeth Buergi-Bonanomi,Stephan Rist,Tobias Haller,Boniface P Kiteme,José M F Delgado Burgoa,Christophe Golay,Horacio Augstburger

doi:10.1038/s41598-020-76284-y

Abstract

Food systems must become more sustainable and equitable, a transformation which requires the transdisciplinary co-production of knowledge. We present a framework of food sustainability that was co-created by academic and non-academic actors and comprises five dimensions: food security, right to food, environmental performance, poverty and inequality, and social-ecological resilience. For each dimension, an interdisciplinary research team—together with actors from different food systems—defined key indicators and empirically applied them to six case studies in Kenya and Bolivia. Food sustainability scores were analysed for the food systems as a whole, for the five dimensions, and for food system activities. We then identified the indicators with the greatest influence on sustainability scores. While all food systems displayed strengths and weaknesses, local and agroecological food systems scored comparatively highly across all dimensions. Agro-industrial food systems scored lowest in environmental performance and food security, while their resilience scores were medium to high. The lowest-scoring dimensions were right to food, poverty and inequality, with particularly low scores obtained for the indicators women’s access to land and credit, agrobiodiversity, local food traditions, social protection, and remedies for violations of the right to food. This qualifies them as key levers for policy interventions towards food sustainability.

Highlights

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals require food systems to become more sustainable and equitable
The indicators of the five dimensions of food sustainability that were collectively defined and assessed in the six food systems are presented in Table 2 and in the Supplementary Data
The indicators represent a consensual output of the research process with scientists from the Global North and South and non-academic actors related to the different food systems

Summary

Introduction

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals require food systems to become more sustainable and equitable Achieving this entails securing people’s food supply, and ensuring that food production, distribution and consumption are ecologically, economically and socially responsible, and in the long term[1,2,3]. To transform them—i.e. to move beyond the classical focus of maximizing global food p roductivity8–10—requires co-creation of knowledge and action by social and natural scientists as well as non-academic actors[11,12] This means engaging in transdisciplinary research and optimizing the complex interactions between food system activities—from production through consumption—to improve their social-ecological outcomes while maintaining functioning in the face of stress and shocks. Most food produced is processed, stored and consumed within local households; surplus is locally sold or bartered

Methods

Results

Conclusion