Abstract
Using examples from the COVID-19 pandemic, this paper reviews the contribution a City Region Food Systems (CRFS) approach makes to regional sustainability and resilience for existing and future shocks including climate change. We include both explicit interventions under United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO-RUAF) led initiatives, as well as ad hoc efforts that engage with elements of the CRFS approach. To provide context, we begin with a literature review of the CRFS approach followed by an overview of the global food crisis, where we outline many of the challenges inherent to the industrial capital driven food system. Next, we elaborate three key entry points for the CRFS approach—multistakeholder engagement across urban rural spaces; the infrastructure needed to support more robust CRFS; system centered planning, and, the role of policy in enabling (or thwarting) food system sustainability. The pandemic raises questions and provides insights about how to foster more resilient food systems, and provides lessons for the future for the City Region Food System approach in the context of others shocks including climate change.
Highlights
Using examples from the COVID-19 pandemic reported in academic papers and online resources, this paper reviews the contribution a City Region Food Systems (CRFS) approach can make to regional sustainability and resilience
Findings show that CRFS resilience translates into greater flexibility for food provisioning in response to measures necessitated by the pandemic as existing networks and/or the capacity to enable multistakeholder engagement (MSE) led to rapid, appropriate responses to the COVID-19 challenge [22,23,24,25,26,27]
Increasing attention to the CRFS approach leading up to and including COVID-19, shows that a consensus is emerging from theory and practice about the necessary processes and tools that optimize the functionality of sustainable CRFS
Summary
Using examples from the COVID-19 pandemic reported in academic papers and online resources, this paper reviews the contribution a City Region Food Systems (CRFS) approach can make to regional sustainability and resilience. We include both explicit interventions under FAO-RUAF led initiatives, as well as piecemeal efforts that use elements of the CRFS approach. We elaborate three key entry points for the CRFS approach—multistakeholder engagement (MSE) across urban rural spaces including system centered planning; the infrastructure needed to support more robust CRFS; the role of policy in enabling (or thwarting) food system sustainability. The pandemic raises questions about how to foster more resilient food systems, and whether there are any lessons from the COVID-19 crisis that can inform the City Region Food System approach in the context of other shocks including climate change
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have