Food systems resilience through dialogue: Localizing a food systems approach in pandemic response

Angela Hansen,Eilif Ronning,Katie Collier

doi:10.5304/jafscd.2020.101.033

Abstract

Community and international development practitioners are increasingly adopting a food systems approach to research, planning, and intervention. This paper examines such an approach as part of the COVID-19 response of the Food Systems Dialogues (FSDs), a global effort facilitating multistakeholder interchange to build support for food systems transformations. The FSDs’ pandemic response involved redesigning the in-person global dialogue process for online delivery in localized settings. This paper documents how the online FSDs in New York’s Hudson Valley allowed local systems actors to share their experience mid-shock, as the system responded to the pandemic, and revealed FSDs’ ability to quickly adopt a systems orientation and thus take the first steps toward transforming food systems. It also highlights where new research is needed in food systems approaches to development.

Highlights

Community and international development practitioners are increasingly adopting a food systems approach to research, planning, and intervention
Acknowledgments The authors are grateful to the participants of the Hudson Valley Online Food Systems Dialogues for their insights, the Food Bank of the Hudson Valley for its partnership, and Dr David Nabarro for his systems leadership
Following the onset of COVID-19, food banks across the region experienced demand increases ranging from 40% to 400%, while unemployment applications increased by between 200% and 400% (Pattern, 2020)

Summary

Introduction

Community and international development practitioners are increasingly adopting a food systems approach to research, planning, and intervention. Acknowledgments The authors are grateful to the participants of the Hudson Valley Online Food Systems Dialogues for their insights, the Food Bank of the Hudson Valley for its partnership, and Dr David Nabarro for his systems leadership. The Food System Dialogues share characteristics of this archetype, aiming to generate global consensus regarding food systems transformation in line with the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda (Lawrence, Baker, Pulker, & Pollard, 2019).

Results

Conclusion