Overcoming the dependent variable problem in studying food policy

Carsten Daugbjerg,Jeroen Candel

doi:10.1007/s12571-019-00991-2

Carsten Daugbjerg, Jeroen Candel

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1007/s12571-019-00991-2

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Abstract

The development of a comparative food policy research agenda has been hampered by the dependent variable problem of how to delineate the policy field. Through a concise literature review, we show that the existing literature has conceptualised food policy as policy outputs, institutional orders, or discursive constructs. Focusing on the policy outputs, we define food policy as a set of policy outputs adopted to address one or more food system activities (production, processing and packaging, distribution and retailing, and consumption) with the explicit aim of affecting food system outcomes in a desired direction. The paper develops a heuristic encompassing four dimensions along which food policy outputs may differ: (i) policy scope, (ii) targeting of policy efforts, (iii) type of policy instruments applied and how these are calibrated, and (iv) integration of the various components of the policy complex. These four dimensions can be applied to characterise individual food policies and compare across countries and time. Comparing and tracking the development of food policy along these dimensions would allow for addressing follow-up questions about impacts and what explains policy change.

Highlights

Food systems across the world have come to face increasing pressures and challenges in recent decades
Recognising that many food system drivers and challenges transcend the boundaries of traditional governmental jurisdictions, scholars have recommended a shift towards more holistic ways of governing food systems, e.g., by elaborating notions of ‘joined-up’ or ‘integrated’ food policy or ‘food systems governance’ (e.g., Barling et al 2002; Ericksen et al 2009; Lang et al 2009; MacRae 2011; Termeer et al 2018)
This paper started from the observation that the development of a comparative food policy research agenda has been hampered by the dependent variable problem of how to delineate food policy

Summary

Introduction

Food systems across the world have come to face increasing pressures and challenges in recent decades. Comparisons across time and contexts could provide insights into the number of governments (across levels) that have adopted food policies, the concerns they prioritise, and the instruments that have been deployed to steer food systems, inter alia; e.g., addressing pressing questions such as how many Sub-Saharan African governments have adopted integrated food security strategies, and to what extent these proceed beyond productionist goals (cf Candel 2018) Such comparisons would be a precondition for follow-up studies and assessments with explanatory ambitions in terms of identifying the conditions enabling the adoption of particular variants of food policy, as well as for the systematic evaluation of the impacts of policy interventions across contexts; e.g., addressing research questions like whether the much-lauded Brazilian policy instrument mix for tackling food insecurity sorts effect in different contexts (cf Marcondes and De Bruyn 2015). While we believe in the value of ontological and theoretical multiplicity, we consider the current lack of the type of research we propose a gap in the food policy literature

A review of existing food policy conceptualisations

Specifying the dependent variable

Conceptualising the four dimensions of food policy: a heuristic

Conclusion

Compliance with ethical standards