Food System Challenges Research Articles

Towards a trans-local food governance: Exploring the transformative capacity of food policy assemblages in the US and UK

A diversity of cross-sectoral, multi-scalar networks are emerging to connect place-based food governance initiatives, such as food policy councils and partnerships, aimed to foster sustainable food security. Yet little research has explored how local food policy groups (LFPGs) are (horizontally) connecting to share knowledge and resources, or interacting (vertically) with other scales of food governance. To address this gap, we examine the trans-local dimension of food policy networks—and its potential to facilitate transformative food system reform. We build on alternative food network, social network, and assemblage thinking to develop an analytical framework that unveils the mobile, unstable, and relational processes and spatialities of LFPGs and the networks which connect them. Through an action-research project comprising a comparative analysis of the Food Policy Networks project in the US and Sustainable Food Cities Network in the UK, we explore how LFPGs connect across different scales and emerge as social-spatial assemblages of food system knowledge, practices, and infrastructure. The findings suggest that conceptualizing these entities as dynamic and place-contingent enables evaluations of their relations and effects to account for features that (could) make them more interconnected, resilient, and transformative, but may also limit their ability to address structurally entrenched food system challenges.

Feeding Prometheus: An Interdisciplinary Approach for Solving the Global Food Crisis

The current global food system is inadequate to meet the needs of the current world population without compromising future well-being. For example, current intensified production systems lead to undernutrition in some regions coupled with epidemics of obesity in others while compromising their underlying ecological foundations, such as creating areas of ocean hypoxia. Such common observations challenge the research community to ask new types of basic questions and apply novel analytical frameworks for analyzing them. Elaboration of an integrated applied research agenda is imperative to addressing these global food system challenges. We propose that core competencies of a new analytical framework lie at the intersection of four domains: 1) the ecology of agroecosystems; 2) equity in global and local food systems; 3) cultural dimensions of food and agriculture; and 4) human health. This intersection constitutes a new analytical framework for transitions toward global food system sustainability.

Large-Scale Food Fortification and Biofortification in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: A Review of Programs, Trends, Challenges, and Evidence Gaps.

BackgroundFood fortification and biofortification are well-established strategies to address micronutrient deficiencies in vulnerable populations. However, the effectiveness of fortification programs is not only determined by the biological efficacy of the fortified foods but also by effective and sustainable implementation, which requires continual monitoring, quality assurance and control, and corrective measures to ensure high compliance.ObjectiveTo provide an overview of efficacy, effectiveness, economics of food fortification and biofortification, and status of and challenges faced by large-scale food fortification programs in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC).MethodsA literature review of PubMed publications in English from 2000 to 2017, as well as gray literature, targeting nongovernmental organizations whose work focuses on this topic, complemented by national reports and a “snowball” process of citation searching. The article describes remaining technical challenges, barriers, and evidence gap and prioritizes recommendations and next steps to further accelerate progress and potential of impact.ResultsThe review identifies and highlights essential components of successful programs. It also points out issues that determine poor program performance, including lack of adequate monitoring and enforcement and poor compliance with standards by industry.ConclusionsIn the last 17 years, large-scale food fortification initiatives have been reaching increasingly larger segments of populations in LMIC. Large-scale food fortification and biofortification should be part of other nutrition-specific and nutrition-sensitive efforts to prevent and control micronutrient deficiencies. There are remaining technical and food system challenges, especially in relation to improving coverage and quality of delivery and measuring progress of national programs.

Tackling Food System Challenges through Experiential Education: Criteria for Optimal Course Design

Educating students to find sustainable solutions to food system challenges is a task that spans disciplines and contexts. Our two-week World Food System Summer School allows participants, specialists and stakeholders to learn from one another. We describe the conceptual framework for the course, elucidate the design criteria used and discuss challenges, aiming to support the development of education offerings in this space.

Transdisciplinary Approaches and Methods in the Context of Food and Nutrition Security.

Since the World Food Summit of 1996, the world has strived to achieve sustainable food production and improved nutrition for all. However, the complexity of food and nutrition security, compounded by a growing population, depleting natural resources, changing consumption patterns, and a multitude of environmental shocks to the ecosystem, make it a "wicked problem." Wicked problems transcend the resources of any single discipline and are the focus of contemporary transdisciplinary work. Transdisciplinary research approaches allow us to gain a better understanding of complex contexts, actions, and decisions that determine socioecological systems, and to develop organizational, social, and technological innovations that fit a given situation. Using the case of urban agriculture, which holds both potential and challenges for healthy nutrition and food systems, the key features of transdisciplinary research approaches are identified. As transdisciplinary research stems from a perceived real-life problem, a differentiated understanding and handling of knowledge diversity is needed. Furthermore, there is the need to build and maintain a research team and depending on the number of actors and the diversity of interests involved, the research has to be conceived as a group working process over a period of time requiring group management and process design skills. Though there is no single recipe for a transdisciplinary research process, we present a framework for such a process with iterative loops and multiple interactions among the various spheres of actors through the 4 phases of problem framing, problem analyses, problem solving, and stimulating change. Transdisciplinary research approaches have many challenges and are demanding in the integration of the research environment and processes. The interaction between stakeholders and the joint learning and reflection processes necessitate mutual understanding. However, the management of these interactions is as vital as pure scientific analysis for tackling real-world challenges.

Tackling Food System Challenges through Experiential Education: Criteria for Optimal Course Design

Tackling Food System Challenges through Experiential Education: Criteria for Optimal Course Design

Concentration and Power in the Food System: Who Controls What We Eat?

Concentration and Power in the Food System: Who Controls What We Eat?

An emerging signature pedagogy for sustainable food systems education

AbstractConcerns are growing over the ability of the modern food system to simultaneously achieve food security and environmental sustainability in the face of global change. Yet, the dominant tendency within university settings to conceptualize and address diverse food system challenges as separate, disconnected issues is a key barrier to food system transformation. To address this fragmented approach, educators in North American institutes of higher education have begun new degree programs, specializations and certificates related to food systems. These programs, which we term sustainable food system education (SFSE) programs, have a common goal: to support post-secondary students across a range of disciplines in developing the knowledge, skills and dispositions to effectively address complex challenges in the food system. Graduates of these programs will be able to engage in collective action towards transforming the food system. As educators participating in flagship SFSE programs, we identify common pedagogical themes evident in SFSE programs, including our own. We then propose a signature pedagogy (SP) for sustainable food systems education. Signature pedagogies are conceptual models that identify the primary elements by which professional education in a specific field is designed, structured and implemented. On the basis of our analysis of SFSE programs, we identified systems thinking, multi-, inter- and trans-disciplinarity, use of experiential learning approaches and participation in collective action projects as central themes within a SFSE SP. By making these themes and their function explicit within a pedagogical framework, we seek to spur critical and creative thought regarding challenges of professional education in the field of sustainable food systems. Scholars and practitioners are encouraged to review, critique and implement our framework to advance the dialogue on SFSE theory and practice.

Collective Approach to Complex Food System Issues, the Case of The Ohio State University

Urban universities are uniquely positioned to make powerful and lasting contributions to the grand challenge of food security. To better understand the various dimensions related to the university’s role in food systems, this case study explores intentional linkages, significant developments, natural tensions, and emerging impacts at the Ohio State University. Discoveries from this analysis can guide urban university decision makers as they confront complex food system challenges.

Building a Narrative: The Role of Dualisms When Interpreting Food Systems

Against the background of increasingly complex and diverse agri-food systems, calls are made in rural sociology to no longer describe and distinguish food systems based on dualistic oppositions. The aim of this paper is to understand to what extent food system actors use different dualisms to build their ontological narratives. Based on a qualitative analysis, we analyse the narratives of key actors in the Flemish food system on food system challenges, and their relation with specific dualistic concepts and associated meanings, experiences and practices. Two distinct narratives emerge that are embedded in opposing dualisms, what leads us to believe that dualistic oppositions are still a part of the agri-food reality and are something to take into account when different actors have to collaborate.

Challenges for Sustainable Food Systems in Metropolitan Landscapes

Metropolitan landscapes are facing the challenge to find a balance between urban development on the one hand and the preservation of farmland and natural resources on the other. Conventional land use planning approaches are often not up to this complex challenge and many regions are in need for innovative knowledge and approaches. This paper discusses the role of scenario methodology in the search for innovative solutions, with special emphasis on the challenges related to the sustainability of the food system. An example of application of scenario tools is presented for the Metropolitan Region Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

Formulating policy activities to promote healthy and sustainable diets.

To develop a policy formulation tool for strategically informing food and nutrition policy activities to promote healthy and sustainable diets (HSD). A policy formulation tool consisting of two complementary components was developed. First, a conceptual framework of the environment-public health nutrition relationship was constructed to characterise and conceptualise the food system problem. Second, an 'Orders of Food Systems Change' schema drawing on systems dynamics thinking was developed to identify, assess and propose policy options to redesign food systems. Food and nutrition policy activities to promote HSD have been politicised, fragmented and lacking a coherent conceptual and strategic focus to tackle complex food system challenges. The tool's conceptual framework component comprises three integrated dimensions: (i) a structure built around the environment and public health nutrition relationship that is mediated via the food system; (ii) internal mechanisms that operate through system dynamics; and (iii) external interactions that frame its nature and a scope within ecological parameters. The accompanying schema is structured around three orders of change distinguished by contrasting ideological perspectives on the type and extent of change needed to 'solve' the HSD problem. The conceptual framework's systems analysis of the environment-public health nutrition relationship sets out the food system challenges for HSD. The schema helps account for political realities in policy making and is a key link to operationalise the framework's concepts to actions aimed at redesigning food systems. In combination they provide a policy formulation tool to strategically inform policy activities to redesign food systems and promote HSD.

Challenges for sustainable food systems in metropolitan landscapes

Metropolitan landscapes are facing the challenge to find a balance between urban development on the one hand and the preservation of farmland and natural resources on the other. Conventional land use planning approaches are often not up to this complex challenge and many regions are in need for innovative knowledge and approaches. This paper discusses the role of scenario methodology in the search for innovative solutions, with special emphasis on the challenges related to the sustainability of the food system. An example of application of scenario tools is presented for the Metropolitan Region Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

All (Food) Politics is Local: Increasing Food Access Through Local Government Action

Our national and international system has implications for a wide range of issues that are important across the political spectrum and include improving health outcomes, reducing environmental impacts, increasing social justice, fostering economic development, and even improving homeland security. This article focuses on healthy-food access, one of the most urgent policy issues because of its social and economic effects, as well as its public health impacts. In 2010, thirty-six percent of Americans were obese and another thirty-three percent were overweight, while eight percent of Americans were diabetic and thirty-five percent suffered from pre-diabetes. Though access is not perfectly correlated with public health outcomes, those with limited access to healthy foods often suffer most acutely, as people living in areas with access to a supermarket exhibit a twenty-four percent lower prevalence of obesity than those living in areas without supermarkets. Increased access has been linked to results as diverse as improved educational outcomes and crime reduction.Local governments have been particularly attentive to policy concerns. Thirteen cities in North America now have a paid local policy director or coordinator, and more than 130 cities and counties in the United States and Canada have local policy councils, comprised of diverse stakeholders interested in improving the way is produced and consumed. Municipalities have enacted a range of policy reforms, such as increasing governmental procurement of local or healthy foods, improving access to in schools,15 and incentivizing consumers to purchase healthy foods. Many recent local actions focus explicitly on increasing healthy-food access, including amending zoning codes to increase urban agriculture, creating new mobile vending outlets, and enhancing transportation routes to healthy-food retailers. In January 2012, the U.S. Conference of Mayors (USCM) convened its first ever Food Policy Taskforce, which immediately identified increasing access to healthy foods as one of its primary areas of concern. Local governments are also beginning to acknowledge that each locality faces its own food-system challenges with differing policy solutions, meaning that local responses to local issues can be more successful than federal or state approaches.This article aims to encourage those localities not yet active in policy to join the field. The discussion focuses on methods of fostering access to healthy foods, such as fruits, vegetables, and other unprocessed, fresh products. Local governments are particularly well suited to increase access because they have the unique ability to identify areas of need and then work with local constituents to craft targeted responses. Part II explains the concept of food deserts, or areas that lack healthy-food access, and provides historical context about their development. As described in Part II.A, the federal government has attempted to respond to the problem, but its efforts have suffered as a result of its narrow food-desert definition and limited ability to work directly with affected communities. Instead, as explained in Part II.B, local government is better suited to address access because is such a cultural and community-based issue, and local input is vital to successfully expand access. This section identifies steps that local governments should take to engage the community and identify appropriate solutions. Part III highlights policy responses taken by localities around the country and across the system, illustrating that despite the similarities in the problem of limited access, local governments have a variety of tools to address this issue and can and should tailor responses to their specific needs in order to achieve success.

Planners Coming to the Table

Planners Coming to the Table

From turf to table: Grass seed to edible grains in the Willamette Valley

Western Oregon's Willamette Valley has a rich history of agricultural production and, like an increasing number of regions globally, a growing local food movement. Recent declines in grass seed markets and an increased consumer interest in local grains have raised the possibility of a transition from grass seed land to edible grain production for local markets. We used geographic information systems (GIS) to determine if the Willamette Valley population's dietary grain needs could be met if current grass seed land were converted to production of soft white winter wheat. In order to explore transitional obstacles and opportunities, we conducted interviews with local farmers, a wholesaler, an agriculture extension worker, and seed developers. The GIS analysis indicated that such a transition could exceed the recommended grain needs of the region's 2008 population. The interviews revealed technical and cultural aspects of transitioning from grass seed production to wheat and other edible crops, identifying insufficient infrastructure (storage, processing, distribution, and market outlets) as the primary barrier to producing for local markets. This combination of GIS analysis (predictive of the food-producing capacity of a region) with in-depth contextual information and practical insights from farmers' voices provides a robust model for planners seeking to analyze and address local food system challenges and possibilities. Our research, while focusing on the Willamette Valley's transition toward a more locally based food system, explores the potential steps for any region looking to transition from nonedible to edible crop production for local consumption.