Food System Change Research Articles

A Methodological Framework for Assessing the Agroecological Performance of Farms in Portugal: Integrating TAPE and ACT Approaches

Agroecology integrates science, social movements, and agricultural practices, playing a central role in the sustainability of food systems. It addresses agroecosystems and food systems holistically; however, defining whether a farm is agroecological remains a challenge. This article proposes a methodology to measure farms’ agroecological performance, adapted to the family farming context in Portugal. The aim of the developed methodology is to compare the agroecological performance of family farms (conventional and non-conventional), providing information about anchors for agroecological transition and supporting public policies. A literature review identified existing farm evaluation methodologies, with Tool for Agroecological Performance Evaluation (TAPE) and Agroecology Criteria Tool (ACT) scoring highest in an assessment process. Questions from both were integrated into a questionnaire for family farmers. This field work provided critical insights towards the methodologies: (1) territorial adaptability; (2) transition constraints’ origin; and (3) use of non-academic language. The results were incorporated into the developed methodology, which combines the TAPE indicator matrix and Gliessman’s five levels of food system change, the latter of which provides the framework for the ACT. This study made it possible to identify the most relevant aspects for characterizing family farmers/farms and the importance of how the evaluation criteria/indicators are ordered by element/theme, as it alters the values of each farm’s agroecological performance.

Participatory development of Shared Socioeconomic Pathways for Austria’s agriculture and food systems

Agriculture and food systems are central to managing biodiversity loss and climate change. Future changes in agriculture and food systems are highly uncertain and depend on underlying socio-economic developments. Scenarios allow scientists, policy and industry decision-makers to consider such uncertainties and describe a spectrum of plausible futures. The Shared Socioeconomic Pathways for European agriculture and food systems (Eur-Agri-SSPs) semi-quantitatively describe pathways along future challenges for climate change mitigation and adaptation. However, additional or adapted drivers (i.e. scenario elements), like national policies or adaptations of European policies, are relevant to frame plausible future developments at national scales. We aim to set the standard for developing country and sector-specific SSPs in a participatory process by developing and applying an eleven-step protocol and engaging a diverse group of stakeholders throughout the whole research process. By downscaling the Eu-Agri-SSPs to a national level, we contribute to improve their usability in academia, governments and industry. This is achieved by matching qualitative pathways with the needs of integrated land use models (used to simulate land use scenarios), and by quantifying selected drivers for future developments together with stakeholders. In particular, we estimate 20-year trends (2000–2019) and apply fuzzy set theory to quantify ten scenario elements, which are typically required in integrated land use models. The final scenarios describe the semi-quantitative development for 79 scenario elements along the five topics “Population and urbanization”, “Economy”, “Policy and institutions”, “Technology”, and “Environment and natural resources” for the five AT-Agri-SSPs. Exemplary results reveal that stakeholders expect payments for agri-environment-climate measures to increase to 1200 million € in AT-Agri-SSP1 or to decline to 267 million € in AT-Agri-SSP3, 4 and 5. For direct payments, a complete phase-out was specified for AT-Agri-SSP1 and an increase to 711 million € in AT-Agri-SSP3. We discuss 14 lessons learnt and recommendations for future scenario processes and participatory quantification. Recommendations include: tailoring the assignment of scenario elements for quantification to stakeholders’ expertise, keeping survey complexity low, providing historical and relevant SSP data, and encouraging stakeholders to jointly quantify interdependent elements. The AT-Agri-SSPs can inform policy-making, decision-making in industry, and research on the agriculture and food systems.

Nanotechnology and The Use of Nanoparticles and Its Effect on Wheat Growing

The rapid increase in the human population and the improvement in the living standards of many countries in the world cause the increasing supply of agricultural land to be unmet. Therefore, soil fertility is gaining importance day by day and soil texture is becoming a strategic element. With the development of nanotechnology, the usability of nanoparticles in many fields, especially in agriculture, has started to be investigated or discussed. Studies in agricultural nanotechnology have generally focused on using less pesticides, increasing yields or developing stress-resistant crops. Some studies in this field have started to yield positive results. However, more studies are needed for nanotechnology to be used in agriculture. Because deciding on the use of nanoparticles is an issue that can be reached in the long term. In recent years, the application of nanotechnology-based applications in agriculture is one of the strategies that attract the attention of researchers. Nanotechnology explores a wide spectrum of applications in the fields of biotechnology and agriculture sector, creating a broad spectrum for various applications. Nanotechnology has become a new technology that can be used in various industries such as industry, medicine, food science and safety, smart packaging and agriculture. Nanotechnology, which has been used in many stages of agriculture in recent years, has been widely applied in product production, development, processing, packaging, storage and transportation, and has brought about major changes in food and agricultural systems. It is also used to increase plant resistance and to control the efficacy and safety of pesticides and fertilizers. Thus, the application of nanostructured materials designed for sustainable crop production reduces nutrient losses, suppresses diseases and increases yields. In this study, the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and targets for the use of nanotechnology and nanoparticles in wheat agriculture were identified and presented.

Food system futures in Finland: How do experts evaluate changes in resilience up to 2030?

Food security has received much attention since sudden shocks like Covid-19 and the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Resilience to sudden changes and disruptions is called for to maintain food availability in societies. In this study, potential disruptions and changes in the Finnish food system’s operating environment were evaluated. We focused on two future challenges: 1) what key disruptions will confront the food system until 2030; and 2) how will the Finnish food system change based on the experts’ views, and what measures will develop resilience up to 2030? We used the Delphi technique for data gathering. According to the results, the most significant shock at all three levels, national, EU, and global, was the disruptions caused by climate change (the increase in extreme climate and weather phenomena). An increase in the efficient recycling of nutrients was seen as most desirable, and an increase in the costs associated with recovery from disturbances and shocks was seen as most likely. Reducing inputs’ dependence on imports was seen as a key measure for developing resilience. Two constructed scenarios were presented, which highlight the determinants and uncertainties in the development of resilience in Finland.

Cocoa Farmers' Participation in Public and Private Agricultural Extension Delivery in Amenfi Central District, Ghana

Agricultural extension and knowledge management have become key blocks in driving sustainable food systems and rural development, especially in periods of dealing with the complexities surrounding climate change and sustainable food systems in localised systems. This study assessed cocoa farmers' participation in public and private agricultural extension services in Ghana. Using descriptive and inferential statistics and collecting data from 385 farmers, the study reveals that private extension services stand out in various indices: access to information (3.72), communication (3.96), and support and follow-up (3.45), while public extension services excel in social and environmental impact (3.54), and knowledge transfer (3.86). Intricate extension programme dynamics also reveal a clear preference for private extension in citizen power (23.6% vs. 7.3%), delegated power (33.2% vs. 8.6%), and partnership (39.2% vs. 13.5%). Using the binary probit regression model, this study examines how various socio-economic factors influence farmers' participation in extension programmes. Results indicate that key determinants for participation in public extension include gender, level of education, land size, availability of labour, and access to credit. Conversely, factors influencing participation in private extension programmes include membership in farmer groups, land ownership, land size, the availability of labour, and access to credit. Policymakers and extension workers can make extension services more useful and open to everyone by focusing on these socioeconomic factors and creating programmes that meet the unique needs and limitations of various farmer groups. This will ultimately lead to higher agricultural productivity, better livelihoods, and better rural development.

Creating pathways to just and sustainable food systems with citizen assemblies

Food systems affect and are affected by the interrelated crises of climate change, biodiversity loss, resource depletion and health, amongst others. Transforming to sustainable approaches is vital, yet entangled with uncertainties, complexity and a great value diversion with stakeholders. Deliberative processes such as citizen assemblies offer a valuable contribution to such a transformation, since the crises and their responses affect everyday life, and therefore inviting individual and collective action. Still, who is included and whose knowledge counts affects outcomes. Theoretically anchored in concepts of environmental justice, our study analyses three nation-wide citizens’ assemblies on climate change and food systems from Western Europe. It assesses (a) how citizens’ assemblies can incorporate a broad set of viewpoints and design more substantive political answers to current crises, and (b) whether citizens’ assemblies include environmental justice aspects to facilitate social change. The paper argues that systematic and methodologically reflected inclusion of various positionalities can inspire decision-making processes in that they incorporate procedural, recognition, and distributional justice to address problems of climate change or modern food systems. It concludes with offering further approaches to include more than scientific knowledge in deliberative processes for a just transformation towards sustainability.

Global Food Security and Sustainability Issues: The Road to 2030 from Nutrition and Sustainable Healthy Diets to Food Systems Change.

The accomplishment of food/nutrition security for all across sustainable food systems (SFS) is tied to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). SFS is connected to all SDGs via the traditional framework of social inclusion, economic development, environmental safety, inclusivity, and the development of sustainable food systems. We suggest that, for the world to achieve sustainable development, a shift to SFS is necessary to guarantee food/nutrition security for all, while operating within planetary boundaries to protect ecosystems and adapt to and mitigate climate change. Therefore, there is a requirement for original approaches that implement systemic and more participatory methods to engage with a wider range of food system stakeholders. However, the lack of skills and tools regarding novel methodologies for food system transformation is a key obstacle to the deployment of such approaches in practice. In the first part of this review, a summary of some challenges that occur in the governance of food system transformation is given. Through a case study of plant-based proteins and their biological and chemical modification as diets shift towards alternative proteins, we demonstrate that resource-efficient food systems and food waste, through system transformation, are useful in understanding both (i) how food system transformation has ensued and (ii) how the required transformation is prohibited. Finally, we discuss the implications of food system transformation in terms of nutrition and sustainable healthy diets, which are needed to achieve changes in food safety systems in the future. The linkage of food and the environment is evident, focusing on nutrition and sustainable healthy diets. This cannot be accomplished without system change and research towards new foods and, more specifically, new proteins such as plant-based ones and their biological and chemical modification.

Challenges and Solutions for Sustainable Food Systems: The Potential of Home Hydroponics

The global food system is currently facing significant challenges that make it unsustainable and environmentally harmful. These challenges not only threaten food security but also have severe negative impacts on the environment. Efforts have been made to reform agrifood systems and align them with the built environment, but emerging obstacles have revealed the weaknesses in these systems, particularly in less self-sufficient countries. This review outlines the primary environmental problems associated with global agrifood systems and the challenges in promoting food security. It emphasizes that the increasing global population and urbanization need rational and equitable changes in food systems, including production, distribution, storage, and consumption. These changes should aim to minimize environmental impacts by protecting and efficiently utilizing natural resources such as air, water, soil, and biodiversity, reducing food loss and waste, and mitigating pollution that contributes to ecosystem degradation and climate change. In this context, hydroponics emerges as a sustainable, plant-based food production technique that can be employed as a solution in urban areas. It can be implemented in domestic microproduction systems, serving as a complementary alternative to conventional food production methods. This study also provides insights into the challenges that need to be addressed in order to enhance home hydroponic systems. The integration of hydroponics into urban food production offers the potential to tackle both food security and environmental sustainability issues, providing a path toward more resilient and efficient food systems.

Scale up urban agriculture to leverage transformative food systems change, advance social-ecological resilience and improve sustainability.

Scaling up urban agriculture could leverage transformative change, to build and maintain resilient and sustainable urban systems. Current understanding of drivers, processes and pathways for scaling up urban agriculture, however, remains fragmentary and largely siloed in disparate disciplines and sectors. Here we draw on multiple disciplinary domains to present an integrated conceptual framework of urban agriculture and synthesize literature to reveal its social-ecological effects across scales. We demonstrate plausible multi-phase developmental pathways, including dynamics, accelerators and feedback associated with scaling up urban agriculture. Finally, we discuss key considerations for scaling up urban agriculture, including diversity, heterogeneity, connectivity, spatial synergies and trade-offs, nonlinearity, scale and polycentricity. Our framework provides a transdisciplinary roadmap for policy, planning and collaborative engagement to scale up urban agriculture and catalyse transformative change towards more robust urban resilience and sustainability.

The planet on our plates: approaches to incorporate environmental sustainability within food-based dietary guidelines.

For many decades, food-based dietary guidelines (FBDGs) were only health-oriented. This changed post-2009 when gradually, an increasing number of countries began to include environmental sustainability considerations in their guidelines. International organisations such as the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Health Organization (WHO) have stated that governments should include environmental sustainability in future FBDGs. However, methodologies on how this should be done are lacking. Therefore, through workshops and discussions with experts, we analysed a selection of methodologies and classified them into six groups: (1) health first; (2) additional advice; (3) demonstrating synergies; (4) modelling impact; (5) combining strategies; (6) systems first. We then assessed how innovative each approach was and their potential for transformative impact. Of the 6 approaches investigated, only approaches 5 and 6 could be considered as disruptive innovations and leading to major changes. Adding environmental sustainability into FBDGs is a policy innovation and has become a debate between old and new multi-criteria guidelines for eating. With the addition of environmental sustainability in FBDGS, a new or emerging set of multi-criteria guidelines for judging food are being proposed that challenges past norms and governance. Today, there is growing scientific consensus that diets that are good for human health are also good for the environment. There is also a growing recognition that food system change is inevitable and desirable. We see this as a positive opportunity to collaborate on FBDGs that are more appropriate for the 21st century and ambitious enough to meet the environmental challenges at hand.

ANALYSIS OF GROWTH AND CROPPING PATTERN CHANGES OF INDIAN AGRICULTURE SINCE INDEPENDENCE: CRITICAL ACCOUNT ON THE SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT PERSPECTIVES

Agriculture, land use and food security are at the main subject of the debates in the 2015 development goals and targets. However, hunger and food insecurity remain major development priorities in the recent decades. Nevertheless, the existing agriculture, changes in land use patterns and food systems are critical to sustaining poor people’s life and livelihoods. The 2015 Sustainable Development goals and agendas need to support for more productive, environmentally sustainable and resilient while safeguarding and augmenting life and livelihood of the mass through agricultural sustainability. With this background, the present research paper attempted to analyze, the trend of the agricultural sector in terms of growth rates of area production, quantity production, yield of selected crops and its share to national income towards achieving food security towards zero hunger over the last seven decades since its Independence in India and examine the relative contribution of area yield, output changes in relation to other related variable like rainfall, fertilizers and land use pattern in India. The study findings indicate a notable trend in the agricultural sector: the proportion of agricultural imports within the realm of agricultural commodities saw a steady rise, climbing from 2.79 percent to 5.07 percent spanning the years from 1990-91 to 2021-22. Conversely, the proportion of agricultural commodity exports relative to the overall national export share experienced a gradual decline, diminishing from 18.47 percent to 11.94 percent over the same period. Moreover, data reveals significant growth in key agricultural metrics. The total cultivated area for food grain production expanded substantially, surging from 97.32 million hectares in 1950-51 to 129.34 million hectares by 2020-21. Concurrently, the quantity of food grain produced exhibited remarkable

An analysis of the transformative potential of Australia's national food policies and policy actions to promote healthy and sustainable food systems.

Despite commitment by many countries to promote food system transformation, Australia has yet to adopt a national food policy. This study aimed to evaluate Australian Federal Government's (AFG) food policies and policy actions potential to promote healthy and sustainable food systems. This study is a desk-based policy mapping followed by a theoretically guided evaluation of policy actions. This involved three steps: (1) identification of government departments and agencies that could influence Australia's food system; (2) identification of food policies and policy actions within these departments and (3) use of a conceptual framework to evaluate policy actions' potential of changing the food system as adjust (first-order change), reform (second-order change) or transform (third-order change). Australia. None. Twenty-four food policies and sixty-two policy actions were identified across eight AFG departments and the Food Regulation System and evaluated based on the order of change they represented. Most policies were led by individual departments, reflecting the absence of a joined-up approach to food policy in Australia. Most policy actions (n 25/ 56·5 %) were evaluated as having adjust potential, whereas no transformative policy action was identified. These findings suggest that Australia is likely to proceed incrementally towards achieving food system change through adjustments and reforms but lacking transformative impact. To promote transformative change, all three orders of change must be strategically implemented in a coherent and coordinated matter. A comprehensive national food policy and a national coordinating body are needed to ensure a cohesive approach to policy.

Deep histories of food systems in eastern Africa and current patterns of food insecurity.

Central to successful attempts to address food insecurity in Africa are understandings of the historical contexts and meanings of food systems. However, much research into current challenges remains separated from deeper agrarian and alimentary histories. Using qualitative data on food within the historical record alongside the wider multidisciplinary record of the past, this Review traces long-term patterns and drivers of continuity and change in eastern African food systems. Considerable dynamism in place-based and regional trends in the integration of new foodstuffs, agricultural commercialization, resistance and transformations in diets, and diversification and specialization as livelihood strategies is found-each of which emerged within imbricated contexts of African agency, transoceanic exchanges and colonial incursions. Such historical data provide important deep-time perspectives for interventions to address modern food insecurity, as demonstrated through examples of agricultural value chains, 'under-utilized' crops and major infrastructure projects in southeast Africa.

Dietary patterns among adults in three low-income urban communities in Accra, Ghana

Objective Dietary patterns describe the dietary behaviour and habits of individuals. Unhealthy dietary patterns provide individuals with limited nutrients while increasing the risk of nutrition-related diseases. Unhealthy dietary patterns are high in urban areas, especially among low-income urban residents. This study examined dietary patterns in three low-income urban communities in Accra, Ghana, between 2011 and 2013. Methods This study used Wave 2 and 3 data from the Urban Health and Poverty Survey (EDULINK 2011 and 2013). The sample size was 960 in 2011 and 782 in 2013. Dietary pattern was examined using factor analysis and the NOVA food classification system. Summary statistics were computed for sociodemographic characteristics and diet frequency and pattern. Differences in dietary behaviours between 2011 and 2013 were also estimated. Three logistic regression models were computed to determine the predictors of dietary patterns. Results The frequency of consumption of animal-source foods (ASF) and fruits was higher in 2013 compared with 2011. The intake of processed culinary ingredients (NOVA Group 2), processed foods (NOVA Group 3) and ultra-processed foods (NOVA Group 4) was higher in 2013 versus 2011. In 2013, 29% consumed ultra-processed foods compared to 21% in 2011. Three dietary patterns (rice-based, snack-based, and staple and stew/soup) were identified. About two out of every five participants consumed the food items in the rice (43%) and staple and sauce patterns (40%). The proportion of participants who consumed the food items in the snack pattern was 35% in 2011 but 41% in 2013. Respondents aged 25–34 and those with higher education often consumed the snack-based and rice-based dietary patterns. In 2013, participants in Ussher Town had a higher probability of consuming food items in the snack pattern than those living in Agbogbloshie. Conclusions This study found that between 2011 and 2013, more participants consumed ASFs, fruits, and processed foods. A complex interplay of personal and socio-cultural factors influenced dietary intake. The findings of this study mirror global changes in diet and food systems, with important implications for the primary and secondary prevention of NCDs. Health promotion programs at the community level are needed to address the increasing levels of processed food consumption.

Measuring agroecology: Introducing a methodological framework and a community of practice approach

Over the last few years, a small but increasing number of researchers and organizations has been involved in tracking funding flows to agroecology, analyzing development assistance, climate finance, and research funds for their contribution to an agroecological transformation of food systems, including as part of the efforts to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. This has led to the emergence of a community of practice (CoP) meeting and exchanging in a number of different forums—Financing Agroecology Civil Society CoP, the Agroecology Donor Group, and the Working Group on Financing and Investments of the Coalition for Food Systems Transformation Through Agroecology (Agroecology Coalition). In this article, we report on a process of collaboratively developing a methodological framework, using the High Level Panel of Experts of the Committee on World Food Security 13 principles of agroecology as foundation. This framework overcomes some limitations of previous methodologies for evaluating degrees of agroecological integration (including those using Gliessman’s 5 levels of food system change) and facilitates a robust qualitative assessment of projects, programs, and project portfolios with respect to their “agroecologicalness.” The framework conceives of agroecology as paradigm-shifting rather than as incremental improvements to existing food systems. It enables global comparability as well as local contextualization of each principle. While the need for this framework arose from the desire to monitor—and increase—financial support for an urgently needed transformation toward agroecology, the framework can equally contribute to the design of projects and programs, which aim to radically transform food and farming systems. It also has value as an educational tool, in specifying through statements of value and concrete examples, what agroecological work aims at. This article introduces our framework and argues for an expanded CoP approach to use it widely and share the results through the digital platform that will be developed for that purpose.

Holistic approaches for risk-benefit assessment

Abstract Moving towards holistic approaches that assess trade-offs among health, sustainability, and economics is imperative to minimize emergent risks and drivers of environmental degradation associated with food systems. Health risk-benefit assessments provide informative outputs to support decision-making within the public health domain. However, integrating indicators from different dimensions requires tailoring current risk-benefit methods. In this context, multicriteria decision analysis methodologies can be relevant to account for different factors and weighing trade-offs of real-life scenarios of changes in food systems. In addition, further research building on initiatives attempting to integrate frameworks within health (e.g., risk analysis) and environment (e.g., Life-Cycle Assessment and linear programming) or health and economics (e.g., cost-benefit and cost of illness), is needed to establish a holistic risk-benefit assessment framework. This presentation will introduce current efforts in the development of holistic assessment methods that evaluate impacts beyond the health risk and benefits perspective. In addition, the presentation will highlight the potential gains of such methods in policymaking.

Feeding a tourism boom: changing food practices and systems of provision in Hoi An, Vietnam

ABSTRACT While food studies have increasingly gone beyond the “Western” experience in food globalization processes, research on food and tourism has often prioritized the (Western) tourist’s gaze. In the literature on food and tourism in Asia, little attention has been given to the experiences of host populations. Responding to this lacuna in the literature, this paper analyses how a tourism boom is fed and how tourism-driven “foodway encounters” shape food practices and systems of provision. Focusing on the major tourism transformations seen in the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Hoi An, Vietnam, over the past decades, we study how hosts approach tourists’ demand for both comfort food from home and new food experiences that are simultaneously “authentic” and safe. We analyze how both Vietnamese and foreign hosts seek to understand, influence and adapt to the culinary preferences of visitors, and how they develop the necessary skills to do so. Furthermore, since feeding tourists often requires a wide range of food traditionally unavailable or uncommon in Hoi An, we analyze how hosts acquire the ingredients necessary for changing food practices and how systems of provision both shape and take shape through the process of catering to the particularities of touristy foodways.

Actualizations of agroecology among Scottish farmers

ABSTRACT Transformative agroecology challenges industrialized food and farming systems, proposing an alternative vision in which farms are designed around ecological symbioses and embedded within socially just food networks. However, at a policy level, alternative conceptualizations of agroecology have emerged that emphasize on-farm efficiency gains but lack broader objectives of agroecosystem and food system transformation. This phenomenological inquiry explores the agroecological narrative among Scottish farmers and considers its impacts on agroecosystem and food system change. Interviews were conducted across 15 farms in Scotland (20 participants) following the trans positional cognition approach (TPCA). Actualizations of agroecology were found to be value-driven approaches to developing individualized, lower-input farming systems. All farms were attempting to influence agroecosystem change through the application of ecological principles, and most (11/15) were contributing to food system change directly through involvement in alternative food networks. Smaller-scale farmers appear to deliver the most authentic actualizations of transformative agroecology but emphasized more strongly their financial challenges. A key recommendation for policymakers is to strengthen the support mechanisms available for small-scale ecological agriculture.

Critical food systems education in university student-run food initiatives: learning opportunities for food systems transformation

IntroductionStudent-run Campus Food Systems Alternatives (CFSA) have been proposed as spaces which have the potential to advance Critical Food Systems Education (CFSE) – the objective of which is to motivate students to act toward radical food systems transformation on community and systemic levels. Evidence on how learning dynamics in CFSA drive student participants to develop critical perspectives on food systems is limited, however. This paper seeks to address this gap by exploring how critical and transformative learning happens in these informal and student-run spaces, by detailing a multi-case study of students’ learning experiences in four student-run CFSA on the McGill University campus.MethodsData on students’ learning experiences was collected through observational field notes of CFSA activities and semi-structured Interviews with student facilitators. Thematic and cross-case analysis was performed with interview data.ResultsAnalysis of students’ described learning experiences in CFSA revealed three broad categories of learning dynamics which drive students’ learning about food systems and their willingness to act for food systems change: hands-on work in informal spaces, social connection and engagement between student participants, and engagement with the beyond-campus community.DiscussionEngagement with the beyond-campus community via CFSA, particularly that which involved exposure to food-related injustice in marginalized communities, was found to be particularly important in driving student participants’ critical reflection on food systems and willingness to act toward food justice. A lack of intentional critical reflective practice was however observed in CFSA, calling into question how this practice can be driven in campus food initiatives without compromising their student-run and informal structures.

Food on the Margins: A Creative Film Collaboration to Amplify the Voices of Those Living with Food Insecurity

‘ Food on the margins in Plymouth’ is a short ‘fly on the wall’-style documentary film which has captured the food stories of six individuals who are, for whatever reason, experiencing food insecurity. The film was inspired by a recent participatory food research project (Food as a Lifestyle Motivator) which aimed to explore creative methods to better understand the food experiences of vulnerable communities in Plymouth, UK. Our aim was to ‘co-produce’ a documentary film illustrating the realities of the lived experience of food insecurity that could be promoted by/to city leaders and policy-makers to catalyse food system change. The resulting documentary film successfully met its aim by presenting a work of public sociology that informs publics about food poverty. Here, within this ‘Beyond the Text’ companion piece, we critique and appraise what the film achieves, by proposing how and why film-making can engage publics through sharing food stories and conveying wider sociological discourses.