Resilient Food Systems Research Articles

COP 27 insights to increase food-systems climate adaptation and resilience

Abstract The limited resilience of agricultural and food systems has become an agenda in the time of more extreme natural hazards. The impact of such events is extensive, and the level of damage and recovery strongly depends on ecosystem services, including their own resilience capacity. Most of the time, ecosystems themselves can offer mitigation measures based on the benefits people get from nature, including cultivated and wild biomass for nutrition, materials, or energy; pest and disease control; and regulation of baseline flows, among others. The 27th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, held in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, addressed issues related to crop production, food security, and nutrition. The information garnered from this conference provided impetus for actions that we believe can ensure a future with the resources needed for sustainable development and that support the health and nutrition for all the inhabitants on Earth.

Why Do We Need Food Systems Informatics? Introduction to This Special Collection on Smart and Connected Regional Food Systems

Public interest in where food comes from and how it is produced, processed, and distributed has increased over the last few decades, with even greater focus emerging during the COVID-19 pandemic. Mounting evidence and experience point to disturbing weaknesses in our food systems’ abilities to support human livelihoods and wellbeing, and alarming long-term trends regarding both the environmental footprint of food systems and mounting vulnerabilities to shocks and stressors. How can we tackle the “wicked problems” embedded in a food system? More specifically, how can convergent research programs be designed and resulting knowledge implemented to increase inclusion, sustainability, and resilience within these complex systems, support widespread contributions to and acceptance of solutions to these challenges, and provide concrete benchmarks to measure progress and understand tradeoffs among strategies along multiple dimensions? This article introduces and defines food systems informatics (FSI) as a tool to enhance equity, sustainability, and resilience of food systems through collaborative, user-driven interaction, negotiation, experimentation, and innovation within food systems. Specific benefits we foresee in further development of FSI platforms include the creation of capacity-enabling verifiable claims of sustainability, food safety, and human health benefits relevant to particular locations and products; the creation of better incentives for the adoption of more sustainable land use practices and for the creation of more diverse agro-ecosystems; the wide-spread use of improved and verifiable metrics of sustainability, resilience, and health benefits; and improved human health through better diets.

The War in Ukraine, Food Security and the Role for Europe

SummaryFood‐security implications of the war in Ukraine are exacerbated by adverse weather events, spillover effects from the distortion of energy and fertiliser markets, and domestic policies that countries around the world have implemented in pursuit of food security. Estimates suggest that the cumulative effect of these channels in terms of restricting agricultural and food trade is in the order of over 10 times larger, and their cumulative effect on global food supply is on average three times more substantial than the direct agricultural supply disruptions in Ukraine. The latter, however, disproportionally impacts low‐income countries that are particularly vulnerable to food supply shortages and price increases. In the case of the EU, although overall food availability is not at stake, food affordability for low‐income households is a concern, especially when combined with rising prices of other essential goods, such as energy and transportation. To ensure the resilience of domestic and global food systems, the EU and its Member States should extend a set of already implemented policies, including better‐targeted support for the low‐income households in the region, implementation of trade facilitation measures via international cooperation, and support for agricultural production in the most vulnerable countries, and should also facilitate the restoration of Ukraine's lost agricultural assets.

Food Insecurity During COVID-19: A Neglected Priority?

The COVID-19 pandemic is a public health and global problem threatening the food security and nutrition of millions of people. While considerable public health resources have focused on combating the COVID-19 pandemic, food and nutrition have received less attention. By 2030, Sustainable Development Goal 2 aims to eradicate hunger and ensure that all people, especially the poor and vulnerable, have year-round access to safe, nutritious, and enough food. Regrettably, the world is falling short of its 2030 target of attaining Zero Hunger, mainly due to this pandemic. We reviewed the prevalence of food insecurity during COVID-19 ranging from 23% to 80% and its consequences including the measures presented in the previous studies to address the issue. Food insecurity has many negative consequences during COVID-19, including disruption of food chains, increased food prices, malnutrition and health consequences, growing social inequities, and bad economic outcomes. We highlighted the need for two main strategies: nutritionsensitive social protection, and food system reform and innovation to address this problem further to build a more robust and resilient food system for the sake of future generations.

Our shared global responsibility: Safeguarding crop diversity for future generations

The resilience and sustainability of food systems depend on crop diversity. It is used by breeders to produce new and better varieties, and by farmers to respond to new challenges or demands and to spread risk. However, crop diversity can only be used if it has been conserved, can be identified as the solution for a given problem, and is available. As the ways in which crop diversity is used in research and breeding change and expand, the global conservation system for crop diversity must keep pace; it must provide not only the biological materials themselves, but also the relevant information presented in a comprehensive and coherent way—all while ensuring equitable access and benefit sharing. Here we explore the evolving priorities for global efforts to safeguard and make available the diversity of the world's crops through ex situ genetic resource collections. We suggest that collections held by academic institutions and other holders that are not standard gene banks should be better integrated in global efforts and decision-making to conserve genetic resources. We conclude with key actions that we suggest should be taken to ensure that crop diversity collections of all types are able to fulfill their role to foster more diverse, equitable, resilient, and sustainable food systems globally.

Allotment Garden Products as Contribution to Sustainable and Resilient Cities: An Analysis in Leipzig, Germany

The food supply and the consumption of resources are already central challenges for the growing world population and increasing demands. Urban areas in particular face problems of resilience and sustainability. The development of alternative food systems by, e.g., urban gardening, can contribute to meet targets of sustainable consumption, inclusive economy, and resilient food systems of cities. Our research presents insights into the available harvest of products from allotments. In addition, the interest and motivation of gardeners to distribute products from their allotments was investigated. The analysis was based on a structured and standardized questionnaire with more than 90 allotment gardeners in Leipzig. Data were analyzed by means of descriptive statistics. Our results showed that especially zucchinis, tomatoes, berries, and apples could be distributed to consumers; however, the greatest obstacle involves the legal framework to economically distribute products from these allotments. On the other hand, some respondents showed that income generation from allotment products is less important than the enjoyment of the garden and the charitable goal of action. They suggested an organized distribution system of surplus from allotments to particularly disadvantaged people. This paper encourages re-examination of the conventional urban–rural relations, the production–consumption relationships, and the norms of economic activity.

The determinants of a resilient food system for Finland in the 2020s—three opinion polls for improvements based on a Delphi study among food system experts

Sudden shocks, disturbances, and changes in today’s and the future’s operating environment call for a more resilient food system. COVID-19 and Russia’s latest war in Ukraine have revealed that rapid shocks and disturbances in global social-ecological systems can affect societies and pose various risks to food security. The discussion of food security and especially food supply security under uncertain changes has therefore been highlighted. In this study, food system resilience and the driving forces and current trends affecting it were evaluated in an expert panel study. We used the Delphi technique for the data collection, which included several rounds of iterative evaluation of future food system development up to 2030. We analysed the results using cluster analysis. Based on the results, three clusters were identified which weigh different points within the development foci of food system resilience, namely: (1) the lack of efficient and consensual global crisis preparedness, (2) looking after domestic food production, and (3) trusting the current good efforts in resilience building. The key resilience determinants in each cluster and their importance analysis are presented. We also present enablers and barriers from techno-economic, politico-institutional, and socio-cognitive perspectives that hinder or support resilience building.

Decrypting the Effect of COVID-19 Pandemic on Food and Nutrition Security in Kenya

Globally, there has been tremendous effort towards ending hunger and malnutrition in all its forms by the year 2030. These efforts have not realized the desired results due to conflicts within and without countries, climate variability and extremes, and economic slowdowns and downturns. In Kenya, food and nutrition insecurity existed even before the emergence of COVID-19 pandemic. With the occurrence of the pandemic, food systems and food supply chains relied upon by the population to access sufficient and affordable food of high nutritional value further worsened the already unfavorable situation. The gradual shocks and interruptions on food systems and food supply chains by the climate change, high poverty levels, income inequality, high cost of healthy diets, labor shortages coupled with global recession and pandemic containment measures required urgent attention and timely interventions to protect the vulnerable population. This view point paper provides an insight of the effect of COVID-19 pandemic on food and nutrition security, and the trends affecting food systems. The paper adopted descriptive approach which utilized an array of contemporary scholarly views and their research outputs on food and nutrition security which resonated with the Kenyan situation. The study findings emphasized on the need to adopt a multidisciplinary and multifaceted approach when addressing food and nutrition security even at the time of a pandemic in order to achieve the intent for the realization of the right to food of high nutritional value. The study revealed that Kenya should adopt diverse strategies for enhancing food and nutrition security, thus including crop diversification, crop bio-fortification, research on genomics and precision breeding, agroecology technique application, capacity building of extension workers, investing in climate smart agriculture and adoption of human centered design model to enhance resilient food systems. The findings will be vital to policy and decision-makers responsible for food and nutrition security.

Food Security Challenges in Europe in the Context of the Prolonged Russian–Ukrainian Conflict

The ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine, two major agricultural powers, has numerous severe socio-economic consequences that are presently being felt worldwide and that are undermining the functioning of the global food system. The war has also had a profound impact on the European food system. Accordingly, this paper examines the implications of the ongoing conflict on food security pillars (viz. availability, access, use, stability) in European countries and considers potential strategies for addressing and mitigating these effects. The paper highlights that the food supply in Europe does not seem to be jeopardized since most European countries are generally self-sufficient in many products. Nonetheless, the conflict might impact food access and production costs. Indeed, the European agricultural industry is a net importer of several commodities, such as inputs and animal feed. This vulnerability, combined with the high costs of inputs such as fertilizers and energy, creates production difficulties for farmers and threatens to drive up food prices, affecting food affordability and access. Higher input prices increase production costs and, ultimately, inflation. This may affect food security and increase (food) poverty. The paper concludes that increasing food aid, ensuring a stable fertilizer supply, imposing an energy price cap, initiating a farmer support package, switching to renewable energy sources for cultivation, changing individual food behaviors, lifting trade restrictions, and political stability can safeguard food security pillars and strengthen the resilience of the European food system.

Urban Agriculture Extension in Florida: Barriers, Needs, and Opportunities

Much of the United States is urbanizing, increasing the importance of developing Extension programs geared toward urban audiences. There has been an increasing interest in urban agriculture (UA) in recent years as an outgrowth of the “local food” movement. The COVID-19 pandemic increased awareness of the importance of food system resilience, in which urban agriculture can play a role. Developing programs specifically targeted to urban farming clientele can bolster Cooperative Extension’s role in supporting urban populations. An important first step to developing these programs is to understand Extension educators’ perceptions, beliefs, and knowledge about UA and the key barriers and opportunities to develop new programs that serve UA clientele. In this qualitative study, researchers conducted 17 semi-structured interviews of Extension educators who conduct UA programming. These educators see UA as a key opportunity for Extension to reach new audiences and increase agricultural awareness in urban areas. The most salient barrier faced to develop or deliver UA programming is a lack of time and resources—both human and financial. This study highlights key barriers and opportunities to develop new Extension programs to support UA and to increase Extension’s visibility in and impact on urban communities.

The Role of Spatialisation and Spatial Planning in Improving Food Systems: Insights from the Fast-Growing City of Dhaka, Bangladesh

Cities are growing rapidly. It takes a chain of activities to get food from farms to cities. This food system is largely driven by autonomous market development, seizing opportunities favourable to a stakeholder but unfavourable to society at large. Spatial planning is crucial along the chain of food system activities to improve food system outcomes, resilience, and limit negative trade-offs. To include the food system in spatial planning, it must first be mapped (i.e., spatialisation) to understand the functions. These maps inform the spatial planning process, which in turn influences spatial configuration of activities. This paper explores the role of spatialisation and spatial planning in the food system of the fast-growing Dhaka Metropolitan Area (DMA) using three different approaches: urban footprint, mapping, and semi-structured interviews. Stakeholders are unaware of spatial aspects that are present in DMA’s food system and therefore do not consider it while developing spatial plans. The analysis in this article, based on the Urban Food Footprint analysis, food system spatialisation, and interviews shows that spatial planning informed by descriptive spatial information can play an important role in guiding the transformation to a more robust, resilient, and inclusive food system.

The experience of Vermont local food businesses during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic tested the resilience of food system actors at all levels and across all geog­ra­phies. This study focuses on the experience of Vermont local food businesses by combining two surveys conducted in the first half of 2021: one of foodservice operations that procure food locally and one of Vermont farms that sell directly to con­sumers. We analyzed descriptive statistics, open responses, and conducted Kruskal-Wallis rank sum tests to assess which factors were related to busi­nesses’ financial statuses before and since the pan­demic. Pre-pandemic financial status was related with business type, whether the business went on to receive emergency funds, and financial status since the pandemic. The only significant factor for financial status since the pandemic was prepan­demic financial status. We close with recommen­dations for policy and future research.

Assessing governability of agricultural systems: Municipal agricultural planning in Metro Vancouver, Canada

Effective governance of agricultural systems is needed for achieving goals of food security, resilient food systems, and addressing the impacts of climate change. Local governments have an increasing interest in the role of agriculture in meeting these goals. However, alignment varies greatly between local governing systems and agricultural systems. Governability is a measure of the degree to which a system can be governed for a set of specified purposes or goals. To test the limits of governability in relation to agricultural planning, we interviewed 22 agricultural planners from municipal, regional, and provincial government, and analyzed agricultural plans (n = 8) and Official Community Plans (n = 6) for six municipalities in Metro Vancouver, Canada to identify interactions between broader municipal governance, agricultural planning, and agricultural systems outcomes. Findings indicate that the governing system for agriculture in this region includes both mandated obligations (conservation of farmland) and voluntary obligations (economic development, advocacy, public awareness). Multiple limits to governing agricultural systems include the promotion and implementation of simple solutions to complex problems, limited ability to engage with the diversity of the agricultural sector and their different needs, and governance mismatches with the boundaries of agriculture (i.e., farm parcels, Agricultural Land Reserve area) and the administrative scale of the municipality. The discussion identifies specific areas where municipal governance systems could transition to improve agricultural outcomes such as farmland protection, farmer economic viability, and integration with broader food systems.

Nutrition in City Ecosystems (NICE): Protocol of a multi-sectoral development project to improve food and nutrition security of secondary city populations in Bangladesh, Kenya and Rwanda.

Secondary cities tend to be better linked with local food systems than primate cities, acting as important platforms to trade agricultural produce with rural surrounding. COVID-19, conflicts and climate change continue to expose inefficiencies in food systems and have further exacerbated malnutrition, calling for substantial food systems transformations. However, tackling current food systems' challenges requires new approaches to ensure food and nutrition security. Nutritious and agroecologically produced food offer the potential to transform food systems by improving diets and alleviating pressure on the environment, as well as by creating jobs and reducing poverty. This paper describes the design of a project by a Swiss public-private consortium to improve food and nutrition security and to reduce poverty in city ecosystems in six secondary cities in Bangladesh, Kenya and Rwanda through governance/policy and supply and demand side interventions. The Nutrition in City Ecosystems (NICE) project promotes well-balanced nutrition for city populations through interdisciplinary agricultural, food, and health sector collaborations along city-specific value chains. Adopting a transdiciplinary systems approach, the main interventions of NICE are (i) advocacy and policy dialogue, (ii) building of decentralized institutional capacity in multi-sectoral collaborations, (iii) support of data-driven planning, coordination and resource mobilization, (iv) anchoring of innovations and new approaches in city-level partnerships, (v) capacity building in the agricultural, retail, health and education sectors, as well as (vi) evidence generation from putting policies into practice at the local level. NICE is coordinated by in-country partners and local offices of the Swiss public-private consortium partners. The NICE project seeks to contribute to urban food system resilience and enhanced sustainable nutrition for city populations by (A) strengthening urban governance structures involving key stakeholders including women and youth, (B) generating income for producers along the supply chain, (C) triggering change in producers' and consumers' behavior such that nutritious and agroecologically produced foods are both in demand as well as available and affordable in urban markets, and (D) allowing a scale up of successful approaches to other national and international cities and city networks.

Resilience in Food Systems: Concepts and Measurement Options in an Expanding Research Agenda

The idea of “resilience” increasingly appears in development dialogue and discussion of food systems. While the academic concept of resilience has roots in diverse disciplines, climate change and the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic have led to a rapid intensification of interest in the concept as it applies to food systems. Both the broad conceptual roots and the swift increase in attention pose dangers of conceptual dilution, contradiction, and confusion as agronomists and other analysts of food systems incorporate the resilience concept into their work. In this publicly funded research, the authors present the results of an extensive search of literature and subsequent analysis. The overview examines conceptualizations of resilience more broadly, followed by a similar review within the food systems domain. The authors consider connections among related concepts under the broader umbrella of food security, such as vulnerability and risk, and discuss challenges and opportunities in the investigation of food system resilience. The review of concepts serves as a precursor to an investigation of measurement options in a rapidly expanding body of empirical research, as measurement should flow clearly from conceptualization. The analysis here presents various resilience measures at different levels and breaks down their components as they apply to food systems, identifying commonalities and divergences. The authors identify a glut of resilience conceptualizations and measurements but indicate avenues for consolidation and precision. The range of options means that researchers can likely find suitable existing subconcepts and measurements for their own work across many different types of shocks. The authors also discuss policy and practical applications, including connections to the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals and food system responses to climate change and pandemics.

Urban agriculture in walkable neighborhoods bore fruit for health and food system resilience during the COVID-19 pandemic

Urban agriculture is the key to creating healthy cities and developing resilient urban food systems in uncertain times. However, relevant empirical evidence is limited. This study quantitatively verified the association of access to local food through urban agriculture with subjective well-being, physical activity, and food security concerns of neighborhood communities in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. The target was Tokyo, Japan, where small-scale local food systems are widespread in walkable neighborhoods. We found that diversity in local food access, ranging from self-cultivation to direct-to-consumer sales, was significantly associated with health and food security variables. In particular, the use of allotment farms was more strongly associated with subjective well-being than the use of urban parks, and it was more strongly associated with the mitigation of food security concerns than the use of food retailers. These findings provide robust evidence for the effectiveness of integrating urban agriculture into walkable neighborhoods.

A systematic review on price volatility in agriculture

AbstractThe recent extreme volatility in agriculture prices determines serious repercussions to various stakeholders and levels in the food value chain, that is, producers, intermediaries, and customers, at micro‐, meso‐ and macro‐economic governance levels, respectively. Persistent high/low degree of agriculture prices leads to unsustainable production/consumption patterns, thus representing an impediment to reaching the goal of responsible consumption and production (UN‐SDGs 12). The lack of comprehensive real‐time information on price volatility's internal and external factors often resulted in an inconclusive and counterintuitive outcome while performing empirical estimation. The present review was conducted using the PRISMA framework to systematically identify and analyze literature from two important databases. Papers have been grouped by volatility drivers, governance levels, theoretical approaches, and background data types. The present review is a valuable starting point for understanding the links between multi‐dimensional factors affecting the persistent price volatility and the theoretical and empirical analytics trends to provide the computational advancement needed to cope with model estimation issues. It also highlights the importance of a paradigm shift in researching agriculture price volatility to addressing food crises, considering principal objectives and perspectives such as food security, poverty alleviation, sustainability in food value chains, and resilience of food systems across the globe.

Carbon isotope values for grasses in Madagascar's Central Highlands establish baselines for historical and paleoecological research

Societal Impact StatementGrasses are significant drivers of fires and are the primary food source for cattle in Madagascar's Central Highlands. However, their extent and importance to animals and people in the past remain poorly understood. Clarifying the history of Malagasy grasslands is necessary for building climate resilient food systems and supporting carbon stores that also conserve biodiversity. We generated chemical data for grasses that grow in open habitats in central Madagascar, which will help improve our understanding of the ecological and economic importance of modern grassy ecosystems, reconstruct the regional history of grasses, and anticipate how vegetation may respond to changing climate and rising atmospheric carbon dioxide levels.Summary Stable carbon isotope (δ13C) data for Malagasy grasses are needed to establish expected values for C3 and C4 grasses from particular regions in Madagascar, and possible differences among different grass lineages, or species with different distributions or adaptations. These data, in turn, may help inform how widespread grasses were in the past, and the importance of grasses to endemic and domesticated animals as well as people over time. We analysed both δ13C and weight %C:N from 63 Poaceae species that grow in open grassy biomes in Madagascar's Central Highlands and explored how these values relate to multiple variables, including encounter frequency, distribution, lineage, adaptations to grazing and fire and the typical floral assemblage in which each species occurs. Of the species sampled, 56 are C4 and seven are C3. There are no differences in δ13C or weight %C:N among either C3 or C4 species with different distributions or adaptations, from different assemblages, or that are frequently or infrequently encountered. However, there are differences in both δ13C and weight %C:N among C4 lineages, and the single C3 arundinoid (Styppeiochloa hitchcockii) has larger weight %C:N than C3 Paniceae. Our results provide a foundation for evaluating reliance on C4 resources by people, as well as domesticated and endemic animals both today and in the past. We encourage gathering additional comparative data for co‐occurring individual plants from the same open grassy biome localities, as well as other species, habitats and regions in Madagascar.

The Role of Urban–Rural Connections in Building Food System Resilience

This paper investigates food system resilience—conceptualized through the four dimensions of agency, buffering, connectivity, and diversification—from the perspective of rural–urban relations. We consider three cases that capture distinct actor and policy foci in the wider literature on urban–rural interactions. These are secondary cities and their development potential as central nodes in urban–rural food systems, the role of digital infrastructure in shaping food systems resilience, and finally, street food vendors as a particularly vulnerable yet crucial group of actors linking rural food supply with urban demand. We review existing literature within these themes, with a particular focus on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the food systems in middle- and low-income countries. This allows us to examine the relationship between rural–urban connectivity and food system resilience and to identify possible trade-offs. We formulate recommendations for research and policy around the notions of new localities (i.e., considering the interconnectedness of rural and urban food systems across administrative boundaries), smart development (i.e., context-specific approaches building on local strengths), and network governance (i.e., inclusive decision making engaging with diverse stakeholders across multiple scales).

Integrated modeling framework for sustainable agricultural intensification

Agricultural scientists are pursuing sustainable intensification strategies to increase global food availability, but integration from research to impact at the local-level requires knowledge of demographic and human-environment to enhance the adaptive capacity of farmers cultivating <10 ha. Enhancing close collaboration among transdisciplinary teams and these smallholders is critical to co-elaborate policy solutions to ongoing food security crises that are likely to be attuned with local conditions. Human and socio-cultural aspects need to be considered to facilitate both adoption and dissemination of adapted management practices. Despite this well-known need to co-produce knowledge in human systems, we demonstrate the inequality of current agricultural research in smallholder farming systems with heavy focus on a few domains of the sustainable intensification agricultural framework (SIAF), ultimately reducing the overall impact of interventions due to the lack compatibility with prevailing social contexts. Here we propose to integrate agriculture and agronomic models with social and demographic modeling approaches to increase agricultural productivity and food system resilience, while addressing persistent issues in food security. Researchers should consider the scale of interventions, ensure attention is paid to equality and political processes, explore local change interactions, and improve connection of agriculture with nutrition and health outcomes, via nutrition-sensitive agricultural investments.