The food system from a territorial perspective. Policy framework, planning tools and practices at global scale (original) (raw)
Related papers
THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN FOOD AND CITIES AND URBAN FOOD POLICIES: A SPACE FOR GEOGRAPHY
Bollettino della Società Geografica Italiana, 2017
Food is becoming more and more an urban issue. This paper aims to explore the complex relationships between food systems and urban areas, trying to define the potential role of geography in studying these relationships and supporting urban food policies. The first part of the contribution explores the characteristics and the scales of food systems in urban areas, posing questions about the existence of «local food systems» and about their relationships with global food networks and flows. The following paragraphs are focused on cities as spaces of action for food policies, defining the field of urban food polices and urban food strategies, in an international perspective. The last part of the paper reflects on the role of the geographical approach in contributing to the debate on urban food systems and in supporting food policies.
Planning for Equitable Urban and Regional Food Systems
Built Environment, 2017
Scholars and activists called on planners to use their talents to address problems in the food system (Pothukuchi and Kaufman, 2000), and in the last two decades planners have responded to this call. Local and regional governments in the Global North-particularly in the USA, United Kingdom, Canada-as well as in the Global South-particularly Brazil, South Africa, and Argentina-have adopted and implemented plans and policies to strengthen city and regional food systems. Data from the USbased Growing Food Connection project suggest that more than 200 food-related plans and policies have been adopted by local and regional governments in the United States alone (growingfoodconnections.org). Globally, about 148 cities with nearly 470 million inhabitants have signed on to the 2015 Milan Urban Food Policy Pact, an international declaration in support of sustainable food systems that are inclusive, resilient, safe, and diverse (milanurbanfoodpolicypact.org). Further, the New Urban Agenda, adopted at the United Nations Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development (Habitat III) in Quito, Ecuador in 2016, makes multiple references to the importance of promoting food security, and explicitly endorses the e of food systems planning in one of its principles (UN-Habitat, 2016). In short, food is no longer a stranger to the planning agenda (Pothukuchi and Kaufman, 2000). City and Regional Food Systems (CRFS) enable food to flow from source to plate across cities and regions, drawing on material, cultural, and political actors, networks, and resources. The system and flow depend on
Public policy and planning for sustainability in the urban food system
As a central and essential component of existence, food permeates our daily lives through our relationships with each other and our environments. Throughout the history of mankind, the acquisition, preparation, and eating of food has fostered patterns of work, cultural, and social organization. Over the course of several centuries, the conventional Western food system developed from a rather simplistic structure, of local small-scale production, to one of an increasingly diverse and fragmented character. As any trip to a supermarket will reveal, the dominant contemporary food system, functioning in the context of a globalised, mass-producing market, involves an incredibly complex set of participants and linkages to provide the almost unlimited variety of intensively processed, packaged, and fresh foods from every corner of the earth. For many years, the evolution, structure, and complexity of relationships in the conventional Western food systems has remained a subject of continuous...
Theoretical Approaches for Effective Sustainable Urban Food Policymaking
Designing Urban Food Policies, 2019
The emergence of food strategies and policies in many cities worldwide (chapter "Urbanization Issues Affecting Food System Sustainability; Nicolas Bricas") has prompted researchers to investigate associated building, support and assessment processes. In the light of the limits of industrialized food systems, these strategies and policies are driven by the need for a transition towards more sustainable food systems. This chapter looks at the conceptual frameworks used by researchers to assess urban food system sustainability. Diversity and Complexity The main problem currently facing researchers and public, private and community actors is the need to account for the complexity of the issue, including the extent of stakeholder involvement, policy areas and the scope of governance and action (Brand 2015). Until recently, the food issue has been handled on a sectoral basis at international, European and national levels. The dimensions of this issue have been slotted into separate 'silos', so it has only been dealt with regard to its agricultural, commercial, normative health security and, more recently, public health aspects (Brand 2015). In 2007, Guillaume Dhérissard and Dominique Viel underlined the risk of vulnerability and perverse effects linked to segmentation of the food issue (productivity, health security, ecology, marketing, etc.), which could lead to disruptive situations. They pointed out the need to consider food as a complex social phenomenon with a complete change of approach in favour of sustainable urban food systems and governance.
Food, city and territory: some reflections from a socio-spatial point of view
City, Territory and Architecture
The purpose of this article is to highlight the relationship among food, city and space by adopting a social sciences viewpoint. Since the 1990s, not only in sociology but in the social sciences in general, the level of attention given to the role played by space in the production of social phenomena has increased. To describe this trend, certain authors have coined the expression "spatial turn", which is analogous to the "linguistic turn" that influenced poststructuralist sociology (Warf and Arias 2009; Löw and Steets 2014). The definition of urban food policies, like production of a food product and distribution, the fact that it is more or less accessible and generates surpluses, and its transformation through an industrial process or its use for a domestic recipe, are processes that provide a good example of the interaction among biophysical, economic and socio-cultural aspects, in which all the geographical and climatic characteristics of the places where these processes take place play a role, as do cultural influences, the skills of the actors, and their power relations. In this article, the associations among food, city, and space are shown through the presentation of examples, highlighting certain of the principal topics, and clarifying how the numerous issues relating to food can lead to problems of a micro, mesa or macro nature. In our conclusions, we will stress the value added of the specialist perspective in the study of issues relating to food.
In the opening chapter of the book, Johannes Wiskerke provides a comprehensive and clearlystructured elaboration on the conditions that shape our food systems, as well as guiding principles for designing resilient urban food systems. Wiskerke insightfully points out the neglect of food on the urban agenda, and calls for a better understanding of food as a critical urban issue. For example, food provisioning and consumption in cities can significantly affect the economic viability, environmental sustainability, public health, and quality of communities. The author devotes most of the chapter to the discussion of four major themes, which are also conditions shaping the food system: population growth, urbanization and changing diets; scarcity and depletion of resources; public health; and climate change. He then summarizes four guiding principles that will comprehensively address these conditions-adopting a city region perspective; connecting flows; creating synergies; and planning for resilient urban food systems.