From Urban Agriculture to Urban Food

2018 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 113-134
Author(s):  
Heidrun Moschitz ◽  
Jan Landert ◽  
Christian Schader ◽  
Rebekka Frick
Keyword(s):  
Urban Agriculture ◽  
Food Systems ◽  
Food System ◽  
Sustainability Assessment ◽  
Flow Analysis ◽  
Boundary Object ◽  
Full Potential ◽  
Urban Food System ◽  
New Ideas ◽  
Systems Transformation

Urban agriculture is embedded in an urban food system, and its full potential can only be understood by looking into the dynamics of the system. Involving a variety of actors from civil society, policy, and the market, we conducted a comprehensive analysis of the food system of the city of Basel, Switzerland, including policy and actor analysis, analysis of perceptions on urban agriculture, food flow analysis, and a sustainability assessment. The article presents the results of these analyses and discusses how research can contribute to the societal debate on food systems transformation. We particularly reflect on how the research project became a boundary object in a dynamic process to develop new ideas and activities, as well as to create a space for future debates in the city’s food system.

Sustainable Urban Agro Ecology and Its Implications With Food Systems

2021 ◽  
pp. 143-166
Author(s):  
José G. Vargas-Hernández
Keyword(s):  
Literature Review ◽  
Urban Development ◽  
Food Systems ◽  
Food System ◽  
Empirical Literature ◽  
Urban Food System ◽  
Analytical Review ◽  
Environmental Development

This chapter has the aim to analyze the implications and interrelationships between a sustainable urban agro ecology and the food system. The beginning assumption of this analytical review considers that sustainable urban agro ecology has positive implications in the development of a sustainable urban food system. The analysis is based on the theoretical and empirical literature review confronted with common spatial-functional observations of urban development and configurations. The analysis concludes that the sustainable urban food system based on agro ecology is growing as an alternative movement towards the building and maintenance of a fairer and healthier urban sustainable environmental development.

scholarly journals Planning for change: Transformation labs for an alternative food system in Cape Town, South Africa

2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura Pereira ◽  
Scott Drimie ◽  
Olive Zgambo ◽  
Reinette Biggs
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Urban Planning ◽  
Common Good ◽  
Food Systems ◽  
Food System ◽  
Cape Town ◽  
Alternative Food ◽  
Coalition Building ◽  
Full Potential ◽  
Transformative Change

AbstractThere has been a call for more participatory processes to feed into urban planning for more resilient food systems. This paper describes a process of knowledge co-production for transforming towards an alternative food system in Cape Town, South Africa. A ‘transformative space’ was created though a T-Lab process involving change-agents advocating for an alternative food system, and was designed to discuss challenges in the local food system from a range of perspectives, in order to co-develop potentially transformative innovations that could feed into government planning. In this paper, we describe and reflect on the T-lab in order to consider whether its design was able to meet its objective: to initiate an experimental phase of coalition-building by diverse actors that could feed into the provincial government’s strategic focus on food and nutrition security. Our findings indicate that T-labs have the potential to be important mechanisms for initiating and sustaining transformative change. They can be complementary to urban planning processes seeking to transform complex social-ecological systems onto more sustainable development pathways. However, as with all experimental co-production processes, there is significant learning and refinement that is necessary to ensure the process can reach its full potential. A key challenge we encountered was how to foster diversity and difference in opinions in the context of significant historical legacies of inequality, whilst simultaneously acting for ‘the common good’ and seeking ways to scale impact across different contexts. The paper concludes with deliberations on the nature of planning and navigating towards systemic transformative change.

scholarly journals Transforming Research and Innovation for Sustainable Food Systems—A Coupled-Systems Perspective

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (24) ◽  
pp. 7176 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristiaan P. W. Kok ◽  
Alanya C. L. den Boer ◽  
Tomris Cesuroglu ◽  
Marjoleine G. van der Meij ◽  
Renée de Wildt-Liesveld ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Food Systems ◽  
Food System ◽  
Systems Approach ◽  
Second Order ◽  
Coupled Systems ◽  
Sustainable Food ◽  
Systems Perspective ◽  
Research And Innovation ◽  
Policy Environments ◽  
Systems Transformation

Current research and innovation (R&I) systems are not equipped to fully serve as catalysts for the urgently needed transformation of food systems. Though research on food systems transformation (first order: ‘what?’) and transformative research (second order: ‘how to’) are rapidly gaining traction in academic and policy environments, current efforts fail to explicitly recognize the systemic nature of the challenges associated with performing transformative second-order research. To recognize these manifold and interlinked challenges embedded in R&I systems, there is a need for a coupled-systems perspective. Transformations are needed in food systems as well as R&I systems (‘how to do the “how to”’). We set out to conceptualize an approach that aims to trigger double transformations by nurturing innovations at the boundaries of R&I systems and food systems that act upon systemic leverage points, so that their multisystem interactions can better support food system transformations. We exemplify this coupled-systems approach by introducing the FIT4FOOD2030 project with its 25 living labs as a promising multilevel boundary innovation at the cross-section of R&I and food systems. We illustrate how this approach paves the way for double systems transformations, and therefore for an R&I system that is fit for future-proofing food systems.

scholarly journals One CGIAR and the Integrated Agri-food Systems Initiative: From short-termism to transformation of the world’s food systems

PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (6) ◽  
pp. e0252832
Author(s):  
Bram Govaerts ◽  
Christine Negra ◽  
Tania Carolina Camacho Villa ◽  
Xiomara Chavez Suarez ◽  
Anabell Diaz Espinosa ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Food Systems ◽  
Design Thinking ◽  
Food System ◽  
Systems Approach ◽  
National Level ◽  
Global Network ◽  
Time Dynamics ◽  
Context Specific ◽  
Systems Transformation ◽  
Short Termism

Agri-food systems are besieged by malnutrition, yield gaps, and climate vulnerability, but integrated, research-based responses in public policy, agricultural, value chains, and finance are constrained by short-termism and zero sum thinking. As they respond to current and emerging agri-food system challenges, decision makers need new tools that steer toward multi-sector, evidence-based collaboration. To support national agri-food system policy processes, the Integrated Agri-food System Initiative (IASI) methodology was developed and validated through case studies in Mexico and Colombia. This holistic, multi-sector methodology builds on diverse existing data resources and leverages situation analysis, modeled predictions, and scenarios to synchronize public and private action at the national level toward sustainable, equitable, and inclusive agri-food systems. Culminating in collectively agreed strategies and multi-partner tactical plans, the IASI methodology enabled a multi-level systems approach by mobilizing design thinking to foster mindset shifts and stakeholder consensus on sustainable and scalable innovations that respond to real-time dynamics in complex agri-food systems. To build capacity for these types of integrated, context-specific approaches, greater investment is needed in supportive international institutions that function as trusted in-region ‘innovation brokers.’ This paper calls for a structured global network to advance adaptation and evolution of essential tools like the IASI methodology in support of the One CGIAR mandate and in service of positive agri-food systems transformation.

scholarly journals The Future of Food Security, Nutrition and Health for Agri-food Systems Transformation

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chin Yee Chan ◽  
Steven Prager ◽  
Jean Balie ◽  
Marta Kozicka ◽  
Guy Hareau ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Food Security ◽  
Food Systems ◽  
Food System ◽  
Nutrition And Health ◽  
Adverse Health Outcomes ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Multiple Risks ◽  
Food Security And Nutrition ◽  
Systems Transformation ◽  
Inform Decision Making

Global progress towards food security and nutrition has been slow in many places and even reversing in others. Against the background of changes in population, income, technology, climate, and other drivers, the pressures on food systems are daunting. When designing and rolling out future interventions towards these goals it is of vital importance to utilize foresight knowledge to anticipate, shape, and prepare for alternative possible futures. Overcoming current and emerging challenges but also seizing opportunities as they present themselves requires continued efforts to provide robust analysis to inform decision making. Here we collated the latest insights from foresight studies around three central aspects within the food system. First, consumer demand and the changes this is undergoing is a key aspect shaping the food system itself as well as nutritional and environmental outcomes. Second, distributional inequalities and trade-offs within the food system have further been identified as key challenges to tackling adverse health outcomes of the current food system. And third, amplified by the COVID crisis, enhancing the resilience of the food system that is increasingly under threat from multiple risks has risen to the top of the agenda.

scholarly journals Towards food systems transformation—five paradigm shifts for healthy, inclusive and sustainable food systems

Food Security ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ruerd Ruben ◽  
Romina Cavatassi ◽  
Leslie Lipper ◽  
Eric Smaling ◽  
Paul Winters
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Sustainability ◽  
Food Systems ◽  
Food System ◽  
Paradigm Shifts ◽  
System Transformation ◽  
Sustainable Food ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Environmental Objectives ◽  
Participatory Institutions ◽  
Systems Transformation

AbstractFood systems must serve different societal, public health and individual nutrition, and environmental objectives and therefore face numerous challenges. Considering the integrated performances of food systems, this paper highlights five fundamental paradigm shifts that are required to overcome trade-offs and build synergies between health and nutrition, inclusive livelihoods, environmental sustainability and food system resilience. We focus on the challenges to raise policy ambitions, to harmonize production and consumption goals, to improve connectivity between them, to strengthen food system performance and to anchor the governance of food systems in inclusive policies and participatory institutions. Taken together, these shifts in paradigms shape a new discourse for food system transformation that will be capable to respond to current and future policy challenges.

scholarly journals Architecture and Urban Agriculture: Merging architecture and a local food system in Wellington, New Zealand

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Thomas Zahner
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Urban Agriculture ◽  
Food Production ◽  
Food Systems ◽  
Agricultural Development ◽  
Design Research ◽  
Food System ◽  
Local Food ◽  
Environmental Benefits ◽  
Urban Setting

<p>Urbanisation and agricultural development have for centuries had an interdependent relationship with each other, where the sophistication and systemisation of food production has led to the evolution and advancement of the city (Lim, Food City 5). Current global food systems seem to be exacerbating a disconnection between people and food production while concurrently harming the environment and biodiversity extensively (Kirschenmann 109). Therefore the demand for sufficient food for a growing population carries with it many challenges for environmentally, socially and economically sustainable food production (O’Kane 268). Local food systems are capable of mitigating many of the issues caused by the globalised food system, adapting local food production to suit the health and environmental needs of a community (O’Kane 274). This results in a more active participation in the food system by the community, increased social cohesion, a promotion of satisfying social and cultural interactions around food, a fostering of social responsibility and stewardship of local land, a nurturing of biodiversity, and a strengthening of the community’s economic vitality (O’Kane 271).  This design research investigates the social and environmental benefits of integrating a localised food production system into an urban setting in Wellington, New Zealand, through the cross-programming of urban agriculture with architecture. The research aims to provide social and environmental benefits to a community and place, as well as raise awareness of the importance of a sustainable and accessible food system. This thesis suggests that merging architecture and urban agriculture can positively improve the quality of life of the residents as well as positively benefiting the surrounding environment and biodiversity.</p>

scholarly journals "Grow what you eat, eat what you grow": urban agriculture as middle class intervention in India

2018 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 221 ◽  
Author(s):  
Camille Frazier
Keyword(s):  
Middle Class ◽  
Urban Agriculture ◽  
Food Systems ◽  
Fruits And Vegetables ◽  
Agricultural Land ◽  
Food System ◽  
Farming Community ◽  
Urban Gardening ◽  
Food Quality And Safety ◽  
The City

In Bengaluru, India's "IT Capital" and one of its fastest growing cities, an increasing number of middle class residents are growing fruits and vegetables in their private spaces for home consumption. This article examines the motivations and practices of Bengaluru's organic terrace gardeners ("OTGians") in order to understand the possibilities and limitations of urban gardening as a middle class intervention into unsafe food systems and decaying urban ecologies. OTGians are driven primarily by concerns about worsening food quality and safety, and secondarily by the desire to create green spaces that counteract environmental degradation in the city. Like community gardeners in the Global North, they understand urban gardening as a way to mediate problems in the contemporary food system and the urban ecology. However, like other alternative food and environmental movements, OTGians' efforts are anchored in class-specific concerns and experiences. While they have been successful in creating a vibrant community, their efforts remain limited to the middle class. This is in large part due to the site, scale, and production practices that anchor their interventions. I briefly consider a different approach to food production in Bengaluru—that of a caste-specific farming community that has been dispossessed of much of its agricultural land in the name of urban development—to illuminate divergent histories, narratives, and practices of urban agriculture. However, I also emphasize the sites of intersection between these narratives, and suggest that OTGians can find commonalities with other food producers in the city in ways that might revolutionize Bengaluru's food future. I thus look for potential sites of collaboration and intersection in understanding the uneven power relations and politics of urban socio-natures.

scholarly journals Urban Food Systems: A Bibliometric Review from 1991 to 2020

Foods ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 662
Author(s):  
Qiumeng Zhong ◽  
Lan Wang ◽  
Shenghui Cui
Keyword(s):  
Food Consumption ◽  
Food Systems ◽  
Food System ◽  
Main Research ◽  
Research Areas ◽  
Urban Food System ◽  
Subject Categories ◽  
The Usa ◽  
Bibliometric Review ◽  
The Uk

The increase of urbanization is affecting the urban food system (UFS) in many areas, primarily production, processing, and consumption. The upgrading of the urban food consumption structure not only puts forward higher food production requirements, but also poses a challenge to resource consumption and technological innovation. Considerable case or review studies have been conducted on UFS, but there is no bibliometric review attempting to provide an objective and comprehensive analysis of the existing articles. In this study, we selected 5360 research publications from the core Web of Science collection from 1991 to 2020, analyzing contributions of countries, institutions, and journals. In addition, based on keyword co-occurrence and clustering analyses, we evaluated the research hotspots of UFS. The results show that global research interest in UFS has increased significantly during these three decades. The USA, China, and the UK are the countries with the highest output and closest collaborations. UFS research involves multiple subject categories, with environmental disciplines becoming mainstream. Food security, food consumption, and food waste are the three main research areas. We suggest that food sustainability and resilience, food innovation, and comparative studies between cities should be given more attention in the future.

scholarly journals Food Connects Washington DC in 2050—A Vision for Urban Food Systems as the Centerpieces of a Circular Economy

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (14) ◽  
pp. 7821
Author(s):  
Marian Stuiver ◽  
Sabine O’Hara
Keyword(s):  
Circular Economy ◽  
Food Systems ◽  
Food System ◽  
Building Blocks ◽  
The United States ◽  
Washington Dc ◽  
Critical Position ◽  
Urban Food System ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Food Economy

This article presents a vision for an urban food system in Washington DC in 2050 that serves as the centerpiece of a circular economy for the capital region of the United States. Food serves as the connecting link for an inclusive, adaptive, and resilient urban economy embedded in the region. This food economy values natural resources, cultural diversity, and commitment to nature-based innovations. The vision is the result of a three-pronged methodology of: (1) community engagement; (2) a thoughtful, process-focused transformation; and (3) the scaling up of existing urban food initiatives. We argue that small, hyperlocal, neighborhood-based initiatives can become crucial game changers and catalysts of change for entire neighborhoods, cities, and regions. Therefore, we propose a design-based approach to advance our 2050 vision of a circular food system. Our design-based approach consists of three building blocks: (A) systems thinking; (B) the ability to manage wins and tradeoffs; and (C) transitional leadership and cooperation. We explain these building blocks and the way in which they are incorporated in the 2050 vision of Washington DC. We further argue that the food economy is an ideal sector to embark on such a design-based approach due to its systemic nature, its critical position as an indispensable economic sector, and the complex connections it brings to multiple other sectors of the economy. An urban food system can therefore offer the ideal starting point for a transition towards a circular economy.

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