The role of small and medium agrifood enterprises in food systems transformation: the case of rice processors in Senegal

2021 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Food Systems ◽  
Systems Transformation

scholarly journals Modularity in Intersectoral Research/Action Collaborations for Food Systems Transformation: Lessons from the FLEdGE Community-Engaged Network

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles Z Levkoe ◽  
Alison Blay-Palmer ◽  
Irena Knezevic ◽  
David Szanto ◽  
Nii A. Addy
Keyword(s):  
Food Systems ◽  
Research Network ◽  
Modular Approach ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Community Engaged Research ◽  
Critical Reflexivity ◽  
Systems Transformation ◽  
Research Action ◽  
The Impact

How can academics and community practitioners better collaborate to overcome the existing barriers? What role can intersectoral research collaboratives play in supporting, enhancing, and sustaining the impact of community-engaged research? In response to these broad questions, this paper shares insights from the Food: Locally Embedded, Globally Engaged (FLEdGE) community-engaged research network, a collaborative, interdisciplinary group of scholars and practitioners that crossed sectors, scales, and geographies. The FLEdGE research program ran from 2015 to 2021, and built on over a decade of academic and community partnerships to assess the current and potential role of food initiatives as pillars for sustainable transformation. Our mixed-methods study draws on data from a social network analysis survey, summary reports, semi-structured interviews, and reflections from the authors who were all active members of the network. Our findings reveal that beyond making theoretical and practical contributions to food systems scholarship and initiatives in the participating regions, FLEdGE played an important role in building food movements across Canada and beyond. We describe this as a modular approach, an organizational structure in which multiple units (or modules) operate independently while also sharing enough commonalities that allow them to be interrelated, modified, and reconfigured in diverse and dynamic ways. We argue that intersectoral research networks adopting a modular approach require interdisciplinarity and collaborative methodologies, but also flexibility and critical reflexivity. In addition, we underscore that setting objectives, both overarching and tactical, requires a negotiated approach, particularly when budgetary administration resides within an institutional partner.

scholarly journals Food Systems Transformation for Child Health and Well-Being: The Essential Role of Dairy

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (19) ◽  
pp. 10535
Author(s):  
Gregory D. Miller ◽  
Mitch Kanter ◽  
Laurence Rycken ◽  
Kevin B. Comerford ◽  
Nicholas M. Gardner ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Child Health ◽  
Food Systems ◽  
Food System ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Animal Source Foods ◽  
Production Practices ◽  
System Sustainability ◽  
Systems Transformation ◽  
Health And Well Being

Malnutrition, in all its forms, during the critical stages of child growth and development can have lifelong impacts on health and well-being. While most forms of malnutrition can be prevented with simple dietary interventions, both undernutrition and overnutrition remain persistent and burdensome challenges for large portions of the global population, especially for young children who are dependent on others for nourishment. In addition to dietary factors, children’s health also faces the growing challenges of climate change, environmental degradation, pollution, and infectious disease. Food production and consumption practices both sit at the nexus of these issues, and both must be significantly transformed if we are to achieve the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals. Food sources (i.e., animal-source foods vs. plant-source foods), food production practices, the effects of food processing, the impacts of a more globalized food system, and food loss and waste have all been receiving growing attention in health and sustainability research and policy discussions. Much of this work points to recommendations to reduce resource-intensive animal-source foods, heavily processed foods, and foods associated with excessive waste and pollution, while simultaneously increasing plant-source options. However, some of these recommendations require a little more nuance when considered in the context of issues such as global child health. All types of foods can play significant roles in providing essential nutrition for children across the globe, and for improving the well-being and livelihoods of their families and communities. Dairy foods provide a prime example of this need for nuance, as both dairy production practices and consumption patterns vary greatly throughout the world, as do their impacts on child health and food system sustainability. The objective of this narrative review is to highlight the role of dairy in supporting child health in the context of food system sustainability. When considering child health within this context it is recommended to take a holistic approach that considers all four domains of sustainability (health, economics, society, and the environment) to better weigh trade-offs, optimize outcomes, and avoid unintended consequences. To ensure that children have access to nutritious and safe foods within sustainable food systems, special consideration of their needs must be included within the broader food systems transformation narrative.

The Role of Research and Innovation in the Transformation of Agri-Food Systems

2018 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 60-63
Author(s):  
Mariana Sandu ◽  
Stefan Mantea
Keyword(s):  
Technological Progress ◽  
Food Systems ◽  
Food System ◽  
Agricultural Research ◽  
Research And Innovation ◽  
And Performance ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Determinant Factor ◽  
Rapid Transformation

Abstract Agri-food systems include branching ramifications, which connect in the upstream the input suppliers with farmers, and downstream farmers, processors, retailers and consumers. In the last decades, at the level of the regions, food systems have undergone rapid transformation as a result of technological progress. The paper analyzes the changes made to the structure, behavior and performance of the agri-food system and the impact on farmers and consumers. Also, the role of agricultural research as a determinant factor of transformation of agri-food system is analyzed. The research objective is to develop technologies that cover the entire food chain (from farm to fork) and meet the specific requirements of consumers (from fork to farm) through scientific solutions in line with the principles of sustainable agriculture and ensuring the safety and food safety of the population.

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