Anglais

Articles

• Avoiding the local trap : scale and food systems in planning research
  3 novembre 2021, par Mathilde COUDRAY

  A strong current of food-systems research holds that local food systems are preferable to systems at larger scales. Many assume that eating local food is more ecologically sustainable and socially just. We term this the local trap and argue strongly against it. We draw on current scale theory in political and economic geography to argue that local food systems are no more likely to be sustainable or just than systems at other scales. The theory argues that scale is socially produced : scales (and their interrelations) are not independent entities with inherent qualities but strategies pursued by social actors with a particular agenda. It is the content of that agenda, not the scales themselves, that produces outcomes such as sustainability or justice. As planners move increasingly into food-systems research, we argue it is critical to avoid the local trap. The article’s theoretical approach to scale offers one way to do so.

• Too big to feed. Exploring the impacts of mega-mergers, consolidation and concentration of power in the agri-food sector
  26 octobre 2021, par Mathilde COUDRAY

  What is corporate concentration, why does it matter for food security, and who are the biggest corporate players in each agrifood sector/"link" in the Industrial Food Chain ?

• Understanding Lived Experience of Food Environments to Inform Policy : An Overview of Research Methods
  10 novembre 2021, par Mathilde COUDRAY

  With poor diets being the leading cause of ill-health in the world today, the imperative to explore how to leverage food systems for better diets has never been greater. Significant attention has been placed on how to improve one particular component of the food system : food environments. Food environments comprise the foods available to people in their surroundings as they go about their everyday lives and the nutritional quality, safety, price, convenience, labelling and promotion of these foods (FAO, 2016).

• Does participating in community gardens promote sustainable lifestyles in urban settings ? Design and protocol of the JArDinS study.
  10 novembre 2021, par Mathilde COUDRAY

  Despite growing evidence for the multiple health benefits of community gardening, longitudinal studies based on quantitative data are needed. Here we describe the protocol of JArDinS, a quasi-experimental study, aimed at assessing the impact of community garden participation (a natural experiment) in the adoption of more sustainable lifestyles.

• Food environments and EU Food Policy
  28 June 2022, by Mathilde COUDRAY

  The aim of this policy brief is to further sharpen understanding about food environments and what a ‘food environment approach’ entails for EU food policy and the transition to sustainable food systems.

• Transforming food systems with agroecology
  27 octobre 2021, par Mathilde COUDRAY

  Agroecology is a way of redesigning food systems, from the farm to the table, with a goal of achieving ecological, economic, and social sustainability. Through transdisciplinary, participatory, and change-oriented research and action, agroecology links together science, practice, and movements focused on social change. But what are the steps that must be taken to transform food systems toward the ultimate goal of sustainability, and away from the mounting evidence of the negative impacts on the environment and society caused by modern industrial agriculture ?

• Food systems at risk
  26 octobre 2021, par Mathilde COUDRAY

  The way food systems have evolved over past decades means that they now face major risks, which in turn threaten the future of food systems themselves. Food systems have seriously contributed to climate change, environmental destruction, overexploitation of natural resources and pollution of air, water and soils. Despite the global average improvement in calorie production and major development of the food and agricultural product markets, huge inequalities in food access and repartition of the added value have emerged, leading to new serious nutritional and social problems. Based on a review of the most recent scientific knowledge, this report emphasizes Low-Income and Lower Middle-Income countries where the population faces greater challenges than elsewhere. Different threats are adding up and there are few options to adapt or mitigate these combinations of risks. This is a call for all those - businesses, policy makers, consumers, funding agencies - who are engaged in food systems transformations to bear in mind their systemic aspects and their multiple outcomes and risks in order to be able to fashion more sustainable and equitable food systems.

  This report was prepared and coordinated by the Centre de coopération internationale en recherche agronomique pour le développement (CIRAD), and is a joint production with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the European Commission’s Directorate-General for International Cooperation and Development (DG DEVCO). The scientific report hereunder takes stock of the current and future risks and challenges as regards to food systems.

• The rise of supermarkets in Africa, Asia, and Latin America
  26 octobre 2021, par Mathilde COUDRAY

  Supermarkets are traditionally viewed by development economists, policymakers, and practitioners as the rich world’s place to shop. The three regions discussed here have a great majority of the poor on the planet. But supermarkets are no longer just niche players for rich consumers in the capital cities of the countries in these regions. The rapid rise of supermarkets in these regions in the past five to ten years has transformed agrifood markets at different rates and depths across regions and countries. Many of those transformations present great challenges—even exclusion—for small farms, and small processing and distribution firms, but also potentially great opportunities. Development models, policies, and programs need to adapt to this radical change.

• Feeding the city : work and food culture of the Mumbai dabbawalas
  26 octobre 2021, par Mathilde COUDRAY

  Every day in Mumbai 5,000 dabbawalas (literally translated as "those who carry boxes") distribute a staggering 200,000 home-cooked lunchboxes to the city’s workers and students. Giving employment and status to thousands of largely illiterate villagers from Mumbai’s hinterland, this co-operative has been in operation since the late nineteenth century. It provides one of the most efficient delivery networks in the world : only one lunch in six million goes astray. Feeding the City is an ethnographic study of the fascinating inner workings of Mumbai’s dabbawalas. Cultural anthropologist Sara Roncaglia explains how they cater to the various dietary requirements of a diverse and increasingly global city, where the preparation and consumption of food is pervaded with religious and cultural significance. Developing the idea of "gastrosemantics" – a language with which to discuss the broader implications of cooking and eating – Roncaglia’s study helps us to rethink our relationship to food at a local and global level.

• The future of food safety. Transforming knowledge into action for people, economies and the environment
  26 octobre 2021, par Mathilde COUDRAY

  This technical summary prepared by FAO and the World Health Organization (WHO) reports on the two international food safety conferences held in Addis Ababa and Geneva in February and April 2019. It recalls the key actions and strategies presented to address current and future challenges to food safety globally and the steps required to strengthen commitment at the highest political level to scale up food safety in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

  At a pivotal moment focussing international attention on actions needed to bolster food safety, this publication recalls the priorities discussed so that food safety strategies and approaches can be aligned across sectors and borders, reinforcing efforts to reach the Sustainable Development Goals and supporting the UN Decade of Action on Nutrition.