Policy framing and crisis narratives around food safety in Vietnam
While progress has been made recently in understanding food systems per se, much less is known about policies around those food systems. In this paper, we aim at understanding the food system policy context with the specific objective to look at policy dynamics—defined as the way policy agendas are identified, justified, and framed by decision-makers, and how they interact. Vietnam is used as a case study. Primary data were generated through face-to-face interviews complemented by an online survey. A policy framing approach was used to structure the research.
Method for the development of WISH, a globally applicable index for healthy diets from sustainable food systems
Promoting both a healthy diet and at the same time considering the environmental sustainability aspects of production and consumption of the diet are urgent global issues. We developed the WISH (World Index for Sustainability and Health) to evaluate diets for healthiness and sustainability. The WISH seeks to measure two complex multidimensional concepts, diet quality and environmental sustainability, in one scoring system. The WISH is based on the EAT-Lancet recommendations for a healthy and sustainable diet in the general population with global applicability across multiple settings.
Public food procurement as a game changer for food system transformation
In the last decade various countries, regions and cities from low-income to high-income economies have been developing Public Food Procurement (PFP) initiatives designed to use government purchasing power and regular demand for food as a policy instrument to promote sustainable development. These initiatives – often referred also as institutional food procurement - include school feeding or school meals programmes , as well as the purchase of food for public hospitals, prisons, universities, public building’s cafeterias, and other social programmes.
Public food procurement for sustainable food systems and healthy diets – Volume 1
Sustainable Public Food Procurement (PFP) represents a key game changer for food systems transformation. It can influence both food consumption and food production patterns. It can deliver multiple social, economic and environmental benefits towards sustainable food systems for healthy diets.
This publication aims to contribute to the improved understanding, dissemination and use of PFP as a development tool in particular in the case of school meals programmes.
Public food procurement for sustainable food systems and healthy diets - Volume 2
Sustainable Public Food Procurement (PFP) represents a key game changer for food systems transformation. It can influence both food consumption and food production patterns. It can deliver multiple social, economic and environmental benefits towards sustainable food systems for healthy diets. This publication aims to contribute to the improved understanding, dissemination and use of PFP as a development tool in particular in the case of school meals programmes.
Property rights and wrongs: Land reforms for sustainable food production in rural Mali
Agricultural land reforms are crucial to promote investments in sustainable land management and food production amidst accelerating urbanization and increasing population growth. However, notable gaps remain in the literature regarding how land reforms designed at the national level are implemented in localized contexts, especially as they interplay with customary tenure regimes. Adopting an institutional bricolage perspective, we explore interactions between local tenure arrangements and government land reforms and the resulting implications for food production in rural Mali.
Perspective: The importance of water security for ensuring food security, good nutrition, and well-being
Water security is a powerful concept that is still in its early days in the field of nutrition. Given the prevalence and severity of water issues and the many interconnections between water and nutrition, we argue that water security deserves attention commensurate with its importance to human nutrition and health. To this end, we first give a brief introduction to water insecurity and discuss its conceptualization in terms of availability, access, use, and stability. We then lay out the empirical grounding for its assessment.
Colombia: Cali and Palmira. Building knowledge basis to understand the food system, players and enabling environment with a city region perspective
By fostering and coordinating multi-stakeholder platforms such as the Academic Dialogue Platform on Food and Nutritional Safety, the International Centre for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) aims to generate knowledge and articulate work on the city’s food system by bringing together key actors from the public sector, research groups and academia, NGOs and civil society.
Being on Land and Sea in Troubled Times: Climate Change and Food Sovereignty in Nunavut
Climate change driven food insecurity has emerged as a topic of special concern in the Canadian Arctic. Inuit communities in this region rely heavily on subsistence; however, access to traditional food sources may have been compromised due to climate change. Drawing from a total of 25 interviews among Inuit elders and experienced hunters from Cambridge Bay and Kugluktuk in Nunavut, Canada, this research examines how climate change is impacting food sovereignty and health. Our results show that reports of food insecurity were more pronounced in Kugluktuk than Cambridge Bay.
Spatiotemporal Dynamics of Cultivated Land and Its Influences on Grain Production Potential in Hunan Province, China
Understanding the impact of changes in cultivated land in terms of structure, distribution, and quantity on grain production potential (GPP) is essential for a sustainable land utilization strategy and food security. Cultivated land balance (CLB), as a critical policy aiming at protecting farmland in China, has greatly restricted the loss of cultivated land. However, changes in cultivated land were largely generated due to the land-use activities led by the CLB policy.