Sustainable Food System Assessment

Sustainable Food System Assessment provides both practical and theoretical insights about the growing interest in and response to measuring food system sustainability. Bringing together research from the Global North and South, this book shares lessons learned, explores intended and actual project outcomes, and highlights points of conceptual and methodological convergence. Interest in assessing food system sustainability is growing, as evidenced by the Milan Urban Food Policy Pact and the importance food systems initiatives have taken in serving as a lever for attaining the UN Sustainable Development Goals. This book opens by looking at the conceptual considerations of food systems indicators, including the place-based dimensions of food systems indicators and how measurements are implicated in sense-making and visioning processes. Chapters in the second part cover operationalizing metrics, including the development of food systems indicator frameworks, degrees of indicator complexities, and practical constraints to assessment. The final part focuses on the outcomes of assessment projects, including impacts on food policy and communities involved, highlighting the importance of building connections between sustainable food systems initiatives. The global coverage and multi-scalar perspectives, including both conceptual and practical aspects, make this a key resource for academics and practitioners across planning, geography, urban studies, food studies, and research methods. It will also be of interest to government officials and those working within NGOs. The Open Access version of this book, available at https://www.routledge.com/Sustainable-Food-System-Assessment-Lessons-from-Global-Practice/Blay-Palmer-Conare-Meter-Battista-Johnston/p/book/9781032083933, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license.

One of the major knowledge challenges in the domain of Resilient and Sustainable Food Systems refers to the integration of perspectives on consumption, patterns that support public health, inclusive value chains, and environmentally sustainable food production. While there is a long record of the analysis of separate interventions, this special issue generates integrated insights, provides cross-cutting perspectives, and outlines practical and policy solutions that address these global challenges.The collection of papers promotes the view that sustainable food systems require thorough insights into the structure and dynamics of agri-food production systems, the drivers for integrating food value chains and markets, and key incentives for supporting healthier consumer choices. On the production side, potential linkages between agricultural commercialization and intensification and their effects for food security and nutritional outcomes are analyzed. Value Chains are assessed for their contribution to improving exchange networks and markets for food products that simultaneously support efficiency, circularity, and responsiveness. Individual motives and market structures for food consumption need to be understood in order to be able to outline suitable incentives to enhance healthy dietary choice.The contributed papers focus on interfaces between food system activities and processes of adaptive change that are critical for overcoming key constraints and trade-offs between sustainable food and healthy diets.

Food Systems Modelling emphasizes sustainability, including the impact of agriculture and food production on profits, people and environment, with a particular focus on the ability of humanity to continue producing food in the midst of global environmental change. Sections introduce the purpose of models, the definition of a food system, the importance of disciplinary, interdisciplinary, and transdisciplinary inquiry, cover specific branches of modeling in the sustainability of food systems, and wrestle with the challenge of communicating modeling research and appropriately integrating multiple dimensions of sustainability. This book will be a welcomed reference for food scientists, agricultural scientists, nutritionists, environmental scientists, ecologists, economists, those working in agribusiness and food supply chain management, community and public health, and urban and regional planning, as well as academicians and graduate students interested in the sustainability of food systems. Emphasizes sustainability, including the impact of agriculture and food production on profits Focuses on the ability of humanity to continue producing food in the midst of global environmental change Deciphers what models can teach us about food system sustainability

How we produce and consume food has a bigger impact on Americans' well-being than any other human activity. The food industry is the largest sector of our economy; food touches everything from our health to the environment, climate change, economic inequality, and the federal budget. From the earliest developments of agriculture, a major goal has been to attain sufficient foods that provide the energy and the nutrients needed for a healthy, active life. Over time, food production, processing, marketing, and consumption have evolved and become highly complex. The challenges of improving the food system in the 21st century will require systemic approaches that take full account of social, economic, ecological, and evolutionary factors. Policy or business interventions involving a segment of the food system often have consequences beyond the original issue the intervention was meant to address. A Framework for Assessing Effects of the Food System develops an analytical framework for assessing effects associated with the ways in which food is grown, processed, distributed, marketed, retailed, and consumed in the United States. The framework will allow users to recognize effects across the full food system, consider all domains and dimensions of effects, account for systems dynamics and complexities, and choose appropriate methods for analysis. This report provides example applications of the framework based on complex questions that are currently under debate: consumption of a healthy and safe diet, food security, animal welfare, and preserving the environment and its resources. A Framework for Assessing Effects of the Food System describes the U.S. food system and provides a brief history of its evolution into the current system. This report identifies some of the real and potential implications of the current system in terms of its health, environmental, and socioeconomic effects along with a sense for the complexities of the system, potential metrics, and some of the data needs that are required to assess the effects. The overview of the food system and the framework described in this report will be an essential resource for decision makers, researchers, and others to examine the possible impacts of alternative policies or agricultural or food processing practices.

"This book provides multidisciplinary perspectives on how to develop sustainable food systems, policies, and securities"--Provided by publisher".

The food system is responsible for some of society’s most pressing sustainability challenges. Diets are currently unsustainable in many countries as evidenced by the growing burden of malnutrition, degradation of natural resources, contributions to climate change, and unaffordability of healthy diets. There is an urgent need to address the gaps in understanding of what a sustainable food system means across varying populations and geographies and how we can better measure these systems, while identifying how dietary choices impact on human health and the environment. However, decision makers and experts are questioning whether it is possible to meet environmental, social, and economic goals simultaneously, or whether trade-offs are necessary. Thus, the development of better measurements and indicators to clearly understand the benefits and considerations for healthy and sustainable food systems is needed.

Sustainable Food and Agriculture: An Integrated Approach is the first book to look at the imminent threats to sustainable food security through a cross-sectoral lens. As the world faces food supply challenges posed by the declining growth rate of agricultural productivity, accelerated deterioration of quantity and quality of natural resources that underpin agricultural production, climate change, and hunger, poverty and malnutrition, a multi-faced understanding is key to identifying practical solutions. This book gives stakeholders a common vision, concept and methods that are based on proven and widely agreed strategies for continuous improvement in sustainability at different scales. While information on policies and technologies that would enhance productivity and sustainability of individual agricultural sectors is available to some extent, literature is practically devoid of information and experiences for countries and communities considering a comprehensive approach (cross-sectoral policies, strategies and technologies) to SFA. This book is the first effort to fill this gap, providing information on proven options for enhancing productivity, profitability, equity and environmental sustainability of individual sectors and, in addition, how to identify opportunities and actions for exploiting cross-sectoral synergies. Provides proven options of integrated technologies and policies, helping new programs identify appropriate existing programs Presents mechanisms/tools for balancing trade-offs and proposes indicators to facilitate decision-making and progress measurement Positions a comprehensive and informed review of issues in one place for effective education, comparison and evaluation

Multi-stakeholder collaboration is an important process that can serve as a tool and strategy to solve complex issues and problems such as transforming national food systems towards more sustainable outcomes. This guide aims to support stakeholders working at all levels of the food system in the implementation of actions to transform their food systems. Centered on 5 building blocks underpinning successful multi-stakeholder collaboration for food systems transformation, the guide uses these constructions to illustrate ingredients of the process and show the interconnectedness of the steps needed to be successful. The guide also contains two annexes with a list of tools, and assessment questions. Annex 1 highlights a range of tools to support facilitators and participants with deeper guidance on a specific topic. Annex 2 contains a checklist of questions, customized to the content provided under each Building Block, and serves as an ongoing monitoring tool that can be used alongside the recommendations provided.