Sustainable agriculture
Food Systems Approach
Image: via Flickr (by: Patrik M. Loeff)
The global ambitions to end hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture (SDG2) demand a complex transition of the current food system. At the same time, the food system also needs to respond to other challenges such as climate change, resource scarcity, (youth) employment and gender equality. There are many interconnections within the system, which means that activities with an effect on one part of the food system can result in (unintended) outcomes in other areas. A need thus exists to manage such trade-offs and identify room for synergies. In this context, a ‘food systems approach’ attempts to deliver sustainable solutions for the sufficient supply of healthy food to achieve SDG2 in balance with other sustainable development goals.
In this topic a curated selection is presented of key publications on food systems and the food systems approach. These reflect current work by knowledge institutions and other stakeholders who explore the concept and try to enhance understanding of how it can deliver the needed food systems transitions.
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September 14th, 2020
Published by Global Food Security Journal, September 1st, 2020
This article identifies strategies for and performance of food system transformation by assessing 32 highly-cited international studies, identifying and comparing differences in the frameworks used for food systems analysis, and discrepancies in the procedures. Food systems approaches must be useful to decision makers and performance can only be improved if decision makers have a better understanding of these underlying interactions and dynamics of food systems change. »
July 29th, 2020
Published by ECDPM, July 28th, 2020
In this paper an iterative, step-based sustainable food system approach has been developed that help navigate complexity and is flexible in its required resources, thus enbaling a fast overview or a deep dive as determined by a project's or organisation's objectives. The goal of the approach is that together, the four components can help guide practitioners and decision-makers to describe, diagnose, and develop more coherent, effective, and context-appropriate interventions in food systems to improve their sustainability. »
July 14th, 2020
Published by FAO, IFAD, UNICEF, WFP, WHO, July 13th, 2020
This report assesses the state of food security and nutrition in the world, and attempts to foresee impact of COVID-19. The critical link between food security and nutrition outcomes are food consumption and diet quality. New analysis determines that the cost of the diet increases incrementally as diet quality increases. The hidden costs for health and environment translate into actual costs for individuals and society. »
May 4th, 2020
Published by A4NH-CGIAR, April 20th, 2020
This blog outlines that all key dimensions of food systems are simultaneously influenced by the COVID-19 pandemic and therefore there is a need to better understand their interactions in order to identify a strategic response to reshape future food systems. Hopefully, food systems transformations will enter a new era of policy engagement, international alliances, and multilateral cooperation. »
April 8th, 2020
Published by IFPRI, April 7th, 2020
The 2020 Global Food Policy Report focuses on the need to build inclusive food systems, both to ensure that marginalized and vulnerable people enjoy the benefits and opportunities that food systems can bring and to support sustainable development. »
February 17th, 2020
Published by CCAFS-CGIAR & KOIS Invest, April 1st, 2019
This report states that the global food system will need to produce food more efficiently and sustainably to achieve the SDGs and meet the 2°C climate commitments of the Paris Agreement. As climate change affects food systems, governments, food and agriculture companies, and public and private investors need to better identify and address the numerous climate-related risks they face. »
February 3rd, 2020
Published by World Economic Forum, McKinsey & Company, January 17th, 2020
This report outlines four pathways for creating the right incentives to transform food systems. Incentivizing food systems transformation will not be straightforward and will require substantial investments and efforts to manage complexities and trade-offs. In addition, incentive mechanisms in food systems will have a greater impact if they are complemented by incentives from other sectors. »
January 20th, 2020
Published by IFPRI, December 2nd, 2019
This discussion paper identified a large set of research questions that, if answered, could shed light on both how the food system in Bangladesh works, and the rate of change of food system transformation in Bangladesh. Both government interventions and innovations are needed to help shift the national food system to improve nutrient-dense food availability, particularly among the poor, and to limit the increase in processed food consumption. »
December 9th, 2019
Published by Routledge, January 30th, 2019
This book examines and compares variety of governance innovations, at a range of scales, thereby offerig insights for those considering contemporary food systems and their ongoing transformation. A key finding includes that food movements are increasingly engaging in governance to have a wider and more systemic impact. »
December 5th, 2019
Published by Feed the Future, USAID and Tufts University, October 29th, 2019
This review identified opportunities for action that could contribute to systemic change that improves diet quality, particularly for nutritionally vulnerable people in low income settings. The review summarizes research findings and presents future research opportunities, as well as several cross-cutting issues that have implications across the food system. »
December 3rd, 2019
Published by Wageningen Centre for Development Innovation, Wageningen Economic Research, Food & Business Knowledge Platform, November 28th, 2019
This conference report shares key insighs from a conference that aimed to seek clarity in the role that monitoring and evaluation (M&E) can play in informing and supporting transformation towards inclusive and sustainable food systems for healthy diets. M&E can generate information to help understand food systems (starting from consumption) and identify tradeoffs in order to support decision-making. M&E can build on and complement existing food systems frameworks. »
November 5th, 2019
Published by FAO, European Commision, CIRAD, October 28th, 2019
This report examined the most up-to-date scientific assessment of the danger humanity faces if present trends continue, with priority being given to food systems in low and middle income countries (LMIC). The potential severity of the combinations of risks to which LMIC food systems are exposed requires a change in their transformation pattern. Since food systems face locally specific combinations of risks, they als have to meet locally specific objectives. »
September 16th, 2019
Published by IDS, April 1st, 2019
This report provides an overview of the evidence of the economic potential of food systems for the poor for the next ten years. Evidence shows that only the upper tier of small-scale farmers can access the more modern and commercialised food channels. For policy it is of importance to get the mix right in relation to the ability of smallholder farmers in the food system to “stepping up” or “hanging in” (farmers not able to scale up and commercialise) farming activities. »
August 2nd, 2019
Published by CCAFS-CGIAR, June 25th, 2019
This working paper discusses how policy should bring transformative change for food systems to become sustainable, resilient, climate smart and inclusive, while delivering affordable, culturally appropriate, healthy diets for all. Transformation demands participation and action from all actors. »
July 17th, 2019
Published by FAO, European Commission, February 5th, 2019
This new guidance note presents how a food systems approach can guide the delivery of healthy diets and the steps to take to identify policy options and drive policy change, and subsequently address all forms of malnutrition. It is important to take a food systems approach comprising four functions - food production; food handling, storage and processing; food trade and marketing; and consumer demand, food preparation and preferences, and to coordinate interventions across these functions. »
June 17th, 2019
Published by KIT, WUR, November 1st, 2018
This working paper summarizes academic litarature on food systems and systems thinking, in order to inform a system approach for the development of food and nutrition security (FNS) programming. Also a decision-support tool is developed to translate the insights on food systems invo actionable recommendations for FNS programming. »
May 2nd, 2019
Published by World Bank, November 20th, 2017
This report examines available evidence and innovative initiatives as the basis for proposing a conceptial framework and the broad parameters and priorities for efforts to improve urban food systems. »
March 7th, 2019
Published by Agroonmy for Sustianable Development, February 1st, 2019
This paper presents a framework to characterize the diversity of existing food systems and classify the food systems in terms of their support by mainstream practices. Results of the framework can be used to focus attention on functioning of the food system components and reveal main barriers and promising elements, and can be used in the exploration of potential transition pathways of food systems. »
February 5th, 2019
Published by Wageninen Economic Research, May 1st, 2018
This report enhances the knowledge on the global implications of the EU food system. How trade relations of the EU with LMIC may evolve in the future, depends on major trends in consumption and production in the EU. »
February 1st, 2019
Published by The Lancet, January 16th, 2019
In this article the EAT-Lancet Commission developed global scientific targets based on the best evidence available for healthy diets and sustainable food production. A universal healthy reference diet was developed to provide a basis for estimating the health and environmental effects of adopting an alternative diet. Scientific targets for the safe operating space of food systems were established for six key Earth system processes. An opportunity exists to integrate food systems into international, national, and business policy frameworks aiming for improved human health and environmental sustainability. »
January 17th, 2019
Published by World Economic Forum and Deloitte, January 13th, 2017
This report presents four scenarios for the future of global food systems. These possible futures of global food systems broaden perspectives about alternative future environments. The report aims to challenge global leaders to think in new ways about the future and to motivate action on key issues that will shape the global food systems. The key question is: How will food systems nutritiously and sustainable feed 8.5 billion people in 2030? »
January 3rd, 2019
Published by Sustainability Journal, December 31st, 2018
This article aims to assess the conceptual challenges and practical opportunities for analysing the structure and performance of food systems, and identifies how food systems analysis could deliver new and innovative insights for nutrition policy in developing countries. »
December 10th, 2018
Published by WUR, May 2nd, 2016
This article seeks to capture how food system governance has been conceptualized in academic literature since the world food prices crises of 2007/2008 and what proposals have been developed to change and strengthen food system governance. The article is part of a book that addresses a range of issues in food governance revolving around questions of justice, fairness, equality and human rights. »
July 6th, 2018
Published by Wageningen Economic Research, June 1st, 2018
A food systems approach (FSA) is a useful interdisciplinary conceptual framework for research and policy aimed at sustainable solutions for the sufficient supply of healthy food. The aim of this paper is twofold: to explain the term ‘food systems approach’ in greater detail, and to show how a food systems conceptual framework can be useful in developing an integrated international policy on food security, nutritional security and international agri-business. »
