Global Food Security-Agriculture Policy Economics and Environment最新文献

Urban food systems in developing countries like India are rife with inequalities that preclude food security for all. In this context, the paper examines the role played by informal workers in the ‘circular economy’ for food in improving the accessibility of food and urban food security in Delhi, India. Evidence from an informal street market close to one of the country's largest urban wholesale markets of food grains, pulses and spices in Delhi reveals rare details of how urban food waste plays a significant role in the livelihood strategies of the city's poor migrants while also contributing to the urban food security of the low-income households. Although there is a growing recognition that the street food sector plays an important role in urban food security, the vital role played by waste collectors, home-based workers and street vendors in restoring discarded food grain, pulses and spices, and bringing them back into the urban food system has been largely invisible. This invisibility extends to the gendered segregation of work in food waste recycling, where our study found that predominantly women undertake labour-intensive and lower paid tasks at the bottom of the hierarchy. The paper provides an overview of the nature of informal livelihood, the contribution of informal workers and challenges and opportunities in the urban circular economy for food. However, their contributions are often overshadowed by health and safety concerns about the reuse of discarded food. Further, an analysis of the current policy landscape in urban India also indicates that informal workers are marginalised in the circular economy for food. While the state owes these informal workers support and protection for their contribution to the ‘Circular economy’ for food and urban food security, any effort to sustain these practices would need to incorporate adequate health and safety procedures.

As a result of years of increased rationalization and consolidation of food systems, the knowledge and skills of many actors in food value chains, especially those linked to smaller-scale traditional and artisanal production, processing, and cooking, have rapidly been eroded. Despite the resilience that such knowledge and skills can offer. In this paper, we use the lens of gastronomy to highlight how culinary craftsmanship and innovation hold potential to drive the development of biosphere stewardship that contributes to more biocultural, diverse, and resilient landscapes. We propose the concept of ‘gastronomic landscapes,’ i.e., land/seascapes that are governed, managed, or cared for to contribute specifically to culinary development while having substantive value for landscape resilience and food system sustainability. Through six cases representing different knowledge systems and landscapes across the world, the breadth of gastronomy and how it is linked to landscapes is highlighted. We develop a typology of characteristics that can be used to analyze gastronomic landscapes based on locality, diversity, and quality. In the paper, we conclude that thinking and acting in line with gastronomic landscapes can help build resilience and food sovereignty over time and offers a helpful conceptualization for further studies.

Increasing land and water scarcity, unequal distribution and competition over resource use, land degradation and biodiversity loss, exacerbated by climate change, question the capacity of current models of agriculture growth to sustain inclusive resilient rural development. This paper invites to integrate in rural development policies and investment a focus on sustainable, inclusive and adaptive management of natural resources. It combines a conceptual framework based on scientific literature with illustrative examples enriched by the perspectives of the experts participating in two workshops. It proposes 4 key pathways (resource efficiency, systems diversification, sustainable bioeconomy, and landscape approaches) to achieve more inclusive and resilient agrifood systems.

Food environment changes in low- and middle-income countries are increasing diet-related noncommunicable diseases (NCDs). This paper synthesizes the qualitative evidence about how family dynamics shape food choices within the context of HIV (Prospero: CRD42021226283). Guided by structuration theory and food environment framework, we used best-fit framework analysis to develop the Family Dynamics Food Environment Framework (FDF) comprising three interacting dimensions (resources, characteristics, and action orientation). Findings show how the three food environment domains (personal, family, external) interact to affect food choices within families affected by HIV. Given the growing prevalence of noncommunicable and chronic diseases, the FDF can be applied beyond the context of HIV to guide effective and optimal nutritional policies for the whole family.

COVID-19 not only increased food insecurity across the globe but has also given rise to pandemic-induced “biopedagogies,” a concept premised on conflating health with instructions on the “bios,” including how to live healthily, what to eat, and how much. Based on 24 qualitative interviews with low-waged migrant domestic workers (MDWs) in Singapore hailing from Myanmar, we explore how migrant women articulate and develop their own biopedagogical practices under pandemic-constrained circumstances. While live-in MDWs are invariably involved in preparing food for employers’ families as part of their care duties, and despite originating from historically food-producing regions, they are vulnerable to urban and cultural food insecurities at destination sites of migration given their diminished rights and subordinate positions in the household. Yet, these migrant women express agency in enacting counter-practices through their foodwork in at least two ways. First, MDWs cultivate self-care through cooking and consuming home foods during the pandemic and negotiating enough fortifying food for themselves while living in employers’ households. Secondly, through remittance-sending to left-behind families and children, they enact long-distance maternal carework through foodwork for health. We uncover how MDWs’ foodwork achieve a measure of food security despite language barriers, limited economic resources, lack of access to culturally appropriate foods at destination, and distance from their families. Experiencing vulnerability in terms of their occupational position, their plate, and the pandemic, this paper uncovers the stressors in achieving food security and health for themselves and families’ while working in Singapore.

Rising urban food demand in Sub-Saharan Africa will put pressure on local resource boundaries, such as the available land area and water resources. In assessing the extent to which urban centres can source from nearby areas in future, earlier analysis has concentrated on agronomic measures, aiming at yield gap closure. Here, we address the potential of local water conservation measures to help achieve food self-sufficiency in Sub-Saharan Africa by 2061–2070, along the concept of urban ‘foodsheds’, matching crop-based food supply and demand in the surroundings of large cities for all major food groups. We find that ambitious but plausible levels of water conservation, primarily raising productivity on rainfed lands, have the potential to increase overall food production by 12% and food self-sufficiency levels in all major foodsheds to over 75%, with the region as a whole becoming self-sufficient. The increase in production could limit the projected required expansion of agricultural land use by more than 25%, which has important implications for biodiversity, land use-related conflicts and carbon sequestration.

Genome editing has great potential to alleviate the persistent food insecurity in Africa. However, achieving this goal is faced with a myriad of challenges. We describe components that we envisage are crucial in positioning Africa for an early commercial agricultural genome editing take-off. We review the evolving genome editing technologies based on CRISPR/Cas systems. We then present the status of research in genome editing to improve food sustainability in Africa, and its potential commercialization in the short-term.

The global-industrial food system is both a major contributor to climate change and a cause of widespread human displacement. Despite evidence of the interrelationships among food insecurity, climate change, and migration, there has been surprisingly limited scholarly and policy attention to the structural conditions underlying these relationships. This paper foregrounds critical perspectives informed by abolition feminism to advance a framework for conceptualizing and addressing the climate-food-migration nexus. I discuss the histories of racial and gender violence that have yielded to today's global-industrial food system and its displacing effects, as well as the carceral logics that restrict movement and reinforce conditions of food and climate apartheid. I argue that abolition feminist theoretical perspectives are necessary for addressing the racialized and gendered dimensions of food insecurity in the broader contexts of climate change and displacement, and that abolition feminism opens possibilities for transformative agendas in the realms of research, pedagogy, and collective action.

Background

The COVID-19 pandemic adversely affected several aspects of daily life including economic, social, interpersonal, food and health. In India, low skilled employees experienced significantly higher levels of adversity including income loss and food security risks. This study investigates the relationship between pandemic led economic changes and food consumption among low-skilled employees, mediated by pandemic specific variables like government support and emotional distress. We argue and contend current literature provides a simple linear analysis between pandemic impacted economic status and food consumption. Several other significant variables in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic play a significant mediating role in the relationship.

Methods

A longitudinal survey of 2830 low skill (unskilled and semi-skilled) employees during two time periods of July–November 2019 and December–January 2020-21 was conducted. The survey respondents included drivers, domestic workers, delivery personnels, beauticians, street vendors, small business owners, and self-employed individuals. Face-to-face interviews collected data on the variables under the UN Security Framework (2016) including economic, food, health, environment, personal, community, and political security. Paired t-tests analyzed the changes in economic status, Wilcoxon's signed rank test compared the food consumption scores (FCS), and Structural equation models (SEM) explored the direct and indirect impacts of the pandemic on food consumption.

Results

The lockdown significantly reduced monthly earnings compared to pre-lockdown levels (p < 00.001). FCS shifted towards borderline, indicating decreased dairy intake. SEM revealed indirect effects of economic status on food consumption through increased emotional distress, and insufficiency of government support for economic status and food consumption during the pandemic.

Conclusion

Tailored government programs are essential in addressing food insecurity among low employees. Priority should be given in addressing emotional distress during crises and reevaluate the role of government interventions on their effectiveness and reach. Reevaluating program fairness and increasing support for low-income employees are crucial steps in mitigating food insecurity risks.