Sustainable Food System Assessment: Lessons from Global Practice

Cover
Half Title
Series Information
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Table of contents
Figures
Tables
Contributors
1 Sustainable food system assessment Lessons from global practice
	Introduction
	Insights from the sustainable food system assessment literature: terms of reference, context, and assessment considerations
		Exploring terms and meaning
	The emergence of sustainable food system assessments
	Introducing the book chapters
	Acknowledgements
	Note
	References
Part I Conceptual foundations
	2 An emerging user-led participatory methodology: Mapping impact pathways of urban food system sustainability innovations
		Introduction
		How to assess the impact of urban-driven innovations on the sustainability of food systems?
			Mainly quantitative evaluation methodologies
			The various dimensions of sustainability
			It’s also about politics
		The URBAL methodology: change-based and participatory theory
			Impact pathways
			Participatory-based
		A three-stage process
			A stakeholder-oriented methodology
			A logic model to help map impact pathways
			Twelve Urban Food Innovation Labs
		Conclusion
		Acknowledgements
		Note
		References
	3 Taking care of the land: An interdisciplinary approach to community-based food systems assessment in Kakisa, Northwest Territ
		Introduction
		Community-driven food system metrics
		Health of the ecosystem
			A healthy food system in a changing environment
			Disturbances influenced by climate change
				Drought
				Gradual versus abrupt thaw of permafrost
				Wildfire
				Fish, water, pests, and contaminants
		Supporting community participation in food system evaluation
		Local food production
		Conclusion
		Acknowledgements
		Notes
		References
	4 Assessing food systems as complex adaptive systems: Conceptual views and US applications
		Using a complexity approach can simplify
			Engage residents as systems experts
		Viewing food systems as complex adaptive systems (CAS)
			Defining complex adaptive systems
			Four stages of the adaptive cycle
			Order interacts with disorder
			‘Wicked problems,’ or ‘problem situations’?
			Each setting is unique
			Avoiding reductionism
		Methodological frameworks
		Participative research processes
		Methodological tools
			Time-series data
			Limits to data and interpretation
			A century of US farming
			Interviews with wise practitioners
			Developing strategic direction
		Setting up a food system assessment
			Make the purpose and audience explicit
			Define geographic boundaries
			Using the community capitals framework
			Connecting to sustainable food systems work
		Channelling results into a workplan
		Measuring success using linked indicators
		Implementation of the plans
		Impacts of CAS assessments
		Limitations of this approach
		Notes
		References
Part II Operationalizing sustainable food system assessment
	5 Data gaps and the politics of data: Generating appropriate data for food system assessment in Cape Town, South Africa
		Introduction
		The City of Cape Town Food System and Food Security Study
		Causes of the city-scale data gap and governance challenges
		Reinterpreting mandates
		Data challenge 1: poor disaggregation
			Food security data
			Food system data
		Data challenge 2: weak proxies
		Data challenge 3: local government data sets lack relevant indicators
			Failure to appreciate limitations of data collation
			Absent data
		Data challenge 4: private sector control of data
		Moving forward
		Acknowledgements
		Note
		References
	6 Action research as a tool to measure progress in sustainable food cities: Enacting reflexive governance principles to ...
		Introduction
		Literature review on food system assessments: towards participatory processes
		A participatory approach to assess sustainable food systems: the case of the Sustainable Food Cities Network
		Grounding co-productive and reflective practices
		Conclusions: place-based, reflexive, and co-productive practices as a tool for social change
		Notes
		References
	7 Building consensus on sustainable food system assessment: Applying a Delphi survey
		Introduction
		Sustainable food systems: a multidisciplinary concept
			The multidimensional nature of sustainable development
			An integrated set of indicators
		Framing workable hypotheses
			Background conceptual framework
			Food systems as social-ecological systems
			Vulnerability and resilience as properties of food systems
		Discussing and selecting indicators
			Focus groups and the Delphi study: an expert-based approach
			Identification of eight selected causal models of vulnerability and resilience
			Identification of indicators
		Lessons learned
			Discussing implementation of the framework
			Informing policy towards sustainable food systems
			Conducting a Delphi survey
		Conclusion
		Acknowledgements
		Notes
		References
Part III Impacts and outcomes of sustainable food system assessment
	8 Building the foundation to grow food policy: The development of a toolkit to measure advocacy capacity
		Introduction
		Theoretical foundation
		Goal of the toolkit
		Process of developing the toolkit
		Contents of the toolkit
		Evaluating equity and inclusion
		Systems-thinking metrics
		Toolkit in action: a reflection on one FPC’s experience
			Background
			What they learned
		Conclusion
		Acknowledgements
		Notes
		References
	9 Tools for food system change: City Region Food System assessment, planning, and policy
		Introduction
		The CRFS toolkit and approach
		Outcomes of the CRFS assessment and planning process in pilot city regions
			Case study 1: Two regions in Zambia – The role of the CRFS approach in raising awareness and political momentum to ...
			Case study 2: Colombo, Sri Lanka – from poverty and health focuses to (food) system thinking
			Case study 3: Medellin’s approach to city region food systems and enhancing rural–urban linkages
			Policy outcomes in other city regions
		Conclusions
		Acknowledgements
		References
10 Assessing responsible food consumption in three Ecuadorian city regions
	Introduction
	Context
	Dimensions of responsible consumption
		Dimension One: direct purchase from producers
		Dimension Two: preference for agroecological products
		Dimension Three: consumption of Andean grains
	Empirical approach
		Questionnaire design and surveying
		Variable and index construction
		RCI relationships with nutrition relevant practice indicators
	Results
		Dimension distribution across different counties and samples
		RCI relationships with nutrition relevant practices
	Discussion and implications
	Conclusions and further research
	Acknowledgements
	Note
	References
11 Integrating upstream determinants and downstream food metrics
	Introduction
	The emergence of NYC food metrics
	Moving upstream
		Food insecurity among immigrant communities
		Development and local food environments
		Good jobs for food workers
			Higher wages
			Improved working conditions
	Strategies for integrating upstream and downstream food metrics
		Using diverse datasets
		Big food data
		Food planning
	Notes
	References
12 The view from here: A critical consideration of sustainable food system assessments
	Introduction
	Conceptual considerations: sense-making, vision, and place
	Operationalizing assessment tools
		Frameworks
		Complexity
		Scale considerations
		Data availability
	Outcomes and goals
		Policy generation
		Participatory approaches and embeddedness
		Building bridges and disseminating knowledge
	The view from here
	Acknowledgements
	References
Index