One size doesn’t fit all: regional differences in priorities for food system transformation

Abstract

The growing attention for food systems in policy debates has highlighted the systemic linkages between desired food system outcomes. There is an increased recognition that systemic changes are required to improve access to healthy, sustainable diets. While there is abundant academic analysis on the global need for food system transformation, regional differences in food system transformation priorities have received limited scholarly attention. This article aims to address this gap by analysing the results of a regional consultation study about respondents’ perceptions of the needs and modalities for food systems transformation. Data collection consisted of an online survey among 621 agri-food professionals and in-depth interviews among 33 food system experts from different regions across the world. The study shows how different stakeholders across the world prioritise food system drivers, food system challenges and food system transformation strategies. Region, organisational background, countries’ level of food system transformation, political and socio-economic structure are critical factors in determining such priorities. The study highlights relevant food system differences and priorities between food system actors. These differences have important policy implications for the agendas of stakeholders in their regional priorities in food systems transformation. While there is much agreement across regions on the key drivers of different food system challenges, which food system challenge is considered most urgent and which food system transformation strategy deserves most priority, differs greatly between regions. This article shows the importance of including regional and local perspectives in policy debates on the directions food system transformations should take and the need to identify such differences methodically.

Revisiting food security in 2021: an overview of the past year

“…A first question is whether and how food systems are changing (Leeuwis et al, 2021 ). An obvious element to manage and reorganise food systems, when necessary, is that there is no universal solution; food system transformation has to be adapted to contexts which differ among regions (Dengerink et al, 2021 ). Five paradigm shifts are advocated by Ruben et al ( 2021 ): (1) Raise Ambitions: from food security to food system resilience; (2) Harmonize Goals: combine efficient production with affordable nutrition, inclusive livelihoods and environmental sustainability; (3) Improve Connectivity: from modular exchange to midstream interlinkages; (4) Strengthen Responsiveness: from linear agri-food value chains to circular food systems; and (5) Anchoring Governance: from targeted incentives to integrated and comprehensive food system governance.…”

Principles for Evidence-Based and Sustainable Food System Innovations for Healthier Diets

“…When consulted, local and regional food system experts provide different insights from the global outlook. For example, food availability was identified as the main challenge in food systems in East and Southern Africa, while income was considered the main one in West and Central Africa [ 61 ]. Additionally, the environmental impact of the innovation should be evaluated against context-specific challenges.…”

Planning for sustainable food communities: An optimal spatial allocation study of food hubs considering the 15-min city concept—The case of LebensMittelPunkte in Berlin

“…However, they are mainly incremental; they focus on reforming specific aspects of the food system, but they do not address the fundamental characteristics of the system (Wezel et al, 2020). In response to this, there is a growing proportion of the scientists, NGOs and citizens proposing the adoption of integrative and more radical approaches to transform the agri-food system as the way to overcome structural causes and impacts of food production and consumption (Carlson and Chappell, 2015;Gliessman, 2016;FAO, 2018;HLPE, 2019;Webb et al, 2020;Argumedo et al, 2021;Calo et al, 2021;Carter et al, 2021;Dengerink et al, 2021;Jonas, 2021;Leeuwis et al, 2021;Ruben et al, 2021;Singh et al, 2021;McGreevy et al, 2022). This has also been mirrored in policies taking new directions, such as the Farm to Fork Strategy of the European Union (European Commission, 2020).…”