Urban Food Systems

This report presents the findings, key messages and proposed action agenda from a national Pandemic Gardening Survey conducted by Sustain: The Australian Food Network from June-July 2020. The survey received 9,140 comments covering 62% of all postcodes in Australia. Key findings include: edible gardening makes a significant contribution to food security for low income households, it contributes to dietary diversity and nutritional health, it leads to improved mental health and wellbeing, and it brings communities together. The main recommendation: edible gardening and urban agriculture requires much greater investment from all tiers of government

Turin is rich of experiences of practices, projects and policies making the food system more sustainable and fair, touching most of the many dimensions of food: environment, culture, economy, health, social and spatial justice, and so on. This book presents a collection of the more interesting of these experiences, describing them and showing their multidimensionality and integration with the different phases of the food system.

Although supermarkets have become a dominant food outlet for urban residents in developed countries, studies of food purchasing in developing countries such as China report a persistence of traditional food outlets, despite a proliferation of supermarkets over the past two decades. Yet, little is known about urban residents’ use of various food sources in the Chinese context. Building on the debate over the rise of supermarkets and the persistence of traditional food outlets, this paper analyzes the landscape of competing food sources including supermarkets, wet markets, restaurants, online food markets, urban agriculture and others. Based on the HCP citywide survey of 1,200 households in Nanjing, China, the paper looks at the purchasing frequency of a comprehensive list of food items in different food retail outlets, the accessibility of these outlets, and also the use of different food sources. We found that while supermarkets are the top source for purchasing staple grains, dairy products and processed food, wet markets still prevail for purchasing fresh produce and meat. The data demonstrates the high level of food accessibility in Nanjing and also indicates the significance of food sources beyond conventional retailing outlets, such as online food markets, urban agriculture and restaurants, in people’s daily lives.

The  Right  to  Food  is  enshrined  within  the  South  African  Constitution.  However,  despite  there being sufficient food available within the country, this right is not being met. Both  nationally  and  within  the  City  of  Cape  Town  there  are  high  levels  of  household  food  insecurity. 
The  nature  of  food  insecurity  is  changing.  Food  insecure  households  continue  to  be  malnourished  in  terms  of  essential  nutrients  for  health  and  development,  but  they  are  also  now  characterised  by  increasing  obesity,  diabetes  and  hypertension.    This  shifting  pathology  necessitates  a  shift  in  thinking  about  food  security  and  its  causes.  It  can  no  longer  be  viewed  solely,  or  even  primarily,  simply  as  a  manifestation  of  household  poverty.  It  must  be  viewed  in  the  context  of  the  wider  food  system,  and  other  interconnected systems.

The  Terms  of  Reference  for  this  study  identify  the  challenge  of  food  insecurity  in  the  following manner: 
“Food security or the lack thereof is the outcome of complex and multi7dimensional factors  comprising a food system. Therefore, food insecurity is the result of failures or inefficiencies  in  one  or  more  dimensions  of  the  food  system.  This  necessitates  a  holistic  analysis  of  the  food  system  that  than  can  provide  insights  into  the  various  components  of  the  system,  especially in our context as a developing world city. That analysis must also take note of the  constitutional  mandates  of  the  tiers  of  government  in  South  Africa,  such  as  the  legal  mandate  for  food  security  that  rests  with  the  national  government,  in  conjunction  with  various  provincial  departments.  Local  government,  however,  needs  to  understand  food  systems  so  as  to  make  evidence7based  planning  and  policy  decisions  that  will  have  long7 term impacts on their areas.”
In  order  to  generate  the  evidence  base  to  enable  the  City  to  make  planning  and  policy  decisions that will impact food insecurity the following questions were asked,:
(a) What are the components of Cape Town’s food system? How effective is it? What are the  points  of  weakness  in  the  systems?  What  interventions  would  be  needed  to  achieve  and  sustain  effective  food  systems  in  the  city?  What  are  the  key  threats  to  the  system  in  the  future and what mitigation strategies are needed?
(b)  What  is  the  status  of  food  security  in  the  city?  Which  instruments  should  be  used  to  measure  food  security  and  what  are  the  appropriate  indicators?  Where  are  the  food  vulnerable residents located? What are their coping strategies? 
(c)  What  are  the  areas  within  the  city’s  boundaries  that  contribute  towards  the  food  systems  and  food  security  in  Cape  Town?  How  do  you  quantify  their  roles  as  production  centres for food? How significant are they for food security in the city? 
(d)  Who are all the role7players in the field of food security in Cape Town – whose roles are  enshrined  in  official  mandates  and  whose  are  more  voluntary  –  to  inform  what  role  the  Council would play, i.e. what should the Council’s response be to food insecurity? 
This report addresses these questions and provides a set of recommendations based on  its findings and from applicable lessons from around the globe.

Torino offre un sistema alimentare tra i più interessanti d’Italia: i cibi locali, la cultura enogastronomica, le aziende alimentari innovative influenzano in modo rilevante anche il sistema alimentare ed equo solidale nazionale ed internazionale sotto il profilo sociale, politico e culturale. Anche in assenza di una Urban Food Policy formalmente istituita, Torino è ricca di esperienze pratiche, progetti e politiche che rendono il sistema alimentare locale più sostenibile ed equo. Queste investono le molte dimensioni del cibo: ambiente, cultura, economia, salute, giustizia sociale, governo del territorio, cooperazione internazionale, ricerca. Questo libro, realizzato dalla Città di Torino all’interno del progetto europeo Food Smart Cities for Development, presenta una raccolta delle esperienze più interessanti, descrivendole e mostrando la loro multidimensionalità e l’integrazione con le diverse fasi del sistema alimentare.
Le descrizioni, complete di mappe, sono precedute da alcune riflessioni di politici, ricercatori, funzionari pubblici, giuristi e attivisti che riguardano il sistema alimentare locale, le politiche alimentari urbane e l’Urban Food Policy.

This report argues that it is essential to understand the dynamics of the informal food retail sector because of its vital role in ensuring greater access to food by the urban poor. Existing policy frameworks to address food security and to govern the informal sector tend to neglect informal retail in the food system. As a result, the sector is poorly understood. The report therefore attempts to identify the characteristics of the sector that impact on its ability to address the food needs of the neighbourhoods in which the businesses are located. Although the research is focused on Cape Town, the findings are of broader relevance.

‘Suppose I told you that New York City had the opportunity to create thousands of new jobs – but we just weren’t doing it. You’d probably be pretty upset. Now suppose I went on to say that we’ve actually had that opportunity for years, we just weren’t paying close enough attention. I bet you’d all have some choice words for me – the kind that shouldn’t be repeated in polite company.
Alright, now suppose I told you that by taking steps to create those jobs, we could also improve public health and reduce our energy consumption. We could fight childhood obesity and asthma. We could keep millions of dollars in the local economy, instead of sending those dollars across the country or around the world. But we still weren’t doing it.
Well the fact is, we have been ignoring those exact opportunities. For years, we’ve been missing a chance to create a greener, healthier, and more economically vibrant city. How? By ignoring the enormous potential of our city’s food system.’ (Quinn 2009)
There are currently high levels of food insecurity in South African cities. The SANHANES survey found national prevalence of households at risk of hunger to be 28% and those experiencing hunger at 26%. The equivalent figures in urban informal areas were 32% and 36% respectively. The figures are reinforced by case studies which consistently show high levels of food insecurity. With regard to trends: nationally food insecurity was in decline, but it appears to have plateaued. Ever increasing food prices and other price shocks suggest that levels of urban food insecurity are unlikely to improve.
Urban food insecurity is characterised by low dietary diversity, high malnutrition and obesity, and distinct hunger seasons. This is caused by both household and extra-household scale factors including: Household income, income stability, household structure, and household asset base. The extra-household scale factors include geographic access to a range of sources of food, access to transport and stability of food prices.
Households themselves engage in strategies to mitigate food insecurity, which may increase household vulnerability to food insecurity in the longer term. These include consumption smoothing and accessing credit.
The brief for the study requested a particular focus on urban agriculture as this is the most common programmatic response by municipalities to food insecurity. However, in reviewing national large-scale surveys and smaller case studies, very little evidence was found to support the assertion that urban agriculture is an effective means of addressing food insecurity for the most vulnerable households. Uptake of urban food production varies widely across the country, but is generally low. There is an extremely weak evidence base on what is being produced, by whom and how production impacts food security. Without such data the dominance of urban agriculture as the programmatic response cannot be justified.

Cities have begun to develop a more 'place-based approach' to food policy that emphasises trans-local alliances. To understand how such alliances develop distinct capacities to act, in this paper we integrate key theoretical contributions from governance networks, social movements and translocal assemblages. Our analysis focuses on the activities and tools used by the UK's Sustainable Food Cities Network to assemble local experiences, create common imaginaries and perform collective action. Through these processes, we argue, the network creates cross-scalar, collective and distributive agencies that are modifying incumbent governance dynamics. As we conclude, this raises the need to further explore how translocal configurations can develop forms of power that contest, break or reassemble the relations in the food system that are actively preventing the emergence of more sustainable foodscapes.

Despite the diversity of consumption and class practices of the new urban middle classes within and between societies, they share some qualities. Focusing on the lifestyles and mentalities of regulars of specialty coffee bars in Tehran, Glasgow and Amsterdam, this study explores common characteristics of this group. Our ethnography suggests that through their everyday consumption practices, coffee people share a set of ethical dispositions and cultural practices among which this article focuses on the metropolitan body, cosmopolitanism and environmentalism. Keywords Specialty coffee, coffee people, the new urban middle classes, the metropolitan body, cosmopolitanism, environmentalism

Abstract
Objective: To explore the relation between gentrification and food in a neighbourhood of Mexico City through the transformation of the foodscape of the studied area. Methodology: This work has a combination of ethnographic techniques that include participant observation and twelve semi-structured interviews with key informants. Results: Neighbourhood
transformation processes can be analysed through food practices and reconfigurations of urban foodscapes in multiple dimensions: from the establishment of new businesses, to the diversification in the types of consumption, through the meaning that they acquire the traditional establishments that can be observed as spaces of resistance. Changes in the urban and demographic structure are closely linked to the transformation of the landscape. Limitations: The present work does not record other processes linked to the own
neighbourhood transformation that also affect the food practices of inhabitants and visitors. Conclusions: Based on the analysis of Santa María La Ribera, we can highlight the way in which shifts in the culinary offer of a neighbourhood can show how it is reconfigured in its population and urban structure, as well as the resignification of certain food spaces.
Keywords: contemporary food; city; food; food gentrification; Santa María La Ribera; Mexico City; foodscape.