The Role of Local Authorities in Shaping Local Food Systems

Given the importance that current food-related challenges pose to our society, the potential of local food initiatives to address sustainability has gained increased attention. Nevertheless, research has increasingly demonstrated that local food initiatives are limited in fulfilling their sustainability potential. This realisation has led many scholars to argue that the path towards food system transformation needs to be based on interconnected networks of these ‘alternative’ practices—what this paper terms local food systems. Nevertheless, as many local food initiatives rely on funding and volunteer work, their capacity to create infrastructures for integrated approaches is limited. In this context, influential players—those who can provide resources, such as local authorities—become key in the assemblage of local food systems. However, there is limited understanding of how the role of local authorities affects the internal dynamics of local food systems and potential outcomes. This study addresses this research gap by analysing two case studies (Preston, England and Vitoria-Gasteiz, Basque Country). Using urban political ecology (UPE) as a theoretical framework, this study offers original insight into the key governance elements affecting the direction of local food systems and thus the alignment of diverse local food initiatives, limiting their sustainability potential.

Beyond building back better: imagining a future for human and planetary health.

COVID-19 is disrupting and transforming the world. We argue that transformations catalysed by this pandemic should be used to improve human and planetary health and wellbeing. This paradigm shift requires decision makers and policy makers to go beyond building back better, by nesting the economic domain of sustainable development within social and environmental domains. Drawing on the engage, assess, align, accelerate, and account (E4As) approach to implementing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, we explore the implications of this kind of radical transformative change, focusing particularly on the role of the health sector. We conclude that a recovery and transition from the COVID-19 pandemic that delivers the future humanity wants and needs requires more than a technical understanding of the transformation at hand. It also requires commitment and courage from leaders and policy makers to challenge dominant constructs and to work towards a truly thriving, equitable, and sustainable future to create a world where economic development is not an end goal itself, but a means to secure the health and wellbeing of people and the planet.

Prevalence of food security in the UK measured by the Food Insecurity Experience Scale.

BACKGROUND: Measurement of UK food insecurity has historically been inconsistent, making it difficult to understand trends. This study contributes by reporting and analysing data from a national survey conducted in line with UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) recommendations and standard methods, providing an internationally comparable pre-coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) snapshot of food insecurity. METHODS: Data came from a nationally representative 2019 UK sample (N = 2000) surveyed by Ipsos-Mori. Prevalence of food insecurity was assessed using the UN FAO Food Insecurity Experience Scale. Logistic regression was used to model food insecurity in relation to geographic and socio-demographic variables. RESULTS: Severe food insecurity was reported by 3% of the sample, an increase of 66.7% over the last directly comparable UK analysis (Gallup World Poll data from 2016 to 2018). Indication of some degree of food insecurity was reported by 14.2% of the sample and tended to be higher amongst younger age groups, those on lower incomes, and home renters (as opposed to owners). No geographic variables were significantly associated with food insecurity prevalence. CONCLUSIONS: The finding that prevalence of severe food insecurity was already increasing before the COVID-19 pandemic, across all areas of the UK, is cause for concern. Our results provide an important benchmark for assessing the impact of COVID-19 on food insecurity.