Towards the high-quality development of City Region Food Systems: Emerging approaches in China.

The outbreak of COVID-19 has underscored the vulnerability of our current food systems. In China, following a series of strategies in guaranteeing food security in the past decades, the pandemic has further highlighted the necessity to strengthen urban-rural linkages and facilitate the sustainable development of local agri-food systems. The study for the first time introduced the City Region Food Systems (CRFS) approach to Chinese cities and attempted to holistically structure, analyze and promote the sustainability of local food systems in China. Taking Chengdu as an example, the study first took stock of existing concepts and policies in China and the city, and defined the high-quality development goals of CRFS for Chengdu. An indicator framework was then developed to serve as a CRFS assessment tool for identifying existing challenges and potentials of local food systems. Further, a rapid CRFS scan using the framework was conducted in Chengdu Metropolitan Area, providing concrete evidence for potential policy interventions and practice improvement in the area. The study has explored new paradigm of analysis for food related issues in China and provided supporting tools for evidence-based food planning in cities, which collectively contribute to the food system transformation in a post-pandemic scenario.

A sustainability scoring system to assess food initiatives in city regions.

The City Region Food Systems approach has been proposed to achieve food system resilience and nutrition security while promoting the urgent ecological transition within urban and peri-urban areas, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the great diversity of the initiatives composing City Region Food Systems in Europe poses barriers to the assessment of their integrated sustainability. Hence, the present work is developed within the EU-H2020 project Food System in European Cities (FoodE), to build a consistent sustainability scoring system that allows comparative evaluation of City Region Food System Initiatives. Adopting a Life Cycle Thinking approach, it advances on existing knowledge and past projects, taking advantage of a participatory process, with stakeholders from multidisciplinary expertise. As a result, the research designs, and tests on 100 case studies a simplified and ready-to-use scoring mechanism based on a quali-quantitative appraisal survey tool, delivering a final sustainability score on a 1-5 points scale, to get insights on the social, economic, and environmental impacts. As in line with the needs of the UN Sustainable Development Goals, the outcome represents a step forward for the sustainable development and social innovation of food communities in cities and regions, providing a practical and empirical lens for improved planning and governance.

The Gender-Poverty-Mobility Nexus and the Post-Pandemic Era in South Africa

As part of long-term comparative research into the Gauteng City-Region, this article presents mixed-methods studies in the informal settlement of Denver, located in the industrial belt southeast of Johannesburg's city center. It unpacks the results of focus groups, ethnographic and expert interviews, as well as mapping with an innovative smartphone tracking application, comparing everyday life for several households in this area before the pandemic in 2019 and during the pandemic in 2020. Findings show that the pandemic exacerbated the disproportionate burdens related to gendered roles of household management, childcare, and mobility, both on the macro- as well as the micro-scale. The article thus defines the "gender-poverty-mobility nexus" that shapes space and everyday life in the Gauteng City-Region, precluding places like Denver from overcoming their marginality. Post-pandemic planning policy could be transformative for such spaces if it can build on this knowledge to better identify the needs of these vulnerable social groups and connect them to opportunities. It concludes with suggestions on how these empirically revealed dynamics could be translated into responses on the urban and regional scales, in the name of more equitable, resilient planning futures for Johannesburg and beyond.

Diverse adaptation strategies helped local food producers cope with initial challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic: Lessons from Québec, Canada.

The Covid-19 pandemic has demonstrated the vulnerability of food systems to disturbances. Advocates have promoted short food supply chains as more resilient and adaptable thanks to their embeddedness in local economic and ecological networks. As part of a broader case study on challenges facing farmers in local food supply chains in Québec, Canada, we asked farmers about the pandemic's impacts on food production and marketing in the province, including how food producers coped with these challenges. We sent an online questionnaire to 1,046 farmers who distribute food through direct marketing in Québec, identified through consumer-facing online platforms. We conducted follow-up interviews with 15 of the 133 farmers that completed the questionnaire to gain a better understanding of their pandemic-related challenges and opportunities, as well as their adaptation needs and strategies. We identified four main types of challenges among farmers: workforce shortages, balancing food demand and supply, changes in sales outlets and marketing channels, and other operational and development issues. In turn, six key adaptation strategies helped farmers reorganize their marketing and sales, which we categorize as: redistribution, streamlining, replacement, collaboration, farm adjustment, and outlet adjustment. Most surveyed local farmers felt well-prepared to adapt to the four major challenges that the Covid-19 pandemic forged or escalated, and our findings suggest that they demonstrated remarkable resilience to additional challenges posed by the pandemic. Our study therefore contributes important insights about how flexibility and redundancy among local farmers stabilized the local food system during the onset of a global pandemic.

European Food Systems in a Regional Perspective: A Comparative Study of the Effect of COVID-19 on Households and City-Region Food Systems

The concept of the city-region food system is gaining attention due to the need to improve food availability, quality and environmental benefits, for example through sustainable agri-food strategies. The COVID-19 pandemic has reinforced the importance of coherent and inclusive food governance, especially regarding food resilience, vulnerability and justice. Given that evidence from good practices is relatively sparse, it is important to better understand the role of different types of cities, regions and household characteristics. The paper's aim is to describe, analyze and attempt to explain (sub-national) regional variations of household food behavior before and during the first wave of COVID-19 in 2020 using a city-region food system perspective. Informed by the literature, comprehensive survey data from 12 countries across Europe is used to describe the pre-pandemic landscape of different household food behaviors across comparable regional types. We examine how a specific economic and social shock can disrupt this behavior and the implications for city-region food systems and policies. Conclusions include the huge disruptions imposed on income-weak households and that the small city scale is the most resilient. Proposals are made that can strengthen European city-region food system resilience and sustainability, especially given that future shocks are highly likely.

Looking into mobility in the Covid-19 'eye of the storm': Simulating virus spread and urban resilience in the Wuhan city region travel flow network.

Recent urban and regional studies have focused on identifying positive spillover effects from intensifying flows of people in city region networks. However, potential negative spillover effects have lacked attention. The article addresses this research gap focusing on the negative spillover effects represented by Covid-19 contagion in the Wuhan regional travel flow network, China. Drawing on central place theory and central flow theory, Covid-19 spatial spread simulation scenarios are explored using a combined micro-level epidemic compartment model and urban network approach. It is found that not only centrally positioned primate but secondary cities are highly risk exposed to contagion. In addition, these cities have enhanced transmission capacity in a balanced, well-connected travel flow network, whereas a centralised or locally clustered network would be more spread resilient. Both hierarchical position and horizontal flows are found relevant for explaining Covid-19 uneven spread and for informing mobility interventions for a potential future outbreak.

Challenges of agri-food supply in city region food systems: an emerging economy perspective

Purpose>This paper explores the challenges of food security from source to consumption of agri-food value chain by considering urban–rural linkages in city region food systems (CRFSs) and proposes a strategic framework for CRFS identifying strategies to promote urban–rural linkages among multiple stakeholders.Design/methodology/approach>A qualitative case study approach to a fruit and vegetable value chain from rural source to consumption in the Colombo City region identifies the challenges of food security. A snowballing sampling method was used to gather information from retailers, wholesalers, commission agent, farmers and consumers. The data were collected through face-to-face interviews, observations and secondary data sources. The data were analysed using thematic analysis.Findings>Challenges in food security in the value chain related to five areas: input and production, infrastructure, public institutional support and policy, finance, and food market. Colombo city is heavily dependent on food sourced from other cities due to limited land and lack of locally situated commercially oriented farmers.Research limitations/implications>This research is limited to a selected number of fruits and vegetables in the Colombo city region and leaves out other food items.Originality/value>This study contributes to informing policy and decision-making processes to promote a more balanced rural to city food value chain in Colombo City that could benefit all stakeholders from rural small-scale producers to urban consumers.

City region thinking, a zombie idea in regional and rural development? Scotland and Finland compared

Both regional and rural development have enduring “received wisdoms” to which wise practitioners and policy makers pay lip-service. In the case of the latter the role of land-based industries as drivers of the rural economy is ignored at peril, whilst regional policy makers must pay their respects to cities and towns as the engines of growth. We suggest that city region thinking is a “zombie idea”, which refuses to die, though unsupported by evidence. In this paper we trace the influence of city region thinking in the context of rural Scotland and Finland and explore the way in which it coexists with rural development policy. These two case studies provide examples of different approaches to reconciling the received wisdom and traditions of regional/urban and rural development policy. City region thinking is influential in both countries, but policy legacies and governance structures lead to different outcomes. We suggest that city region thinking may become increasingly anachronistic in the post-Covid world and needs to be superseded by rural/regional development paradigms fully refreshed by evidence of twenty-first century rural-urban relationships. © 2021 The Authors