Tag Archives: food security

DIG (Durham Integrated Growers for a Sustainable Community)

A new case study from our ongoing ‘Social Economy of Food‘ research highlights DIG (Durham Integrated Growers for a Sustainable Community). Compiled by Mary Anne Martin, DIG was collected through interviews with the president of DIG, the coordinator of one of its member projects and one organization that has benefitted from regular delivery of produce from a member garden. In addition, it draws on documents and observations from: DIG’s website, its member projects, its annual general meeting, an executive meeting and a meeting of the Durham Food Policy Council (of which DIG is a member). As a participatory action research initiative, this research involved a collaborative project with DIG and the Durham Food Policy Council that analysed municipal policy in Durham Region to assess its support for urban agriculture and food security. The findings from the policy research also informs this report. Read or download the report!

FAO presents plan for eradicating hunger in Latin America and the Caribbean

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FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva presented a new regional Plan for Food Security, Nutrition and Hunger Eradication by 2025 during a summit of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC)…

The plan… is based on four broad pillars: strategy coordination at the national and regional levels, with a special focus on gender issues; sustainably ensuring access to safe and nutritious foods; widening school feeding programmes with a priority on addressing all forms of malnutrition, from undernutrition to obesity, and; tackling the challenges posed to food security by climate change. Read more…

Mapping the Food Environment project

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Researchers Map City Residents’ Access to Food

(from Columbus Monthly) — Coordinated by Ohio State faculty members, students and community partners—including the Columbus Public Health Department, Franklinton Gardens, Learn4Life Columbus, Local Matters and the Mid-Ohio Foodbank—and funded by the university’s Food Innovation Center, the project combines existing secondary data with the nearly 700 survey responses to examine food security (whether people have consistent access to sufficient and safe food), production and affordability in neighborhoods in the High Street corridor with varying income levels. Read more…

Visit Mapping the Food Environment website.

Malthus Revisited

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Guest post by Gisèle Yasmeen. First published on iPolitics Nov. 28, 2014.

“Malnutrition is the number one cause of disease in the world. If hunger were a contagious disease, we would have already cured it,” said José Graziano da Silva, Director General of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, a week ago.

“Feed the world” was the refrain of a pop song which recently celebrated its 30th anniversary. Thirty years ago, I was among a lot of young people who suddenly became aware that feeding the world is a question of politics as much as production. With the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization’s Second International Conference on Nutrition ending in Rome on November 21, once again the West is being faced with its responsibility to confront the problem of hunger. Read more…

Global Forum on Food Security and Nutrition

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Street food and urban and periurban agriculture and horticulture: perspectives for a strategic coalition towards food security

Street foods in urban areas are often the most accessible means of obtaining an affordable meal for millions of consumers every day and urban and periurban agriculture can provide street food vendors with the required local, fresh, nutritious and less expensive ingredients.

Stefano Marras, sociologist at the University of Milan-Bicocca invites you to share your opinion on how we can support stronger cross linkages between food hawking and the growing of food in cities to stimulate sustainable diets and increased income. This discussion will be an opportunity to expand and strengthen the network of specialists involved in street food trade and governance worldwide. Read more…

World Food Day – 16 October 2014

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Zohaib Saqib – Pakistan – Family Farming poster contest winner

Family Farming: Feeding the world, caring for the earth

The 2014 World Food Day theme – Family Farming: “Feeding the world, caring for the earth” – has been chosen to raise the profile of family farming and smallholder farmers. It focuses world attention on the significant role of family farming in eradicating hunger and poverty, providing food security and nutrition, improving livelihoods, managing natural resources, protecting the environment, and achieving sustainable development, in particular in rural areas. Read more at UN FAO World Food Day…

The UN General Assembly has designated 2014 “International Year of Family Farming.” This is a strong signal that the international community recognizes the important contribution of family farmers to world food security. Both in developing and developed countries, family farming is the predominant form of agriculture in the food production sector. Family farms typically produce more -and more diverse- crops from less land: UN FAO Family Farmers infographic.

New Papers on Food Systems

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From Nourishing Communities members Connie Nelson and Mirella Stroink:

Accessibility and Viability: A Complex Adaptive Systems Approach to a Wicked Problem for the Local Food Movement

There is a tension between enhancing vulnerable people’s access to local nutritious food and ensuring viable incomes for local farmers. This tension arises as a result of interactions and processes scaling outward to the broad level of economic and political ideologies (Ikerd, 2005; 2012). We suggest that by conceiving of this tension as a wicked problem and employing complex adaptive systems theory, we create space in which community members are empowered to share existing knowledge and develop new knowledge as they innovate potential solutions and discuss constructive change. We introduce this space as the beginnings of a dialogue-driven, shared journey through four features of the back loop of the adaptive cycle. Read more…

… and from international partner Samina Raja et al.

Rustbelt Radicalism: A Decade of Food Systems Planning Practice in Buffalo, New York (USA)

Pressure is increasing from nongovernmental actors to incorporate food more concretely into municipal policies and plans. A qualitative case study of Buffalo, New York (USA), demonstrates that incremental, persistent food systems practice and advocacy by nonstate actors, a group we call the “rustbelt radicals,” followed by their collective engagement with municipal planning, can lead to transformations in municipal policy and planning for strengthening food systems. The paper concludes with seven factors that enable “rustbelt radicals” to transform local food systems plans and policies. Read more…

Fortnightly Feast vol. 22

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Début

Début, the first issue of Canadian Food Studies / La Revue canadienne des études sur l’alimentation went live on May 20, 2014. CFS/RCÉA is the open-access, online journal of the Canadian Association for Food Studies. The journal’s peer-reviewed articles and commentaries, as well as visuals and voices from the field, collectively illuminate multiple dimensions of the Canadian foodscape.

Eating Well in Pictou Landing: Pollution and access are daily challenges

A new research report reveals that pollution and ecological changes around Pictou Landing First Nation (in Nova Scotia) are the most significant community challenge when it comes to eating well. Community members shared photographs and stories to describe their experiences with food and point to their key concerns, which also included physical and economic access to healthy food.

The report’s summary, along with a video presentation and the full report can be found at http://foodarc.ca/project-activities/pictou-landing-cfs/

The Story of The Seed webinar

Join Food Secure Canada on Thursday May 22, at 1PM Eastern / 10AM Pacific for the story of how the community of Guelph, Ontario is changing the way it thinks about food security. The presenters will share the results of some local research on the issue, and discuss the actions that have been connected to that research. The focus will be on how a coalition of community partners have come together to create The Seed – a project informed by local research and community consultation, and inspired by the Community Food Centre model. More information on the webinar is available here.

To join the webinar, sign in here: http://foodsecurecanada.adobeconnect.com/cfice/

National Food Security Forum

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Join us for the 2014 National Food Security Forum hosted by University of Guelph’s Food Institute.

Date: February 19 to 20, 2014

Location: Guelph, Ontario

Regular Fee: $60 + HST | Full-Time Student Fee: $20 + HST

Fee Includes: Cocktail Reception, Banquet Dinner, 2 Lunches

Links: Program Schedule | Registration Information

This is the second of two consecutive forums designed to showcase Canada’s expertise in global food security as well as to explore and address the physical, biological and socio-economic constraints that limit food production and the ability of people to access a healthy diet. The Guelph forum will explore food processing, retailing, distributing and consumer trends in the food industry and extend discussions of the food continuum.

For more information, contact program manager, Erin Camm, ecamm@uoguelph.ca

Upcoming Webinars and Webcasts

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Nutrition and Sustainability: A Long-term Vision for Effective Strategies

Tuesday, 12 November 2013, from 09.00 to 18.00 in FAO Headquarters in Rome

3:00 a.m. to 12:00 EST (See agenda for details)

FAO, the UN Standing Committee on Nutrition (UNSCN), Bioversity International, and the governments of Malawi and Flanders are co-organizing a seminar to explore practical approaches and solutions to nutrition and sustainability. The seminar will bring together around 300 scientists, policy makers, experts, students and practitioners to develop responses to countries’ requests about “why?” and “how?” to link nutrition and sustainability, and to discuss the trade offs. Outcomes of this one-day seminar will also feed into the discussions of the ICN2 Preparatory Technical Meeting<http://www.fao.org/food/nutritional-policies-strategies/icn2/en> (13-15 November 2013).

For more details: http://www.unscn.org/en/nutrition_and_climate_change/nutrition_and_sustainability_seminar_12_november.php

Is Sustainability Still Possible?

Webinar To Explore Sustainability Vs. “Sustainababble” And The Road Ahead

Wednesday, November 13, 2013, 2:00 p.m. EST (11 a.m. PST)
The word “sustainable” is increasingly difficult to distinguish between “sustainababble,” with growsing false claims confusing our understanding of what sustainability truly entails. This webinar, based on the 2013 edition of the Worldwatch Institute’s flagship annual report, State of the World (subtitled: Is Sustainability Still Possible?), will help participants to better distinguish between sustainability and sustainababble, discuss the scientific foundations of sustainability, explore how to create a truly sustainable human society, and if that is no longer possible, how to prepare ourselves for the turbulent transition ahead.
Featuring commentary by: Erik Assadourian, Senior Fellow, Robert Engelman, President, Worldwatch Institute
Click here to register.

How to Feed 9 Billion on a Small Planet

JOIN THE CONVERSATION
Tuesday, November 19, 2013 from 12-2 pm EST
Across Canada via webcast

USC Canada: On November 19th, Miguel Altieri (University of California, Berkeley) – a world leading authority on agroecology – will speak on ecological agriculture as a key solution to food insecurity, hunger, and climate change. He’ll be joined by panelists:

Jean-Martin Fortier, farmer and author of The Market Gardener,
Sarah Archibald, Campus Food Systems Project Coordinator, and
Henry Lickers, Environmental Science Officer, Mohawk Council of Akwesasne.
Bob Carty, former top CBC radio journalist, will moderate the webcast.

REGISTER
To register for the webcast or to organize a private or public screening, go to: usc-canada.org/feedingtheworld.