Transformations towards food sustainability using the participatory Food Sustainability Assessment Framework (FoodSAF)
This article introduces a hands-on Food Sustainability Assessment Framework (FoodSAF) that allows non-academic actors to identify pathways for making food systems more sustainable through collective transformations in a “spiral of change”.
Abstract:
We are facing a global food crisis: the percentage of people with malnutrition are increasing, along with devastating results for the social-ecological environments, showing the unsustainability of the currently dominant food systems. The complex set of food-related problems requires multidimensional perspectives, using inter- and transdisciplinary methodologies, to address social-ecological aspects over a mere focus on productivity. This article introduces a hands-on Food Sustainability Assessment Framework (FoodSAF) that allows non-academic actors to identify pathways for making food systems more sustainable through collective transformations in a “spiral of change”. The emphasis is on making the concept of “food sustainability” operational and applicable, by exploring transdisciplinary methodologies, encourage genuine participation of actors at the local level, and elevate their solutions in the direction of decision-making spaces, where policy makers have a key role in supporting change. The results provide evidence-based scientific knowledge for the promotion of innovation strategies and policy options that improve the sustainability of food systems with the specific aim of strengthening local food systems in a long-term process to co-create transformations.
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Im CDE Interview stellt Johanna Jacobi Erkenntnisse aus der Nord-Süd Forschung in Bezug zur Schweiz und zeigt, wie Landwirtschaft zu nachhaltiger Entwicklung beitragen kann und was sich dafür auch in der Schweiz ändern müsste.
Image: Foto: CDEFor millennia, humankind’s food security and resilience were ensured by thousands of cultivated plant species, dozens of domesticated animal species, and the wider biodiversity from which they derive. But with the expansion of industrial agriculture and globalized standardized food systems, this long-running agricultural biodiversity has fallen steeply. Today, just three plant species account for half of all plant-based food calories, and only four animal species account for the vast majority of meat supplies. Looking ahead, restoring agrobiodiversity – the richness of what we cultivate, breed, consume, and conserve in the wild – is crucial to ensure resilient food systems against the backdrop of climate change. In particular, we must safeguard the livelihoods of the “guardians of agrobiodiversity”: approximately 500 million small farms across the world – particularly those in the global South. This factsheet outlines causes and consequences of agrobiodiversity loss, areas of promise, and options for policy and research.
Image: KFPE