When food systems meet sustainability – Current narratives and implications for actions

The concept of food system has gained prominence in recent years amongst both scholars and policy-makers. Experts from diverse disciplines and backgrounds have in particular discussed the nature and origin of the “unsustainability” of our modern food systems. These efforts tend, however, to be frame...

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Autores principales: Béné, Christophe, Oosterveer, Peter, Lamotte, Lea, Brouwer, Inge D., Haan, Stef de, Prager, Steven D., Talsma, Elise F., Khoury, Colin K.
Formato: Journal Article
Lenguaje:Inglés
Publicado: Elsevier 2019
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/10568/97163
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author Béné, Christophe
Oosterveer, Peter
Lamotte, Lea
Brouwer, Inge D.
Haan, Stef de
Prager, Steven D.
Talsma, Elise F.
Khoury, Colin K.
author_browse Brouwer, Inge D.
Béné, Christophe
Haan, Stef de
Khoury, Colin K.
Lamotte, Lea
Oosterveer, Peter
Prager, Steven D.
Talsma, Elise F.
author_facet Béné, Christophe
Oosterveer, Peter
Lamotte, Lea
Brouwer, Inge D.
Haan, Stef de
Prager, Steven D.
Talsma, Elise F.
Khoury, Colin K.
author_sort Béné, Christophe
collection Repository of Agricultural Research Outputs (CGSpace)
description The concept of food system has gained prominence in recent years amongst both scholars and policy-makers. Experts from diverse disciplines and backgrounds have in particular discussed the nature and origin of the “unsustainability” of our modern food systems. These efforts tend, however, to be framed within distinctive disciplinary narratives. In this paper we propose to explore these narratives and to shed light on the explicit -or implicit- epistemological assumptions, mental models, and disciplinary paradigms that underpin those. The analysis indicates that different views and interpretations prevail amongst experts about the nature of the “crisis”, and consequently about the research and priorities needed to “fix” the problem. We then explore how sustainability is included in these different narratives and the link to the question of healthy diets. The analysis reveals that the concept of sustainability, although widely used by all the different communities of practice, remains poorly defined, and applied in different ways and usually based on a relatively narrow interpretation. In so doing we argue that current attempts to equate or subsume healthy diets within sustainability in the context of food system may be misleading and need to be challenged. We stress that trade-offs between different dimensions of food system sustainability are unavoidable and need to be navigated in an explicit manner when developing or implementing sustainable food system initiatives. Building on this overall analysis, a framework structured around several entry points including outcomes, core activities, trade-offs and feedbacks is then proposed, which allows to identify key elements necessary to support the transition toward sustainable food systems
format Journal Article
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publishDate 2019
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spelling CGSpace971632025-03-13T09:45:45Z When food systems meet sustainability – Current narratives and implications for actions Béné, Christophe Oosterveer, Peter Lamotte, Lea Brouwer, Inge D. Haan, Stef de Prager, Steven D. Talsma, Elise F. Khoury, Colin K. food systems food security nutrition healthy diet The concept of food system has gained prominence in recent years amongst both scholars and policy-makers. Experts from diverse disciplines and backgrounds have in particular discussed the nature and origin of the “unsustainability” of our modern food systems. These efforts tend, however, to be framed within distinctive disciplinary narratives. In this paper we propose to explore these narratives and to shed light on the explicit -or implicit- epistemological assumptions, mental models, and disciplinary paradigms that underpin those. The analysis indicates that different views and interpretations prevail amongst experts about the nature of the “crisis”, and consequently about the research and priorities needed to “fix” the problem. We then explore how sustainability is included in these different narratives and the link to the question of healthy diets. The analysis reveals that the concept of sustainability, although widely used by all the different communities of practice, remains poorly defined, and applied in different ways and usually based on a relatively narrow interpretation. In so doing we argue that current attempts to equate or subsume healthy diets within sustainability in the context of food system may be misleading and need to be challenged. We stress that trade-offs between different dimensions of food system sustainability are unavoidable and need to be navigated in an explicit manner when developing or implementing sustainable food system initiatives. Building on this overall analysis, a framework structured around several entry points including outcomes, core activities, trade-offs and feedbacks is then proposed, which allows to identify key elements necessary to support the transition toward sustainable food systems 2019-01 2018-09-12T14:57:37Z 2018-09-12T14:57:37Z Journal Article https://hdl.handle.net/10568/97163 en Open Access Elsevier Béné, Christophe; Oosterveer, Peter; Lamotte, Lea; Brouwer, Inge D.; de Haan, Stef; Prager, Steve D.; Talsma, Elise F.; Khoury, Colin K. (2019). When food systems meet sustainability – Current narratives and implications for actions. World Development, 113, 116–130.
spellingShingle food systems
food security
nutrition
healthy diet
Béné, Christophe
Oosterveer, Peter
Lamotte, Lea
Brouwer, Inge D.
Haan, Stef de
Prager, Steven D.
Talsma, Elise F.
Khoury, Colin K.
When food systems meet sustainability – Current narratives and implications for actions
title When food systems meet sustainability – Current narratives and implications for actions
title_full When food systems meet sustainability – Current narratives and implications for actions
title_fullStr When food systems meet sustainability – Current narratives and implications for actions
title_full_unstemmed When food systems meet sustainability – Current narratives and implications for actions
title_short When food systems meet sustainability – Current narratives and implications for actions
title_sort when food systems meet sustainability current narratives and implications for actions
topic food systems
food security
nutrition
healthy diet
url https://hdl.handle.net/10568/97163
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