Local Food Incentive Programs for K-12 and ECE Settings: Stakeholder Needs and Values

This resource provides a summary of findings from a national survey exploring the interests and educational needs related to K–12 and ECE-based local food incentive programs

You Can't Rush the Process: Collective Impact Models of Food Systems Change

Local food advocates are increasingly joining together to form state and multi-state initiatives to strengthen food systems on a broader scale than has been possible in the past. Many of these efforts are built around the concept of collective impact, the idea that organizations representing diverse sectors must actively commit to a common agenda to solve complex social problems.Michigan joined this trend in 2009 when three organizations – the MSU Center for Regional Food Systems (CRFS), the Food Bank Council of Michigan, and the Michigan Food Policy Council – came together to develop a vision and set of goals for the state's food system. These efforts resulted in the release of the Michigan Good Food Charter in 2010.Since then, a steering committee has emerged to guide the work, and a suite of state networks formed to push for food system change in specific sectors and communities. Now in 2015, there is a desire to understand the impact of the work on a deeper level and measure change in a way that furthers the capacity of and coordination between partner organizations.A team of researchers from the University of Michigan and Michigan State University carried out this national scan of similar initiatives from across the country to position the Michigan work on a national level. This report shares our survey findings.This "national scan" is one component of a larger, indepth evaluation of the Michigan Good Food Charter work at CRFS. Due to resource and time constraints, this report offers only an initial glimpse into some of the many – and ever- expanding – networked food systems initiatives around the country

Debrief on the United Nations Food Systems Summit (UNFSS)

What are the roles and responsibilities of U.S. academia in global fora such as the United Nations Food Systems Summit? In an effort to be better global partners, the Inter-institutional Network for Food and Agricultural Sustainability (INFAS) accepted an invitation to participate in the UNFSS. INFAS then convened a debriefing for our members to hear from our colleagues about their experiences and any outcomes that may have emerged from the Food Systems Summit. The Food Systems Summit process was deeply flawed, resulting in confusion and power inequities, yet it stimulated coalition-building and reflection on how and why to participate in global food governance

Environmental Analyses to Inform Transitions to Sustainable Diets in Developing Countries: a Component of the EATS Project

Sustainable diets are an environmental, economic and public health imperative, but identifying clear intervention points is challenging. The Entry points to Advance Transitions towards Sustainable diets (EATS) project seeks to repackage existing data, combined with an interview-informed awareness of current national and sub-national policy processes, to inform food system-level decision making. Here we view historic trends in food supply in Vietnam and Kenya as a proxy for national average diets, and consider them in terms of the greenhouse gas emissions and cumulative energy demand associated with producing that food. Economic prosperity in Vietnam in recent decades has led to increases in meat consumption and, in turn, amplified increases in diet level environmental impacts. Mild levels of beef consumption in Vietnam have now overcome the most popular meat, pork, as the dominant source of greenhouse gas emissions. Meanwhile, historically consistent levels of dairy and beef in Kenya dominate diet-level environmental impacts. This preliminary work will be integrated into later stages of the EATS project to promote systemic approaches to sustainable development

Environmental analyses to inform transitions to sustainable diets in developing countries: case studies for Vietnam and Kenya

Purpose Sustainable diets are an environmental, economic, and public health imperative, but identifying clear intervention points is challenging. Decision-making will require descriptive analyses from a variety of perspectives, even under the inevitable uncertainty introduced by limited data. This study uses existing data to provide a diet-level perspective on environmental impact from food production in the case study countries of Vietnam and Kenya. Methods FAO food supply data at decadal time steps were used as a proxy for national average diets in Vietnam and Kenya. We combined these data with estimates of the greenhouse gas emissions (GHGE) and water use impact associated with producing food commodities. Generic GHGE factors were derived from a survey of the life cycle assessment literature. Country- and commodity-specific blue water use estimates were used, reflecting country-of-origin for import-dominated commodities. The AWARE characterization model was used to offer a diet-associated water scarcity footprint. Trends in diet-associated environmental impacts were interpreted in light of diet shifts, economic development trends, and other factors. Results and discussion Increasing per capita food supply in Vietnam, and in particular increases in meat, have led to rising diet-associated per capita GHGE. While supply of beef remains 5.2 times smaller than pork—the dominant meat—increases in beef demand in the past decade have resulted in it becoming second only to rice in contribution to diet GHGE. The water use and water scarcity footprint in Vietnam follow an increasing trend comparable to food supply. On the other hand, historically consistent levels of dairy and beef in Kenya dominate diet-level GHGE. Water use associated with the Kenyan diet shows marked increases between the 1990s and 2000s due to imports of wheat and rice from water-stressed regions. Environmental performance data for characteristic food production systems in these and other developing countries are needed to improve the representativeness and reliability of such assessments. Conclusions Despite data limitations, the methods and results presented here may offer a fresh perspective in sustainable development policy deliberations, as they offer an entry point to linking environmental impact and consumption behaviors and can elucidate otherwise obscure or unexpected outcomes. A clear need emerges for further environmental analysis of dominant production systems within both Vietnam and Kenya

Challenges to operationalizing sustainable diets: Perspectives from Kenya and Vietnam

Despite the urgent need for comprehensive food systems strategies, the challenge lies in defining feasible, evidence-based intervention points. Too little is known about issues food systems decision-makers and other change agents are running up against, particularly in low- and middle-income countries where food systems are the most vulnerable to a growing number of intertwined crises. We look at this question through the lens of sustainable diets, a growing area of research and a concept that is the basis of over 30 sets of national guidelines that aim to simultaneously address health, economic and environmental dimensions of food systems. Based on 114 interviews carried out in Kenya and Vietnam, we examine the extent to which food systems researchers, business and project managers and policy actors are attempting to intervene in food systems in ways that mirror the concept of sustainable diets. We also consider how they are managing two key ingredients that are critical to systems-change—interdisciplinary data and cross-sector collaboration. Most stakeholders we interviewed were carrying out systems-based projects, oriented—even if not explicitly—around many of the sustainable diets domains: agriculture, livelihoods, food security/access/nutrition and/or environment. The majority faced formidable challenges with both data and collaborations, however, showing why it can be so difficult to move from normative ideals like “sustainable diets” to practical realities, regardless of the context. To support more comprehensive food systems policies and interventions, our findings suggest the need for strategies that can improve the collection and accessibility of actionable, cross-sector data, and mechanisms to overcome institutional barriers that limit collaboration

Case Study #8-1 of the Program: ''Food Policy For Developing Countries: The Role Of Government In The Global Food System''

12 pp.©Cornell University, Ithaca, New York. All rights reserved. This case study may be reproduced for educational purposes without express permission but must include acknowledgment to Cornell University. No commercial use is permitted without permission.Soil degradation, a process that reduces the potential of land to support animal and plant production, has become one of the most pressing problems for farmers worldwide (Scherr 1999). Based on the opinions of 250 international experts, the United Nations Global Land Assessment of Degradation concluded as early as 1992 that degradation had caused a 38 percent loss in global agricultural land since the 1940s (Oldeman et al. 1992). This soil loss, at a rate of 5 to 10 million hectares per year, has multiple causes, including nutrient and vegetative depletion, agrochemical pollution, deforestation, and soil erosion due to severe floods, wind, and steep hillside farming (Scherr and Yadav 1996). Despite dire forecasts, Dregne and Chou (1992) estimated that reduced soil quality would not threaten the balance of international food supply in the near decades. What warrants close scrutiny, however, is the regional impact of these changes, particularly in hot spots where degradation may be reversible only through costly on-farm investments or engineering strategies, if at all (Scherr and Yadav 1996). Drylands alone are 70 percent degraded, affecting nearly 2 billion people (FAO 2002). Regionally, Latin America has the highest proportion of degraded agricultural land in the world, followed by Africa (Scherr and Yadav 1996). Peru's north coast, the focus of this case study, is threatened most by salinization, a process that can cause irreversible desert-like conditions (UNEP 1992). With salinization now affecting up to 40 percent of cropland on the north coast (Collado 2001), the situation could have national repercussions. Although the coastal valleys make up only 3.8 percent of Peruvian agricultural land, including pasture and forest, they yield 50 percent of Peru's gross agricultural product (Vera 2006). Despite a history of intensive agriculture on the north coast that extends back to 200 C.E. (Nordt et al. 2004), it appears that recent changes—irrigation practices, rice-focused production, and limited opportunities to invest in or build the capacity for soil conservation— have exacerbated the susceptibility of soil in the region to salinization. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), World Bank, and United Nations all agree that soil conditions may improve most through community initiatives that increase productivity sustainably while improving the economies of poor households dependent on agriculture (Dixon et al. 2001; UNCCD 2005). One program implemented in the Peruvian coastal department of Piura by the nongovernmental organization (NGO) Heifer Project International (HPI) appears to have had success. HPI's key strategies focused on participatory planning and management with leaders of local irrigation commissions, training in eco-agriculture practices, and rotating funds for small-scale livestock and seeds for alternative crops. After three years, the project expanded from 20 households to 689, and farmers reported reduced salinization, lower input costs, and increased production and income. Despite HPI's apparent success, some development theorists question whether local impacts like this can last or how valuable they are to broader systems without scaling up. Considering the wider policy environment presented here, your assignment is to determine the next steps you would take if you were directing HPI in Peru. Who would you target, how, and why? Should HPI continue working exclusively with farmers, or should your organization try to partner with or influence other civil society actors, policy makers, agrochemical companies, or credit agencies? Ultimately, where is your comparative advantage as an institution, and what are the risks of attempting to target certain actions and ignoring others?Cornell University Division of Nutritional Science

Discretion As An Adaptive Device: From Expert Rule Structures To Negotiated Service Delivery

This policy case study of Bolivia's Zero Malnutrition Program addresses gaps in understandings of the promises and pitfalls of rational and adaptive forms of public problem solving in low-income countries. I argue that pleas to shift social change processes toward more responsive strategies must first understand why rational management strategies continue to dominate. Alternatively, we need to identify concrete adaptive strategies policy actors can, and actually do implement in practice. I consider these questions in Bolivia from the perspective of national planners who design policies, mid-level supervisors who manage programs, and frontline staff charged with program delivery. Using a grounded theory approach, methods included participate observation, document review, secondary data analysis, semi-structured interviews, "scuttlebutt informants", "itinerant actors" and action research. My findings suggest that rational planning behavior may often be a reaction to complex social change processes - coping mechanisms - instead of an approach policy designers intentionally plan or impose on implementers. Alternatively, where practitioners approach the task with a more "adaptive" mindset, I argue that considerable guidance, commitment and, paradoxically, strategy, are necessary. My dissertation begins to add specificity to what we can tell practitioners who desire to apply adaptive strategies and what planners can do to structure policy designs differently. Findings also offer lessons for theory related to policy planning and implementation. Ultimately,     I advance the idea of "developmental administration" for crafting the necessary support systems, capacity-building approaches, and deliberative mechanisms that can intentionally build the ability to facilitate, build learning and continuously reinforce adaptive responses

The Intersection of Planning, Urban Agriculture, and Food Justice: A Review of the Literature

Problem, research strategy, and findings: We draw on a multidisciplinary body of research to consider how planning for urban agriculture can foster food justice by benefitting socioeconomically disadvantaged residents. The potential social benefits of urban agriculture include increased access to food, positive health impacts, skill building, community development, and connections to broader social change efforts. The literature suggests, however, caution in automatically conflating urban agriculture’s social benefits with the goals of food justice. Urban agriculture may reinforce and deepen societal inequities by benefitting better resourced organizations and the propertied class and contributing to the displacement of lower-income households. The precariousness of land access for urban agriculture is another limitation, particularly for disadvantaged communities. Planners have recently begun to pay increased attention to urban agriculture but should more explicitly support the goals of food justice in their urban agriculture policies and programs. Takeaway for practice: We suggest several key strategies for planners to more explicitly orient their urban agriculture efforts to support food justice, including prioritizing urban agriculture in long-term planning efforts, developing mutually respectful relationships with food justice organizations and urban agriculture participants from diverse backgrounds, targeting city investments in urban agriculture to benefit historically disadvantaged communities, increasing the amount of land permanently available for urban agriculture, and confronting the threats of gentrification and displacement from urban agriculture. We demonstrate how the city of Seattle (WA) used an equity lens in all of its programs to shift its urban agriculture planning to more explicitly foster food justice, providing clear examples for other cities

"Put Your Own Mask on Before Helping Someone Else": The Capacity of Food Hubs to Build Equitable Food Access

In a bifurcated U.S. food market, where one market is largely controlled by national brands and global corporations alongside an expanding alter­nate market of hyper-local direct sales, midscale producers and processors are struggling to persist. One emerging strategy for rebuilding this middle of the food system—food hubs—has gained attention as a model that could rebuild local food economies and equitable food access. Through an examination of Michigan food hubs, we ask about the extent to which and under what conditions food hubs can operationalize dual economic and social goals. We found many innovations and efforts to address food access in low-income communities—espe­cially among food hubs that were nonprofits, had been operating for less time, and were more dependent on external revenue—but their impact tended to be small-scale and uncertain. Most food hubs want to do more, but our study suggests they may not be able to until they can figuratively “put on their own mask before helping others.” That is, food hubs may be one means of increasing afford­able, healthy food access in certain scenarios, but equitable food access may be an unrealistic and unsustainable goal unless they can ensure their own financial stability. Among other options for satis­fying the requirements for equitable food access, financial survival, and returns to the farm gate, our findings suggest that food hubs attempting to reduce food access inequities may need to be subsidized as a public good, unless and until the public sector commits to a more comprehensive strategy to address food system failures