Data for decision-making for sustainable food systems transformation in the Eastern Cape of South Africa: what is needed?

Transforming global food systems to promote food and nutritional security can help alleviate both poverty and ill-health, and support sustainable development. Such transformations need to be tailored and sensitive to the vulnerabilities and needs of marginalized communities yet are hindered by knowledge gaps. In particular, the food and nutrition security needs of the most vulnerable are often poorly understood, as are the policy frameworks and resource requirements associated with meeting their needs. To aid the development of frameworks to address these gaps, we review the current state of indicators relating to food systems for the improvement of food and nutrition security at the national and sub-national levels in South Africa. We identify gaps in the decision-making data in South Africa, including absence of food and nutrition security indicators. Integration of the South African Multidimensional Poverty Index and Food System Dashboard indicators could help address this, especially if applied at a sub-national level. Participatory food system mapping could also link data collection with system-level interactions and feedback loops to inform sub-national stakeholders in achieving food and nutritional security

Food mapping approaches for understanding food system transformations in rapid-growth city regions in the Global South

The world’s food systems are rapidly changing due to socioeconomic, environmental, and demographic changes, globalization, and urbanization. Urban regions connect urban food consumption with rural food production and are associated with rapid dietary transitions in developing counties. Despite urbanization being a key driver of city-regional and global food system transformations, city-regional food systems (particularly in developing countries) are under-researched. Although the importance of dynamic urban and peri-urban food systems has led to new frameworks and approaches for mapping food flows within urban regions, our study highlights both opportunities and limitations to food mapping in high-growth city regions in the Global South. We review existing approaches to food mapping using three contrasting city-regional food systems as case studies, namely, Bahir Dar (Ethiopia), Hanoi (Vietnam), and Cali (Colombia), and identify priorities for future progress. These include temporal dimensions of food access; nutritional outcomes of food flows; economic, cultural, and ethnic factors affecting consumer behavior; and how consumption of healthier foods could be enabled by decision-making throughout food supply chains. In addition, the roles of food loss and waste could also be more specifically considered. We conclude that providing a more comprehensive and nutrition sensitive understanding of city-regional food systems can guide evidence-based interventions and activities to enable transitions to healthier, equitable, and more sustainable urban food systems

The EU’s farm to fork strategy: missing links for transformation

The Farm-to-Fork strategy, launched in May 2020, is the first attempt at a European-wide approach to food systems of this scale. The strategy sets ambitious targets and aims to create a ‘fair, healthy, and environmentally friendly food system’. Yet, within the bounds of its own regulatory and legislative context (including the Green Deal, the Circular Economy Action Plan and the new Biodiversity Strategy 2030), the strategy falls short of recognising key links in and between the food system. This review posits that the strategy and its targets do not adequately consider the importance of transforming agricultural practices for environmental outcomes; of agricultural practices for nutrition outcomes; nor the links between how we value nutrition along the supply chain, from farm to fork