Table Of Contenti
Sustainable Food System Assessment
Sustainable Food System Assessment provides both practical and theoretical insights
about the growing interest in and response to measuring food system sustainability.
Bringing together research from the Global North and South, this book shares
lessons learned, explores intended and actual project outcomes, and highlights points
of conceptual and methodological convergence.
Interest in assessing food system sustainability is growing, as evidenced by the
Milan Urban Food Policy Pact and the importance food systems initiatives have
taken in serving as a lever for attaining the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
This book opens by looking at the conceptual considerations of food systems
indicators, including the place-b ased dimensions of food systems indicators and how
measurements are implicated in sense- making and visioning processes. Chapters in
the second part cover operationalizing metrics, including the development of food
systems indicator frameworks, degrees of indicator complexities, and practical
constraints to assessment. The final part focuses on the outcomes of assessment
projects, including impacts on food policy and communities involved, highlighting
the importance of building connections between sustainable food systems initiatives.
The global coverage and multi- scalar perspectives, including both conceptual and
practical aspects, make this a key resource for academics and practitioners across
planning, geography, urban studies, food studies, and research methods. It will also
be of interest to government officials and those working within NGOs.
Alison Blay-P almer is Director, Centre for Sustainable Food Systems and Professor of
Geography and Environmental Studies, Wilfrid Laurier University, Canada.
Damien Conaré is Secretary General of the UNESCO Chair in World Food Systems,
Montpellier SupAgro, France.
Ken Meter is President of the Crossroads Resource Center, USA.
Amanda Di Battista is a Project Coordinator at the Laurier Centre for Sustainable
Food Systems, Canada.
Carla Johnston is a PhD candidate, Balsillie School of International Affairs, Laurier
Center for Sustainable Food Systems, Canada.
ii
Routledge Studies in Food, Society and the Environment
Urban Food Systems Governance and Poverty in African Cities
Edited by Jane Battersby and Vanessa Watson
Risk and Food Safety in China and Japan
Theoretical Perspectives and Empirical Insights
Edited by Louis Augustin- Jean and Jean- Pierre Poulain
Localizing Global Food
Short food supply chains as responses to Agri- Food System challenges
Edited by Sophia Skordili and Agni Kalfagianni
Seafood Supply Chains
Governance, Power and Regulation
Miriam Greenwood
Civil Society and Social Movements in Food System Governance
Edited by Peter Andrée, Jill K. Clark, Charles Z. Levkoe and
Kristen Lowitt
Voice and Participation in Global Food Politics
Alana Mann
Plant- Based Diets for Succulence and Sustainability
Edited by Kathleen May Kevany
Sustainable Food System Assessment
Lessons from Global Practice
Edited by Alison Blay- Palmer, Damien Conaré, Ken Meter,
Amanda Di Battista, and Carla Johnston
For further details please visit the series page on the Routledge
website: http:// www.routledge.com/ books/ series/ RSFSE/
ii i
Sustainable Food System
Assessment
Lessons from Global Practice
Edited by Alison Blay-P almer,
Damien Conaré, Ken Meter,
Amanda Di Battista, and
Carla Johnston
iv
First published 2020
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2020 selection and editorial matter, Alison Blay- Palmer, Damien Conaré,
Ken Meter, Amanda Di Battista, and Carla Johnston; individual chapters,
the contributors
The right of Alison Blay- Palmer, Damien Conaré, Ken Meter, Amanda
Di Battista, and Carla Johnston to be identified as the authors of the
editorial material, and of the authors for their individual chapters, has
been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act 1988.
The Open Access version of this book, available at www.taylorfrancis.
com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution- Non
Commercial-N o Derivatives 4.0 license.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered
trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation
without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing- in- Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
Names: Blay-Palmer, Alison, 1961– editor. |
Conaré, Damien, editor. | Meter, Ken, editor. |
Di Battista, Amanda, editor. | Johnston, Carla, editor.
Title: Sustainable food system assessment : lessons from
global practice / edited by Alison Blay-Palmer, Damien Conaré,
Ken Meter, Amanda Di Battista, Carla Johnston.
Description: Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon ;
New York, NY : Routledge, 2020. |
Series: Routledge studies in food, society and the environment |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2019031769 (print) | LCCN 2019031770 (ebook) |
ISBN 9781138341951 (hardback) | ISBN 9780429439896 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Food supply–Environmental aspects. |
Sustainable agriculture. | Nutrition policy.
Classification: LCC HD9000.5 .S83395 2020 (print) |
LCC HD9000.5 (ebook) | DDC 338.1/9–dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019031769
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019031770
ISBN: 978- 1-1 38- 34195- 1 (hbk)
ISBN: 978- 0-4 29- 43989- 6 (ebk)
Typeset in Sabon
by Newgen Publishing UK
v
To the memory of Marielle Dubbeling, RUAF Foundation
co-founder, leading international expert in urban agriculture
and city region food systems, researcher, teacher and visionary.
1968–2019
vi
vi i
Contents
List of figures x
List of tables xi
List of contributors xii
1 Sustainable food system assessment: lessons from
global practice 1
ALISON BLAY- PALMER, DAMIEN CONARÉ, KEN METER, AND
AMANDA DI BATTISTA
PART I
Conceptual foundations 17
2 An emerging user- led participatory methodology:
mapping impact pathways of urban food system
sustainability innovations 19
ELODIE VALETTE, KERSTIN SCHREIBER, DAMIEN CONARÉ,
VERONICA BONOMELLI, ALISON BLAY- PALMER, NICOLAS BRICAS,
DENIS SAUTIER, AND OLIVIER LEPILLER
3 Taking care of the land: an interdisciplinary approach
to community- based food systems assessment in Kakisa,
Northwest Territories, Canada 42
ANDREW SPRING, KELLY SKINNER, MELAINE SIMBA, ERIN NELSON,
JENNIFER BALTZER, HEIDI SWANSON, AND MERRITT TURETSKY
4 Assessing food systems as complex adaptive systems:
conceptual views and US applications 66
KEN METER
viii
viii Contents
PART II
Operationalizing sustainable food system assessment 91
5 Data gaps and the politics of data: generating
appropriate data for food system assessment in
Cape Town, South Africa 93
JANE BATTERSBY
6 Action research as a tool to measure progress in
sustainable food cities: enacting reflexive governance
principles to develop indicators 111
ANA MORAGUES- FAUS
7 Building consensus on sustainable food system
assessment: applying a Delphi survey 130
PAOLO PROSPERI, THOMAS ALLEN, AND BRUCE COGILL
PART III
Impacts and outcomes of sustainable food system assessment 157
8 Building the foundation to grow food policy: the
development of a toolkit to measure advocacy capacity 159
ANNE PALMER AND RAYCHEL SANTO
9 Tools for food system change: City Region Food System
assessment, planning, and policy 178
GUIDO SANTINI, MARIELLE DUBBELING, AND ALISON BLAY- PALMER
10 Assessing responsible food consumption in three
Ecuadorian city regions 195
MYRIAM PAREDES, DONALD C. COLE, FABIAN MUÑOZ,
GABRIEL APRIL- LALONDE, YUBARI VALERO, PRISCILA PRADO BELTRÁN,
LAURA BOADA, PETER R. BERTI, AND THE EKOMER PROJECT TEAM
11 Integrating upstream determinants and downstream
food metrics 216
NEVIN COHEN
ix
Contents ix
12 The view from here: a critical consideration of
sustainable food system assessments 234
ALISON BLAY- PALMER, DAMIEN CONARÉ, KEN METER, AND
AMANDA DI BATTISTA
Index 252
