World Food Policy Volume/Issue 2-2/3-1 Fall 2015/Spring 2016 | Page 52

What’s Old Is New Again

Background

being characterized by a disconnection
between producers, suppliers, and
consumers; the dis-embedding of
food from its place of production, and
related values and identities; and the
dis-entwining of food-related spheres
of economy and life such as food, care,
education, and leisure (Wiskerke 2009).

The food system itself consists of
multiple elements including production,
processing, transport, consumption, and
waste management at which interventions
can modify or improve the amount and
type of food that reaches consumers. As
Ingram (2011; 2013) and others have
noted, the food system underpins food
security with the latter predicated upon
the proposition that individuals and
households have access to food, either
through their own production or, as
in the case of most urban consumers,
because adequate nutrition for healthy
development and growth is accessible,
affordable, and acceptable through the
market place.

A conceptual gap exists between
theories about the transition from underto over-nutrition and the concept of food
security which was developed mainly by
those concerned with under-nutrition
(Popkin 2014). A broader concept of
food and nutrition security is now
required to address a problem developing
in even the poorest parts of the world,
namely that of over-nutrition. While
obesity is commonly seen as a disease
of affluence related to overconsumption,
it is increasingly recognized that poorer
populations within wealthy societies are
increasingly likely to be overweight and
obese. In poorer countries, the rural and
urban poor can be obese and remain
malnourished because their diets consist

T

hree major and interrelated shifts
in theorizing food systems have
been underway over the last two
decades. They are as follows: recognition
that food security requires the provision
of healthy as well as plentiful food;
evidence of a nutrition transition linking
over rather than under-nutrition to
some of the top ten health burdens in
much of the world (Popkin, Horton,
and Kim 2001; WHO 2014); and recent
acknowledgement that more attention
should be paid to the connection
between agriculture and nutritional food,
otherwise known as nutrition-sensitive
agriculture (Jaenicke and Virchow 2013).
These shifts have occurred in the context
of rapid urbanization in economically
transitioning regions and countries.

As urbanization has increased
rapidly
across
the
economically
developing world a burgeoning need
has arisen to recognize the vital role of
food systems in supplying the appetites
of urban populations. Increasingly, it
is understood that urban settings are
intricate and not only require, but also
encourage the development of complex
food systems to provide food and
nutrition security. Cities are “drivers of
the global food system” because they
are where most of the population lives
and the needs of urban populations
promote demand at a sufficient scale
and for novel products. However, urban
agglomerations have become mainly sites
of consumption with food production
and other functions of the food system
remaining invisible to most consumers
(Dansero, Pettenati, and Toldo 2015).
Indeed, the modern food system has
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