Human Geography Commons^™

National Food Security, Immigration Reform, And The Importance Of Worker Engagement In Agricultural Guestworker Debates, Laura-Anne Minkoff-Zern

Food Studies - All Scholarship

This article looks at the United States’ federal H-2A Temporary Agricultural Visa Program and reforms proposed by the Farm Workforce Modernization Act. In this policy analysis, we draw on media content analysis and qualitative interviews to compare the viewpoints of farmers, workers, grower and worker advocacy groups, intermediary agents, and politicians. We find that perspectives on the program are dependent upon actors’ level of direct interaction with workers. Moderate-sized farmers and regionally based worker advocacy groups tend to be the most concerned with day-to-day program operations and fair working conditions. In contrast, national-level advocacy groups, intermediary agents, and politicians are …

Actually-Existing Resilience: The Adaptive Actions Of Miami’S Redland Farmers And Potential Pathways For Transformation, Melissa Bernardo

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The concept of resilience has been applied to questions surrounding agricultural production and food security in the face of global climate change, gripping the attention of policymakers and scholars alike. In South Florida, the Redland represents a unique, biodiverse farming community of national importance as Florida is second only to California in terms of vegetable production and Miami-Dade is the second highest producing county in the state. With Greater Miami recognized as one of the most vulnerable regions in the world to sea level rise, this vital U.S. agricultural community is placed in doubt. Yet, little research engages directly with …

No. 23: Inclusive Growth And The Informal Food Sector In Windhoek, Nambia, Ndeyapo Nickanor, Lawrence Kazembe, Jonathan Crush, Tobias Shinyemba

Hungry Cities Partnership

This report presents the results of the first comprehensive survey of Windhoek’s rapidly-growing informal food sector. As such, it aims to shed light on the food system of Windhoek, Namibia’s capital and largest urban centre. The report is part of a research programme on food security in cities of the Global South by AFSUN and the Hungry Cities Partnership (HCP) and builds on earlier publications on Windhoek’s food system including:

- The State of Food Insecurity in Windhoek, Namibia (Pendleton et al 2012);

- The Supermarket Revolution and Food Security in Namibia (Nickanor et al 2017);

- Urban Informal Food …

Expanding The Boundaries Of Food Policy: The Turn To Equity In New York City, Nevin Cohen, Rositsa Ilieva

Publications and Research

Policymakers acknowledge that the food system is multidimensional and that social determinants affect diet-related health outcomes, yet cities have emphasized programs and policies narrowly connected to food access and nutritional health. Over the past fifteen years, the boundaries of food governance have expanded to include a wider range of issues and domains not previously considered within the purview of food policy, like labor, housing, and education policies. This paper illustrates the processes by which this shift occurs by presenting the case of New York City, which has broadened its food governance to a larger set of issues, requiring cross-sectoral initiatives …

No.07: Demand: The Forgotten Side Of Informal Economy Policy, Graeme Young

Hungry Cities Partnership

■ Policymakers who seek to support informal economic activity too often rely on supply-side solutions that fail to address the central needs of the urban poor.

■ Efforts should instead focus on the alleviation of poverty to ensure that potential customers have the economic means to buy sufficient food to meet their needs.

■ Governments must prioritize the promotion of adequate formal employment opportunities to ensure that the urban poor have livelihood options beyond informality.

No.06: Gender Inequality And Food Security Policy Responses, Mary Caesar

Hungry Cities Partnership

■ Gender inequality and the legacy of racial discrimination operate alongside poverty and economic inequality to shape the household food security experience in low-income areas in South African cities.

■ In Cape Town, male-headed households are more likely to be food secure than female-headed households, although both experience high levels of severe food insecurity.

■ National food security policy and local government do not recognize the systemic nature of gender inequality and food insecurity; a gap that needs to be addressed.

No.08: Improving The Profitability Of Wet Market Food Vendors In China, Xinxian Qi, Taiyang Zhong, Zhenzhong Si, Xianjin Huang

Hungry Cities Partnership

■ The characteristics of individual vendors and their business operations have a more significant impact on business profits than more general socioeconomic factors. Policy interventions need to prioritize the former.

■ The profits of wet market vendors vary spatially in Nanjing, China. The average profit level in central urban districts is higher than in peri-urban districts.

■ Almost all determinants have more significant impacts on vendor profitability in peri-urban than urban areas. Measures should therefore be taken to improve the profitability of wet market vendors in peri-urban areas.

No.09: Enhancing Food Security Through Urban Agriculture In Kingston, Jamaica, Elizabeth Thomas-Hope, Robert Kinlocke, Therese Ferguson

Hungry Cities Partnership

■ Much focus has been accorded rural agriculture, both in the literature and in practice. Yet urban agriculture is both a viable and necessary area of focus as it pertains to food security in Jamaica.

■ An education and communication strategy is required to ensure that attitudes towards nutrition and poor food choices are changed (within the range of affordability) in efforts to achieve food security.

■ Given the threats posed by climate change, the development of urban agriculture should incorporate not only previously designated sites through zoning for small-scale livestock and produce rearing; it also should incorporate backyard farming/gardening, …

Google-Truthing To Assess Hot Spots Of Food Retail Change: A Repeat Cross-Sectional Street View Of Food Environments In The Bronx, New York, Nevin Cohen, Michael Chrobok, Olivia Caruso

Publications and Research

Google Street View (GSV) images can be used to “ground-truth” current and historical food retail data from approximately 2007 - when GSV was launched in a few US cities - to the present, facilitating analyses of food environments over time. A review of GSV images of all food retailers listed in a government database of licensed establishments in the Bronx, New York enabled records to be verified, businesses classified, and retail change quantified. The data revealed several trends likely to affect food access and health: increasing overall numbers of food retailers; the growth of dollar stores; and numerous openings, closings, …

No. 19: Inclusive Growth And The Informal Food Sector In Kingston, Jamaica, Robert Kinlocke, Elizabeth Thomas-Hope

Hungry Cities Partnership

This report should be read in conjunction with previous work on the food system in Kingston by the Hungry Cities Partnership. HCP No. 4, The Urban Food System of Kingston, Jamaica provides a comprehensive overview of the nature and operation of Kingston’s food system and the current state of knowledge about the informal food sector (Thomas-Hope et al 2017). It demonstrates the importance of the informal sector and city markets as a source of affordable food and employment. HCP No. 15, The State of Household Food Security in Kingston, Jamaica (Kinlocke et al 2019) presents the results of a city-wide …

No. 21: Inclusive Growth And Informal Food Vending In Nairobi, Kenya, Samuel Owuor

Hungry Cities Partnership

This report presents and analyzes the findings of a city-wide informal food vendors survey conducted by the Hungry Cities Partnership (HCP) in Nairobi, Kenya, in October 2019. It builds on, and should be read in conjunction with previous HCP reports on Nairobi: HCP Report No. 6: The Urban Food System of Nairobi, Kenya (Owuor et al 2017) and HCP Report No. 11, The State of Household Food Security in Nairobi, Kenya (Owuor 2018). This report, which is divided into nine sections, provides an up-to-date overview of the informal food sector in Nairobi’s food system. The next section describes the survey …

No. 18: Inclusive Growth And Informal Vending In Maputo's Food Markets, Inês Raimundo, Jeremy Wagner, Jonathan Crush, Ezequiel Abrahamo, Cameron Mccordic

Hungry Cities Partnership

This report builds on, and should be read in conjunction with related work on informality in the Mozambican capital by the Southern African Migration Program (SAMP) (Chikanda and Raimundo 2017, Crush et al 2015, Peberdy 2000), the African Food Security Urban Network (AFSUN) (Raimundo et al 2013), and the Hungry Cities Partnership (HCP). The HCP has produced two reports that provide essential context. HCP Report No. 2, The Urban Food System of Maputo, Mozambique (Chikanda et al 2016), provides a comprehensive overview of current knowledge about the nature and operation of Maputo’s food system. It demonstrates the importance of the …

No. 20:Inclusive Growth And The Informal Food Sector In Bangalore, India, Kailas Shankar Honasoge, Keerthana Jagadeesh, Veneet J. Kalloor, Shriya Anand

Hungry Cities Partnership

This report presents and analyzes the findings of a food vendor survey conducted by the Indian Institute for Human Settlements as part of the Hungry Cities Partnership (HCP) in Bangalore, India, in September and October 2018. It is a supplement to, and should be read in conjunction with, HCP Report No. 5: The Urban Food System of Bangalore, India (Surie and Sami 2017) and HCP Report No. 14, The State of Household Food Security in Bangalore, India (Koduganti et al 2019). The former provides essential contextual background on the history, demography, and economy of Bangalore, while the latter presents findings …

No. 22: Inclusive Growth And Informal Food Vending In Mexico City, Mexico, Salomón Gonzalález Arellano, Guénola Capron

Hungry Cities Partnership

This report aims to shed further light on the food system of Mexico City’s Metropolitan Zone (referred to in this report as “the ZMCM”). The report is part of a research program on food security in cities of the Global South within the Hungry Cities Partnership (HCP) and builds on earlier HCP publications including The Urban Food System of Mexico City, Mexico (Capron et al 2017), The State of Household Food Security in Mexico City, Mexico (Capron et al 2018), and Urban Food Deserts in Nairobi and Mexico City (Wagner et al 2019). It also contributes to the comparative analysis …

For Food Space: Theorizing Alternative Food Networks Beyond Alterity, Renata Blumberg, Helga Leitner, Kirsten Valentine Cadieux

Department of Nutrition and Food Studies Scholarship and Creative Works

In response to calls by scholars to deepen theoretical engagement in research on Alternative Food Networks (AFNs), in this article we critically discuss and assess major theoretical approaches deployed in the study of AFNs. After highlighting the strengths and limitations of each theoretical approach, we provide an alternative framework – which we refer to as the Geographical Political Ecology of Food Systems – that integrates the contributions that have emerged in the study of the alternative geographies of food with an understanding of capitalist processes in the food system. We do this by bringing together literature on the political ecology …

Parallel Precarity: A Comparison Of U.S. And Canadian Agricultural Guest Worker Programs, Anelyse M. Weilere, Kathleen Sexsmith, Laura-Anne Minkoff-Zern

Food Studies - All Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Beyond Europeanization: The Politics Of Scale And Positionality In Lithuania’S Alternative Food Networks, Renata Blumberg, Diana Mincyte

Publications and Research

This article brings geographical insights to understanding the Europeanization of agri-food politics in new European Union member states. Most literature on agri-food policy and law in the European Union has conceptualized policy making and implementation as an institutional process involving multiple levels of governance. In this perspective, Europeanization is understood as a process through which stakeholders formulate, negotiate, and implement legal principles and procedures across various institutions at different levels of governance. By employing the conceptual tools developed in geographical research, we contribute a spatial and historical dimension to these studies. Our analysis shows how the politics of scale and …

No.05: Food Security And The Changing Landscape Of Food Retailing In Nanjing, China, Zhenzhong Si, Jonathan Crush

Hungry Cities Partnership

■ The expansion of supermarkets and online food markets are changing the complexion of food retailing in Nanjing. At the same time, traditional forms of retail display considerable resilience.

■ Nanjing has low levels of food insecurity overall as measured by the HFIAS and HDDS. The one in five households who are food insecure are primarily low-income and female-centred.

■ Concerns over food safety are a major characteristic of all consumers in Nanjing irrespective of income and food security status.

■ Policy implications include ensuring food access for households with higher levels of food insecurity, promoting trustworthy food sources in …

No.04: Enabling Informal Food Vending In Urban South Africa, Godfrey Tawodzera, Jonathan Crush

Hungry Cities Partnership

■ Food vending is an important component of the South African economy, where it provides employment, income, livelihoods and contributes to the food security of poorer households.

■ Policies towards the informal food sector in most South African cities are restrictive and often punitive, and undermine the critical contributions of informal food vending.

■ To maximize their impacts, informal food vendors need an enabling policy environment with less red tape, better infrastructure, greater financial and other supports, and public recognition of their positive role in the urban food system.

Infrastructures Of Taste: Rethinking Local Food Histories In Lithuania, Renata Blumberg, Diana Mincyte

Publications and Research

Lithuania hosts a diversity of places that offer consumers a taste of local food, which appear to mirror the recent popularity of local and alternative food initiatives globally. In this paper we show that the proliferation of local foods in the region is not a novel phenomenon, nor is it solely a manifestation of taste preferences or identities associated with food. Drawing on the growing scholarly work on the role of infrastructures in mediating social, economic and political relations, we conceptualize the taste for local food as embedded in broader networks and reproduced through material facilities. To advance this argument, …

No. 16: Inclusive Growth And The Informal Food Sector In Cape Town, South Africa, Godfrey Tawodzera, Jonathan Crush

Hungry Cities Partnership

This report on the informal food sector in Cape Town is the third on the city’s food system published by the Hungry Cities Partnership in collaboration with the African Centre for Cities at the University of Cape Town. The earlier reports provided background and context on the nature of the food system (Haysom et al 2017) and the importance of the informal food sector in household food consumption (Crush et al 2018). Additional context is provided by HCP Discussion Paper No. 23, which situates this research in relation to literature on the South African informal economy in general, and the …

No. 15: The State Of Household Food Security In Kingston, Jamaica, Robert Kinlocke, Elizabeth Thomas-Hope, Adonna Jardine-Comrie, Beth Timmers, Therese Ferguson, Cameron Mccordic

Hungry Cities Partnership

This report provides an analysis of results from a household food security survey conducted in Kingston, Jamaica, by the Hungry Cities Partnership (HCP). It documents the state of food insecurity in households across selected communities in the Kingston Metropolitan Area. It should be read in conjunction with HCP Report No. 4: The Urban Food System of Kingston, Jamaica (Thomas- Hope et al 2017), which provides more detailed background and context for the results discussed here.

No. 17: Inclusive Growth And Small-Scale Food Vending In Nanjing, China, Zhenzhong Si, Taiyang Zhong

Hungry Cities Partnership

This report should be read in conjunction with HCP Report No.1: The Urban Food System of Nanjing, China (Si et al 2016) and HCP Report No. 9: The State of Household Food Security in Nanjing, China (Si and Zhong 2018). The first report provides contextual background on the history, demography, and economy of Nanjing. It also contains a review of existing studies on Nanjing’s changing food system. The second summarizes the results of the household food security survey conducted in Nanjing in 2015. It provides essential information on the food purchase patterns of urban residents and highlights the importance of …

No. 14: The State Of Household Food Security In Bangalore, India, Jyothi Koduganti, Charrlotte Adelina, Mohanraju Js, Shriya Anand

Hungry Cities Partnership

This report presents and analyzes the findings of a household food security survey conducted by the IIHS and the Hungry Cities Partnership in Bangalore, India, from April to September 2016. Surie and Sami (2017) provide essential contextual background for this report on Bangalore’s history, demography, economy, and changing food system. This report describes the survey and presents and discusses its findings. It then analyzes the food security situation and food system functions in Bangalore. The report thus provides solid background information for future research on Bangalore’s food system and lays the foundation for comparative studies with the other cities of …

No.03: Devising Urban Food Security Policy For African Cities, James Sgro

Hungry Cities Partnership

■ Informal food services are one of the few options for financially disadvantaged families. Food access policy needs to be created in partnership with informal economy actors to ensure that those who rely on informal systems are not ignored.

■ As household size increases, the likelihood of food insecurity grows exponentially. Adequate social protection programs are required to support household dependants including children and the aged and improve food security.

■ Secondary school completion is a specific milestone that significantly increases one’s food security outlook. Free primary and secondary school policies could return dividends in terms of nation-wide food security, …

No.01: The Sdgs, Food Security And Urbanization In The Global South, David Celis Parra, Krista Dinsmore, Nicole Fassina, Charlene Keizer

Hungry Cities Partnership

■ Urban food insecurity is distinct from that experienced in rural areas and must be addressed through a different set of policies.

■ While supermarkets are increasingly prevalent in urban centres of the Global South, the informal economy and state food distribution programs continue to play an important role in meeting food security needs of the urban poor.

■ The United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 2, as part of a new in-ternational directive, recommends that governments aim to improve food security and nutrition over the next 15 years in response to the global challenge of fostering sustainability.

■ SDG …

No.02: An Urban Perspective On Food Security In The Global South, Michael Chong, Lucy Hinton, Jeremy Wagner, Amy Zavits

Hungry Cities Partnership

■ Food insecurity challenges in the Global South are changing as a result of rapid urbanization and the globalization of food supply chains.

■ Urban food insecurity is not distinct from rural food security challenges and policy seeking to address either should adopt a systems approach that strengthens their interdependence. There is an opportunity to increase the effectiveness of rural food security programming while concurrently addressing the growing food security needs of vulnerable urban populations.

■ This brief recommends that food security policy should prioritize intra-urban stages of informal food value chains and increase the efficiency and effectiveness of their …

No. 14: The Impact Of Proximity To Wet Markets And Supermarkets On Household Dietary Diversity In Nanjing City, China, Taiyang Zhong, Zhenzhong Si, Jonathan Crush, Zhiying Zu, Xianjin Huang, Steffanie Scott, Shuangshuang Tang, Xiang Zhang

Hungry Cities Partnership

Existing studies suggest that despite the proliferation of supermarkets, traditional wet markets have persisted in many countries and have been playing an important role in people’s daily food access. Yet, studies investigating the issue of food access and its influences on food security have mainly focused on food deserts and the proximity to supermarkets, with limited focus on wet markets and other food outlets. This study investigates the influence of the proximity to wet markets and supermarkets on urban household dietary diversity in Nanjing. Based on the data collected through a citywide survey in 2015 and the map data of …

No. 13: The Growth Of Food Banking In Cities Of The Global South, Daniel N. Warshawsky

Hungry Cities Partnership

As the number and size of food banks increase globally, it is critical to research how food banks fit into existing food systems and their role in reducing food insecurity and food waste. After examining the political ecology of urban food waste in food systems, this discussion paper examines the globalization of food banking and its growth in the Global South. Through a case study of FoodForward SA, it critically analyzes the roles that urban food banks play in cities of the Global South. Since many countries in the South have both the highest levels of food insecurity and the …

No. 09: The State Of Household Food Security In Nanjing, China, Zhenzhong Si, Taiyang Zhong

Hungry Cities Partnership

This report on the state of food security in Nanjing, China, is based on a 2015 city-wide survey conducted by Nanjing University and the Hungry Cities Partnership. The research found that most of the city’s residents are food secure, with access to desirable foods and high dietary diversity throughout the year. Nanjing has a high level of economic development, low unemployment, and spatially dense food supply networks. However, a high average level of food security obscures the finding that about one household in five is food insecure according to the Household Food Insecurity Access Prevalence indicator. Female-centred households, households that …