Sustainable food systems for food security. Need for combination of local and global approaches

Food and nutritional security refers to the challenge of providing sustainable, healthy and accessible food to all people. It has four interconnected dimensions: availability, access, utilization and stability. Tackling this tremendous challenge means transforming food systems and mobilizing key stakeholders and decision-makers to leverage intersectoral knowledge and scientific evidence. From 2014 to 2020, CIRAD and INRAE led an ambitious interdisciplinary flagship programme on the transitions for global food security called GloFoodS.

Authored by principal investigators and contributors to research projects funded by GloFoodS, this book is representative of the programme’s interdisciplinary research but does not claim to provide exhaustive coverage of topics and approaches of food security. It presents recent research findings from many disciplines, including the life, engineering and social sciences. The findings were drawn from different analysis scales as well as from the combination of local and global food security approaches. The various chapters explore issues such as food system governance, balance and discrepancies between agricultural supply and food needs, the role of innovations in providing high-quality foods and promoting resilient value chains, and the role of local resource management in achieving food security.
This book will be of interest to a broad scientific audience of researchers, academics, food systems professionals and decision-makers, as well as readers interested in food and nutritional security issues.
The book is prefaced by Michel Eddi (former CEO of CIRAD) and Philippe Mauguin (CEO of INRAE). Marion Guillou (former CEO of INRA) and Patrick Caron (Vice-President of the University of Montpellier for International Relations) have agreed to provide the conclusion.

First published in English in June 2022, the French version of the book will be available in 2023

To the publisher’s Website

The book's contents include 

Foreword by Michel Eddi and Philippe Mauguin

Conclusion by Patrick Caron and Marion Guillou

Section I: Governance of food systems

• Chapter 1. Governance matters… but is it what you think? 
• Chapter 2. Land management, value-chain governance and food security: examples in Senegal, Morocco and France 

Section II: Linking agricultural supply with food and nutritional needs

• Chapter 3. Analysing the nutrition transition through food supply and demand: cross-perspective approaches in economics, management and nutrition 
• Chapter 4. Shocks in agricultural production: origins and impacts on commodity prices 
• Chapter 5. Food diets and land-use change at a global scale: the key role of modelling frameworks 

Section III: From agroecological innovations to dietary diversity

• Chapter 6. Valuing the roles of women in food security through a gender lens: a cross-cutting analysis in Senegal and Nicaragua 
• Chapter 7. Agroecological innovations, food and nutrition security and food safety for small farmers: Africa-Europe perspectives 

Section IV: Innovating processing for high-quality foods

• Chapter 8. Reducing food loss and waste in meat and fruit supply chains: how food engineering can help
• Chapter 9. Artisanal palm oils: from quality design in southern Cameroon to consumption in Yaoundé 

Section V: Agroecology to promote resilient food value chains

• Chapter 10. Neither quite the same nor quite another: diversity, identity and resilience in agroecological transition 
• Chapter 11. Leveraging agroecology to improve milk production and marketing: insights from case studies in Burkina Faso, France and India 

Section VI: Local ressources management as a driver of food security

• Chapter 12. Food security and natural resources: diversification strategies 
• Chapter 13. Urban food waste: a resource for circular economy between cities and agriculture 
• Chapter 14. Market gardening for African cities: contributions, challenges and innovations towards food security