The ways in which rapid urbanization of the Global South are transforming food systems and food supply chains, and the food security of urban populations is an often neglected topic. This international group of authors addresses this profound transformation from a variety of different perspectives and disciplinary lenses, providing an important corrective to the dominant view that food insecurity is a rural problem requiring increases in agricultural production.
Starting from the premise that food security in urban areas is primarily a challenge of food access, the chapters explore the various economic, social, and governance policies and structures that constrain and inhibit the access of all to food of sufficient quantity and quality. As the Global South continues to urbanize, the challenge of feeding hungry cities will become even more daunting, and this Handbook explains why the existing food system, although undergoing rapid change, is inadequate for this task and cannot meet the challenge without substantial reform.
The Handbook as a whole, and the individual chapters, provide comprehensive overviews of relevant themes mixed with empirical, real-world examples for university readership teaching and taking courses on food systems, migration and urbanization, urban policy and planning, geography, agricultural economics, public health, and international development. It will also introduce practitioners to current debates in the field and provide strong support for the renewed, and growing, focus on the food security of urban populations.
The Handbook’s comprehensive overviews of relevant themes mixed with empirical, real-world examples are ideal for university readership. It will also introduce practitioners to current debates in the field and provide strong support for the renewed, and growing, focus on the food security of urban populations.
“This book challenges conventional thinking about food security as primarily a problem of limited food production. It shows the complexity and interconnectedness of urban food security issues, and the power of the globalized industrial food systems that frame the growing food insecurity of cities of the Global South. It shows decisively that tackling urban food security demands moving beyond the search for new ‘green revolutions’” (Bill Adams, Moran Professor of Conservation and Development, University of Cambridge, UK.
“With global rates of food insecurity surging, now more than ever we need to better understand the critical shifts impacting food systems around the world. The Handbopok explores how and why hunger and malnutrition is on the rise in cities across the Global South. This is a must read for food security policymakers, scholars and students” (William Moseley, High Level Panel of Experts, World Committee on Food Security and Director of Program for Food, Agriculture and Society, Macalester College, USA
Panel
Jonathan Crush
Dr Crush is University Research Professor and Professor, School of International Policy and Governance. He has led several research initiatives in the areas of migration, sustainable food systems, and urban food security in the Global South.
Bruce Frayne
Dr. Frayne is the Director of the School of Environment, Enterprise and Development (SEED) at the University of Waterloo. He is an Urban Planner and Geographer, and teaches in the International Development program.
Marie Ruel
Dr. Ruel is the director of Poverty, Health, and Nutrition Division of the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). Dr. Ruel has more than 25 years experience in policies and programs to alleviate poverty, food insecurity and malnutrition in developing countries.
Reena das Nair
Dr. das Nair is a senior researcher at the Centre for Competition, Regulation and Economic Development at the University of Johannesburg (UJ). Her main areas of research are on competition, regional value chains (with a focus in agriculture and agroprocessing), barriers to entry and industrial development in Southern and East Africa.
Abel Chikanda
Dr. Chikanda is an Associate Professor of African and African-American Studies and Geography. Dr. Chikanda’s current research focuses on the integration of African immigrants in the United States.
Zhenzhong Si
Dr. Si is a human geographer with broad research interests in sustainable food systems. He is currently a postdoctoral fellow with the Hungry Cities Partnership COVID-19 and Food Security in China Project at the BSIA.
