Dr. Alison Blay-Palmer, UNESCO Chair on Food Biodiversity and Sustainability Studies. Waterloo, Canada
General Comments:
Thanks for the opportunity to comment.
This report is a much-needed call for policy-makers and decision-makers to pay attention to urban and peri-urban food systems. The authors do an excellent job focusing the reader’s attention on urban/peri-urban food security and nutrition including along the food chain. I do have one constructive suggestion that could improve the report and give it broader relevance. While Section 4.5 deals with food production in rural areas and also considerations national and other scales, this report offers a unique opportunity to build solidarity with those seeking to enhance sustainable territorial food systems (based on e.g. city region food systems, bioregions, foodsheds etc). Urban/peri-urban food security requires the production of adequate quantities of ecologically produced, healthy, culturally appropriate, affordable food to be delivered with minimal waste into urban distribution centres and local retailers to enable street vendors and low income/marginalized households, and others, to have food security and fair livelihoods. If the territory isn’t working as a system as much as possible, then urban/peri-urban food systems are ultimately at the mercy of the industrial food system. I appreciate this is not the focus of this important report but adding this dimension could make the report more impactful as it is published and considered by policy and decision makers.
In response to Question 3:
In addition to comments above, specific to Section 4.5.2 It is not clear to me how global food systems that either deliver expensive imported food or ultra-processed food helps with food equity in urban spaces. Does it make more sense, as you indicate elsewhere, to foster more vibrant territorial food systems that can deliver healthy local food that supports both consumers and producers (e.g. Brazil and the popular markets and/or restaurants). Perhaps the last sentence in this section could be reconsidered.
In response to question 4:
Re section 4.5.1: There is some research from Quito that could be relevant here where a key point is the importance of UA for women. Findings are available at –https://www.foodsystemsjournal.org/index.php/fsj/article/view/727/720
And a practice-based report here:https://journals.openedition.org/factsreports/5641
Work on food system assessment in urban contexts could also include:Valette, É., Blay-Palmer, A., Intoppa, B., Di Battista, A., Roudelle, O. and Chaboud, G., 2024. Evaluating sustainable food system innovations: A global toolkit for cities. Routledge.
Д-р. Alison Blay-Palmer