The New Geography of Food Security: Exploring the Potential of Urban Food Strategies

The Geographical Journal, Vol. 182, No. 2, June 2016, pp. 190–200, doi: 10.1111/geoj.12129 The new geography of food security: exploring the potential of urban food strategies

ROBERTA SONNINO School of Planning and Geography, Cardiff University, Glamorgan Building, King Edward VII Avenue, Cardiff CF10 3WA E-mail: [email protected] This paper was accepted for publication in October 2014

Food insecurity is increasingly ‘bimodal’, encompassing issues of quantity and quality, under- and overconsumption, in developed and developing countries alike. At a time when most of the world’s population lives in cities, food security has also assumed a strong urban dimension, raising new issues of physical and ﬁnancial access to food. Finally, the recent emergence of a ‘New Food Equation’, marked by food price hikes, dwindling natural resources, land grabbing activities, social unrest, and the effects of climate change, is bringing onto the global food security agenda a range of often interrelated sustainability concerns. Responses to this new geography of food security are increasingly emerging at the local level, particularly in industrialised countries, where municipal governments are recasting themselves as food system innovators. Based on the documentary analysis of 15 urban food strategies from Canada, the USA and the UK, the paper addresses three main questions: What type of ‘foodscape’ do these documents envision, and why? Does the rescaling of food governance coincide with the emergence of a new localistic approach to food security? What type of priorities and concrete measures do city governments identify to deal with the new geography of food security? By highlighting the centrality of the relationships between urban and rural areas and actors as targeted intervention areas, the analysis raises the need for a tighter scholarly and policy focus on ‘connectivities’ – i.e. the role of food exchange nodes and of governance coordination in the design and implementation of more effective food security strategies.

KEY WORDS: food security, urban food strategies, local food systems, policy analysis

cities, food security has also assumed a strong urban Introduction dimension, which raises new issues of physical and ebates on food security have historically financial access to food. Finally, the recent emergence taken place at two different levels. The of a ‘New Food Equation’, marked by food price D ‘productivist’ position that emerged from hikes, dwindling natural resources, land grabbing discussions at the World Food Conference (1974) has activities, social unrest, and the effects of climate constructed the problem as one of national self- change (Morgan and Sonnino 2010), is bringing onto sufficiency, especially in developing countries. Over the global food security agenda a range of often time, and largely as a result of Sen’s seminal work interrelated sustainability concerns (Lang et al. 2009). (1981) on entitlement and access, productivism has Global food dynamics always have context-specific been challenged by an access-based approach manifestations and impacts. As Marsden and Sonnino that situates food security in the context of poor (2012, 427) state, food has particular spatial configu- households’ survival strategies. rative features, since its production and consumption In recent years, the unfolding of a new geography embody essential (and uncontrollable) natural and of food security has been exposing the limitations metabolic processes that depend on the type and of extreme macro (i.e. national) and micro (i.e. amount of resources available. For this reason, ‘food household-level) perspectives. Food insecurity today systems – and their health and wellbeing attributes – is increasingly ‘bimodal’, encompassing issues of inherently interact with (and shape) spaces and quantity and quality, under- and overconsumption, in places’. The bimodal dynamics that are shaping the both developed and developing countries. Moreover, new global geography of food security are bound at a time when most of the world’s population lives in to impact upon (and be impacted by) local

The information, practices and views in this article are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG). © 2014 Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers). The new geography of food security 191 environmental, socio-cultural and economic contexts was for the first time conceptualised as an issue of in very different ways. It is then not surprising that national self-sufficiency or self-reliance – ‘whether a innovative food policies are emerging at the local country can meet its own food needs’ (Lang et al. level, particularly in industrialised countries, where 2009, 255; see also Harsch 1992). Today, the pro- municipal governments are recasting themselves as ponents of this approach continue to focus on the food system innovators. supply side of the food chain and on the efficiency of Several academic and non-academic observers the production process, emphasising the role of have recently documented the emergence of urban scientific and technological innovation in mitigating food strategies, especially in relation to the new gover- food shortages. The central idea is that developed nance mechanisms that they have introduced to bring nations need to increase their food production for civil society into the food policy arena (Blay-Palmer domestic consumption and to supply developing 2009; FAO 2011a; Viljoen and Wiskerke 2012). As countries (Dibden et al. 2013; Rosin 2013). yet, however, no analysis has been performed to distil During the 1980s, the persistence of food crises in the vision behind these efforts to reform the urban the global South, coupled with Sen’s influential theory foodscape. What are the shared features of the on food entitlement and access (1981), began to emerging municipal policy discourses on food? Are change the emphasis from the ‘natural’ causes of these narratives signalling a new paradigmatic shift in hunger to its wider political and socioeconomic the interpretation of (and responses to) current food context (Dilley and Boudreau 2001; Gladwin et al. insecurities? More generally, are we witnessing the 2001; Valdivia and Gilles 2001). Over time, this emergence of a new localism that is beginning to created a shift from an international and national (i.e. address the complex dynamics at play through a macro) policy focus to an emphasis on the individual reconfiguration of the relationships between food (i.e. micro) level of poor households, generating the system actors, spaces and governance scales? emergence of a ‘livelihood security’ model that has To begin to answer these questions, the paper uncovered the complexity of demand strategies examines 15 urban food strategies from Canada, the employed by vulnerable people2 (Maxwell 1996; USA and the UK1 – countries that are widely Lindenberg 2002; Davis et al. 2001). In current considered as pioneers of municipally led food debates, this model has been incorporated into wider policies (Mendes 2008; Sonnino 2009a). The sample access-based approaches that focus on issues of food includes cities of very different sizes where public distribution (Sage 2013) and emphasise the role of bodies have produced or commissioned a strategic traditional knowledge and endogenous development document that explicitly aims to reconfigure the strategies in addressing food insecurity (McIntyre et al. urban food system. These documents, which always 2009; Marsden 2013). include a vision statement, an action plan and often An emerging literature is raising the need for a new also a set of indicators that aim to facilitate the type of approach that bridges the gap between supply- monitoring of progress towards the identified goals, led and demand-led narratives and between macro have been comparatively analysed in relation to three and micro perspectives on food insecurity (Barling main discursive elements: the motivations behind et al. 2008; Sonnino et al. 2014). Central to this cities’ perceived need to rescale food governance; the argument is the recognition that the unfolding of a key concepts and ideas deployed to construct the new and complex geography is adding new layers of underlying narrative of the strategies; and the role meaning to the very notion of ‘security’ in relation to attributed to re-localisation in relation to food security the food system. Simply put, the concept of food and sustainability concerns. Altogether, such elements security today evokes a series of interrelated public provide important insights into the potential of these health, political, socioeconomic and ecological crises urban innovations to become a significant counter- that threaten human survival and, for this reason, force to the complex socioeconomic and environ- require strong public intervention. For the State, mental dynamics that are shaping the new geography securing appropriate quantities of quality food for all of food security. At the same time, as it will be argued citizens is crucial to reduce the human and financial in the conclusions, they identify new intervention costs of a constantly worsening public and ecological areas that require more specific attention in the health crisis and to avoid social unrest. formulation of theoretical and policy agendas for food Four fundamental dimensions of the problem security. currently shape the rhetoric on food security. First, the ‘nutrition transition’, linked to the global expansion of the Western diet, has given prominence to the Reclaiming the local in food security debates: qualitative dimension of the concept. Food security is the context no longer just a problem of ‘under-consumption’ (i.e. The debate on food security has traditionally been ‘quantity’); it also encompasses problems of over- and polarised around two main narratives. The first, and mal-consumption – or, as Lang (2010, 95) states, ‘all oldest, is a ‘productivist’ discourse that emerged from diet-related ill health, not just hunger’. In short, food the 1974 World Food Conference, when food security insecurity is fundamentally a bimodal problem of

The Geographical Journal 2016 182 190–200 doi: 10.1111/geoj.12129 © 2014 Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers) 192 The new geography of food security malnutrition (Ashe and Sonnino 2013) that affects and resources dealing with poverty, exclusion and over one-quarter of the world’s population in both inequalities in cities remain highly inadequate. As a the global North and the developing South. This result, urban diets are affected and malnutrition has juxtaposition of hunger and obesity is complicating become a major concern’. Social unrest has emerged efforts to design an effective food security agenda. as a visible manifestation of widening inequalities. As As Shaw (2007, 412) pointed out, ‘it would be Holt-Giménez (2008) noted, the food riots that grotesquely perverse if attention to world hunger and followed the price surge of 2008 exploded not in food insecurity were to be diverted by a focus on the areas were food was unavailable, ‘but where available obesity epidemic. Both crises must be overcome’. food was too expensive for the poor’ – that is, in urban Second, the new geography of food security has areas. also added an important political dimension to the Fourth, the new geography of food security is concept. Indeed, the food riots that followed the spike increasingly affected by a series of interrelated in fuel, food and energy prices of 2008 demonstrated ecological pressures. So far, academic debates on the that ensuring that all citizens have access to quality interplay between food security and environmental food is not just a moral imperative; it is also a matter sustainability have mostly focused on climate change of national security, as G8 countries acknowledged at – its uneven effects on food productive systems and their first ever meeting on agri-food issues held in Italy the responsibility of industrialised nations to alleviate in 2009 (Morgan and Sonnino 2010). the problem in developing countries. An emerging but At the core of the problem here there are new issues still very fragmented literature is beginning to add of access to nutritionally adequate food. In the past, important details to this debate. In synthesis, it has this fundamental dimension of food security was been argued that global food consumption patterns, addressed primarily in physical and spatial terms – as linked to the expansion of the ‘nutrition transition’, are implied, for example, by the concept of ‘food deserts’ decreasing the availability of water, which is widely (Wrigley 2002). To some extent, this scholarly focus utilised for irrigation in agriculture and for processing was a reflection of a wider ‘bias’ in food provisioning, foods (such as meat and dairy products) that form the which privileged the welfare needs of urban popula- basis of the Western diet (Collette et al. 2011). At the tions to avoid the dangers of social unrest in densely same time, urbanisation is exacerbating the problem populated areas. As Marsden and Sonnino (2012) of soil degradation (UNEP 2012), especially in recall, the intensive food regime that dominated developing countries, where the amount of land industrialised countries in the twentieth century devoted to food production continues to decrease provided a clear allocation of functions for the city and (Chappell and LaValle 2011). Global food security is the countryside, which resulted in a ‘fundamental further threatened by very high levels of food losses separation between rural intensive production systems and waste that occur at different stages of the supply and mass urban consumption spaces’ (2012, 428). The chain and that affect as much as one-third of the total priority was to strictly demarcate agricultural land and amount of food that is produced globally. At a time of enhance production for a growing and increasingly rising food insecurity, there are clearly new questions concentrated urban population. that need to be addressed regarding the availability of Today, spatial and sectoral policies have become adequate technologies and infrastructure (see Parfit less relevant to address the new geography of food et al. 2010), as well as global purchasing trends security, which is shaped primarily by problems of and consumer/retailer habits (UNEP 2012). More financial access to nutritious food. Again, these are generally, as Fish et al. (2013) explain, one funda- especially evident in urban contexts, where most mental question that lies at the heart of the current residents are not directly engaged in food production debate on food security is whether and how the and have to rely on cash to purchase their food presumed need to increase production can be (Sonnino 2009a). At a time of recession and financial reconciled with wider limits to sustainability. crisis, shortage of cash is bound to have significant In synthesis, urbanisation, a persistent financial public health implications for the growing number of crisis, widening socioeconomic inequalities and a urban poor. As stated by the General Director of the range of ecological issues that have emerged at all World Health Organization (Chan 2009), ‘when stages of the supply chain are changing the geography money is tight, the first things that drop out of the diet of food insecurity. Industrialised and developing are usually the healthy foods, like fruits, vegetables, countries are today united in a global fight against and lean sources of protein, which are nearly always malnutrition, a problem that is especially evident more expensive’ (see also Mullie et al. 2010)3. in cities, where environmental degradation is also The third fundamental dimension of the new mostly concentrated. Clearly, there is a need for a new geography of food security is indeed its extreme theoretical and policy agenda that accounts for the variation across different socioeconomic groups (UN ‘deeply inter-locking nature of economic, social and Habitat 2010), which mainstream strategies have thus environmental systems’ to promote ‘more cross- far been unable to address, especially in urban areas. sectoral approaches to decision-making’ (Misselhorn As FAO (2011b) has recently recognised, ‘policies et al. 2012, 10). Quoting Lang (2010, 94), ‘whereas

The Geographical Journal 2016 182 190–200 doi: 10.1111/geoj.12129 © 2014 Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers) The new geography of food security 193 the productionist paradigm assumed that the Earth health and welfare of citizens ‘through improved was limitless, the new era’s policies must assume the access to nutritious and safe food’ (Lewisham), connections between environment, social justice and enhancing ‘access to affordable food for all residents’ health’ (see also Garnett 2013, 36). In practice, this (Brighton and Hove). entails a shift from the conventional tendency to Second, food security is never discussed in address single issues to the adoption of a systemic isolation. Faced with the emergence of a range of perspective that takes into account the interrela- environmental problems that continue to threaten tedness of the whole food chain and of the whole food their capacity to provide access to nutritious food for cycle (Lang and Barling 2012, 318). all their residents, city governments invariably embed Urban food strategies provide an excellent starting security into a wider health and sustainability agenda point for the development of this new agenda. In that emerges with clarity in the titles of the documents Canada, the USA and the UK an increasing number of analysed (especially those from the UK and Canada). municipal governments have been devising policies In this respect, urban food strategies echo recent that aim to develop more synergistic relationships academic arguments by Lang and Barling (2012, 322), between food consumers and producers and between for whom ‘the only food system to be secure is that urban areas and their surrounding rural hinterland. which is sustainable, and the route to food security is The phenomenon has been documented by a number by addressing sustainability’. of researchers, who have highlighted the transformative potential of these innovations (Sonnino 2009b; Rethinking the food system: a comparative analysis Viljoen and Wiskerke 2012), especially in relation of urban food strategies to the new variable spatial, socioeconomic and ecological ‘fixes’ that they are attempting to create The earliest examples of urban food strategies go back (Marsden and Sonnino 2012). However, the literature to 2006, with cities as diverse as London, Lewisham, still lacks a critique of these emerging initiatives. A Leeds, Brighton and Hove (UK) and Oakland (USA) as crucial question for theorists to consider is whether pioneers. In the following years, the number of cities urban food strategies are creating a fundamental shift that launched their own municipal food strategies grew in the food system or if they are merely examples of exponentially, especially in the UK, where, between niches that fail to make a dent in the dominant 2007 and 2011, Manchester, Newquay, Plymouth and discourse and practices (Sonnino and Spayde 2014). Bristol all published their own visions for the reform To begin to address this issue, this paper provides the of their urban food system. In North America, the first comparative analysis of the narratives that frame phenomenon is slightly more recent. Following the the new urban food policies. As Nally (2014) has lead of Oakland and San Francisco (2008), Chicago, recently argued, discourses on food security are as New York City, Toronto, Philadelphia, Vancouver and important as its socioeconomic and political Baltimore launched their strategies between 2009 and dynamics; indeed, through their symbolic power, they 2011. Variously called ‘plan,’ ‘strategy’ or ‘charter’, ‘produce a social reality’ (Nally 2014, 1). these documents have a similar format: a vision Two issues deserve attention as a background to this statement, an action plan and, in some cases, a more or analysis. First, the expression ‘food security’ never less detailed set of indicators that are meant to guide a features in the titles of urban food strategies4. review of progress towards the stated objectives. The However, it is arguably the main underlying theme of analysis of these documents aimed to distil their shared all documents analysed. In some cases, there is a discursive elements on the food system and was direct reference to the problem of food insecurity in organised around three main questions: What type of the identification of specific policy objectives. New foodscape do these documents envision, and why? York City, for instance, devotes an entire section of its Does the rescaling of food governance coincide with food plan to ‘moving from food system insecurity to the emergence of a new localism that aims to opportunity’ (New York City Council 2010); Oakland reconfigure the relationships between food system identifies food security as the first goal of its strategy actors and spaces? What kind of concrete priorities and (Unger and Wooten 2006). In most urban food measures do city governments identify to deal with the strategies, however, the emphasis on food security effects of the new geography of food security? translates into a strong focus on public health and issues of access to nutritious food for all citizens. Food Urban food strategies: the governance context security, in short, is operationalised in relation to its access dimension – ‘increasing access to fresh, The first common element that can be identified in the nutritious, and affordable foods’ (Chicago), ensuring majority of urban food strategies is a pervasive ‘equal access to good food’ (Los Angeles), establishing awareness of the unique role that cities can play in ‘health-focused food policies’ (Toronto) or ‘diet- facilitating a systemic transformation of the food related health objectives’ (Newquay), making sure system. Behind this awareness is the recognition that that ‘everyone has access to healthy, culturally diverse cities have ‘a major stake in the way food is produced’ and affordable food’ (Vancouver), increasing the (New York City Council 2010, 16), given the ‘strong

The Geographical Journal 2016 182 190–200 doi: 10.1111/geoj.12129 © 2014 Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers) 194 The new geography of food security connection that exists between food and the urban builds community’ (Toronto Public Health Department environment’ (Unger and Wooten 2006, 11) as well as 2010, 6). Likewise, Los Angeles uses the notion of the ‘disconnection’ between the city and the pro- ‘good food’ to frame its vision for a food system that ductive landscape (Manchester City Council 2007). In ‘prioritizes the health and wellbeing of our residents a few cases, this narrative is reinforced through [and] makes healthy, high-quality food affordable’, reference to the important role that citizen food while also contributing to enhance the urban movements have historically played in engendering environment, create a thriving economy and protect positive change (New York City Council 2010, 10) – as and strengthen regional biodiversity and natural demonstrated, for instance, by the role of changing resources (Food Policy Task Force 2010, 11). For the citizen demand in boosting the development of niche city of Bristol, a ‘sustainable and resilient food food products in Toronto (Toronto Public Health economy’, which is identified as the main objective of Department 2010, 7). its food strategy, ‘has an important contribution to The identification of food as a new policy arena for make to both environmental and community health’ city governments often inspires ambitious narratives (Bristol Food Network 2009, 2). Along these lines, about global leadership. Toronto’s strategy makes Philadelphia goes as far as defining ‘local and healthy reference to the city’s longstanding reputation ‘as a food movements’ as ‘economic development world leader in food thinking and action’ (Toronto strategies’ (DVRPC 2011, 4). Public Health Department 2010, 6); New York City More generally, what emerges in these documents aspires to become ‘a leader in food system’s change’ is a tendency to approach food security in very (New York City Council 2010, 3); and Los Angeles holistic terms, through the use of a language that positions itself as a ‘world leader’ in the provision of makes explicit reference, at the same time, to the ‘healthy, affordable, fair and sustainable food’ (Los economy, society and the environment – the Angeles Food Policy Task Force 2010, 6). fundamental pillars of sustainable development. Significantly, this awareness of the opportunities Brighton and Hove was one of the earliest cities to created by a rescaling of political action does not stress in its food strategy the relationships that the food translate into an autarkic or defensive approach to system has with ‘social equity, economic prosperity, food system change. Urban food strategies often make environmental sustainability, global fair trade and the explicit reference to the constraints created by a wider health and well being of all residents’ (Brighton and economic context that makes cities ‘net importers of Hove Food Partnership 2006, 1). A similar view is food’ (Manchester City Council 2007), subject to present in Newquay’s food strategy, which highlights market forces and vulnerable to changing consumer the connections between ‘food, health, the environ- preferences (London Development Agency 2006, 17). ment and economic regeneration’ (Duchy of Cornwall To overcome such constraints and recapture power et al. 2007), and in the Philadelphia’s plan, which from the conventional system, many of the documents emphasises the potential of food in terms of analysed raise the need for changes in the wider ‘strengthening the agricultural sector, improving governance context. In some cases, the documents public health, protecting soil and water resources’ include requests for specific forms of intervention, and, more broadly, ‘encouraging diversity, innovation such as a reorientation of farm subsidies to support the and collaboration’ (DVRPC 2011). production of healthy food (New York City Council This holistic interpretation of the benefits pro- 2010, 3) or, in the case of Philadelphia, the introduced by a sustainable and secure food system has duction of new regional tax policies to incentivise important repercussions on the conceptualisation of fresh food production for local markets (DVRPC 2011, re-localisation – a strategy that the academic literature 30). In short, cities see themselves as pioneers of a has often linked quite closely with sustainability wider food system change – or, as stated in New York outcomes (Renting et al. 2003; Sonnino 2013). In City’s strategy (New York City Council 2010, 3), ‘a general, local food tends to be promoted for its model of how targeted local action can support large economic and environmental benefits – or, as stated scale improvements’. by New York City’s Council (2010, 4), its potential to create employment opportunities for urban residents and to decrease energy costs. However, by and Rethinking localisation in the context of a holistic large cities do not consider re-localisation (or, more approach to sustainability precisely, the development of urban food production) In general, notions of ‘freshness’ and ‘healthiness’ are as an end goal. In general, local food is just a means central in the narratives of urban food strategies. to an end – i.e. it is embedded in a wider strategy for Significantly, however, they are never discussed in sustainability. Indeed, most urban food strategies do isolation from other sustainability objectives. The city not define or attempt to delimit their local food of Toronto, for example, envisions a ‘health-focused system; rather, they describe it through the multiple food system’ that ‘nourishes the environment, protects benefits that it is expected to deliver (including global against climate change, promotes social justice, fairtrade, which is explicitly mentioned in both creates local and diverse economic development, Brighton and Hove’s and Bristol’s documents).

Brighton and Hove provides an especially illus- poverty and hunger . . . exist on such a massive scale trative example of this new localism. Whereas in its that supporting urban agriculture should only be first food strategy (Brighton and Hove Food viewed as a supplement, not a replacement, strategy Partnership 2006, 7) the English city placed a strong to solve food insecurity and improve food access’ (Los emphasis on a ‘localised food system’ for the Angeles Food Policy Task Force 2010, 26). Likewise, environmental benefits that this produces, its most Lewisham’s strategy states: ‘local food growing recent document states: projects...are not the only answer to health inequalities [but] they can be part of a wider strategy’ Our strategy addresses ways in which we can localise our (Lewisham Council 2006, 22). food production and increase consumption of food What are then the main attributes of the ‘local/ produced from within a 50-mile radius, but only as part of regional’ food system that urban strategies are a sustainable food system. The distance travelled by food, envisioning? In general, the North American docu- whilst significant, is not the only measure of food’s ments make an effort to delineate the boundaries of the environmental impact . . . The energy intensiveness of regional/local either by referring to the State in which production and storage are amongst other crucial factors. the city is located (as is the case for Vancouver; Metro Brighton and Hove Food Partnership (2012, 28) Vancouver 2011) or, more often, by introducing the notion of ‘foodshed’ – a loosely defined geographical Toronto provides another important example of this area from which a population’s food ‘may theoretically new tendency to embed localisation into a wider be sourced’ (DVRPC 2011, 4). As stated in San sustainability vision. As stated in its food strategy: Francisco’s food strategy, the term ‘foodshed’ is useful to develop ‘the broadest’ definition of local food, one Sometimes, both the local food movement and its that takes into account not just territoriality, but also a detractors have become absorbed in debates expressing series of quality attributes such as agricultural the same compartmentalized thinking that characterizes production methods, fair farm labour practices and the dominant food system . . . The issue is not so much animal welfare (Thompson et al. 2008, 4). Likewise, which single food choice is ‘best’, but how can we Los Angeles interprets the concept of ‘foodshed’ not accelerate progress towards a comprehensive health- just in relation to food production and consumption, focused food system where the goals of affordability, but also in association with a range of regional environmental protection, local farm viability, land use economic, employment, demographic and environ- planning and others, can be reconciled. One of the mental indicators (Los Angeles Food Policy Task Force functions of this food strategy project is to promote this 2010). As Toronto’s food strategy puts it, ‘the strategic kind of dialogue. challenge is to build the links within this common Toronto Public Health Department (2010, 12) foodshed’ (Toronto Public Health Department 2010, 7). The foodshed, in short, is an ideal type, a normative goal, an envisioned foodscape in which the The regionalisation of the local city, the countryside and all different actors and A significant implication of this flexible interpretation stakeholders that occupy their spaces are reconnected of re-localisation is a broadening up of the notion of – physically, culturally, environmentally, socially and ‘local’ well beyond the municipal boundaries. Most economically. urban food strategies recognise the potential of the ‘local/urban’ (as defined in New York City’s strategy) to enhance urban food production, and there is Reconnecting food system actors, spaces widespread support for urban agriculture and com- and policies munity growing schemes in relation to both food The terms ‘connection’ and ‘reconnection’ play a very security and sustainability objectives. Chicago’s significant role in the narratives of urban food Regional comprehensive plan, for example, recog- strategies. The English city of Plymouth, for instance, nises that ‘although food miles account for only 11 makes reference to the ‘need to create a more percent of the food system’s greenhouse gas connected city’ and ‘close-knit communities’ in its emissions, a reduction of food miles also reduces the charter’s vision statement5 (Food Plymouth 2008). impact that rising fuel costs have on food prices’ Brighton and Hove’s strategy (2012) directly links (Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning 2010, re-localisation with ‘connectivity’. Manchester is 142). more explicit about the essential features that a ‘new However, the main focus of the urban food model for the urban food system’ should have: narratives is what New York City Council defines as the ‘local/regional food system’. Significantly, At present . . . the model is a chain in which food is food security concerns are a key driver of this produced outside the city, brought in, sold, consumed ‘regionalization of the local’. As stated in Los Angeles’ and the waste and packaging disposed of, generally food strategy: ‘while the benefits of urban agriculture outside the city again . . . There is considerable scope for are significant to individuals and neighbourhoods, . . . creating a closed loop system [that] would attempt to

reconnect the city to the food it consumes and reduce the to better coordinate supply from small and mid-sized environmental impact of food consumption. sustainable producers, encourage more local food City Council (2007, 19). processing facilities, develop alternative models for food market development, and offer more Good Food jobs The nature of the connections that urban food and small food enterprise opportunities . . . to residents strategies aim to achieve becomes evident especially of all races, genders, ethnicities, and socio-economic in the discussion of the instruments that municipal backgrounds. governments have at their disposal to realise their Los Angeles Food Policy Task Force (2010, 16) goals. In general, there are two main types of policy instruments that city governments emphasise. Many One of the main innovations in terms of infrastructural urban food strategies urge planners to consider food development is a ‘transit-oriented planning of fresh and to support access to land not just for agriculture, food outlets’ that the city of Philadelphia promotes but also for food manufacturing, storage and (DVRPC 2011, 71) ‘to maximize multimodal access to distribution. New York City, Philadelphia, Manchester fresh food by encouraging grocery stores, healthy and Newquay all envision a more enabling planning corner stores, and outdoor markets at key transit system that reconnects urban, peri-urban and rural nodes and within transit-oriented development areas. London’s food strategy goes further in its zones’. This aspiration is present in New York City’s approach to spatial planning, which is emphasised for food strategy as well, where it is suggested: ‘the city its capacity to promote (and create connections should ensure that farmers’ markets have adequate, between) ‘the development of on-farm processing high traffic, and stable space in which to operate’ facilities, the provision of sub-regional food distri- (New York City Council 2010, 22). bution systems, the production of street markets, Another important dimension of connectivity that farmers’ markets and specialist markets, the emerges from the analysis of urban food strategies is of maintenance of the High Street, tackling food ‘deserts’ political nature. Municipal food policymakers do not and a host of other food-related issues’ (London intend to operate in isolation. As mentioned earlier, Development Agency 2006, 21–22). they aim to vertically embed their initiatives to find The second instrument that urban food strategies support at higher governance scales. At the same time, aim to deploy during the implementation stage is urban food strategies consistently emphasise the public procurement. In addition to being praised for importance of horizontal forms of embeddedness – i.e. its connections with public health, climate change connecting food with other policies and sectors. Los mitigation and regional development (as stated in the Angeles, for example, raises the need for ‘integrating strategies produced by Toronto, New York City and local food system planning into our region’s Climate Philadelphia), public procurement is, again, extolled Action Plans, Regional Transportation Plans and other for its integrative potential – or, as stated in Bristol’s regional planning documents’ (Food Policy Task Force food strategy (Bristol Food Network 2009, 2), its 2010); Newquay’s food strategy argues that the capacity to foster a mutually supportive collaboration development of ‘reliable markets for local food between urban communities and the food producers, growers, fishing communities, processors, caterers and processors and suppliers located in rural and peri- retailers’ can make a significant contribution to the urban areas. The city of Toronto explicitly defines objectives of its sustainability strategy – namely, public procurement as ‘a tool for rural–urban limiting the population’s greenhouse gas emissions linkages’ (Toronto Public Health Department 2010). and ecological footprint and enhancing regional In Philadelphia’s strategy, sustainable procurement economic development (Duchy of Cornwall et al. initiatives are considered capable of making even 2007, 7–8). Policy connections are also emphasised in broader connections, embracing, as they do, ‘all food Brighton and Hove’s first urban food strategy (2006); in system stakeholders, ranging from the private sector to its vision, the document identifies as a key objective the public sector, from local food advocates to hunger the development of ‘an integrated, cross-sectoral relief organizations, from farmland preservation approach to food policy, which links initiatives within coordinators to economic development agencies’ public health, environmental sustainability, com- (DVRPC 2011, 11). munity development, education, agriculture, cultural In practical terms, this emphasis on connectivities and economic development, waste management, translates into a strong focus on infrastructural urban planning/land use and tourism’. development. New York City Council (2010), for This emphasis on policy integration has some example, aims to leverage its economic power ‘to significant governance repercussions. Urban food support alternative retail outlets like farmers’ markets strategies often raise the need for new institutional and Community Supported Agriculture’ and ‘to build arrangements that can facilitate coordination during a permanent wholesale farmers’ market to help mid- the implementation stage. This is the case, for sized farmers sell to restaurants, government institu- instance, of Chicago, which advocates the establi- tions and grocers’. Los Angeles envisions the creation shment of a specific non-profit regional food entity of a ‘Regional Food Hub’: that ‘should be represented by a variety of members

(economic, environmental, transport, agricultural, 2003; Sonnino 2007), with little consideration for the public health, etc.) to analyse and support food policy connections and disconnections between different issues from a comprehensive perspective and alternative food networks and their combined coordinate federal grants and loan programs’ potential for wider regional development. (Chicago Metropolitan Area for Planning 2010, 156). At a time of increased food insecurity, an explo- Los Angeles also suggests the establishment of a ration of the narratives that shape urban food ‘regional food policy council’ (Los Angeles Food strategies signals the emergence of a more integrated Policy Task Force 2010, 28). As stated in New York vision of a local space where urban and rural areas City’s food strategy, this governance mechanism can and actors are connected in a web of synergistic play an important role in eliciting ‘non-governmental relationships. The analysis of the emerging policy input on policy changes and institutionalize the work discourses reveals that these relationships (their embodied in this report’ (New York City Council formation and consolidation) represent the real 2010, 75). fulcrum for policy action, which targets primarily the nodal points of the food system (e.g. infrastructure and the policy areas where food intersect with other Urban food strategies and the new geography of sectors). food security: some conclusions Researchers and practitioners have highlighted the The new geography of food security is creating space transformative potential of this new food politics of for the emergence of a new localism that does not place. For some academics, the novel forms of have, in itself, the capacity to address problems that, connectivity that, as described earlier, municipal in many cases, have emerged (and are experienced) at governments are attempting to create across and different scales. Nevertheless, there are important between urban and rural landscapes are challenging theoretical and practical lessons to be drawn from the conventional development theories and planning analysis of these local food strategies, especially in models (Knight and Riggs 2010; Lerner and Eakin relation to their new vision for a more secure and 2011). FAO also recently acknowledged that: sustainable food system. As a start, urban food policies do not target a specific and clearly defined a new paradigm is emerging for eco-system based, territorial context. Rather, they aim to establish a territorial food system planning [that] seeks . . . not to spatial, economic, environmental and social conti- replace the global food supply chains that contribute to nuum between different actors, interests and even food security for many countries but to improve the local policies. Urban food policy actors, in short, are management of food systems that are both local and constructing a ‘relational’ local (Boggs and Rantisi global. 2003) that current theories on food security and food FAO (2011a, 6) re-localisation are largely unable to address. This paper has identified the limitations of the food Empirical and longitudinal data will be needed at security debate, which has tended to focus mostly on the implementation stage to understand to what extent the two ends of the food system, overlooking a range urban food strategies can reconfigure the relationships of intermediary actors and activities (e.g. processing, between urban and rural areas and between different distribution, packaging) that are key for creating, food system actors. However, this preliminary analysis consolidating or constraining the relationships of the narratives embedded in recent documents between food producers and consumers. As discussed identifies two important empirical contexts that earlier, this unwarranted polarisation of food security can provide a starting point for rethinking the discussions has been responsible for the tendency to relationship between food security, sustainability and confine the analysis of the problem to either the re-localisation. On the one hand, there is a need for a macro or the micro level, with very little attention for much tighter focus on food exchange nodes (e.g. the ‘meso-level’ dynamics that connect (or separate) farmers’ markets, wholesale markets, food hubs) as national policies and households’ survival strategies. tangible ‘connecting devices’ of the supply chain. On The academic literature on food re-localisation, on the other hand, more research is needed on the role of its part, has also largely failed to develop a relational coordination in the food system – an issue that city approach to the analysis of the food system. Indeed, governments are attempting to address through new thus far much of the theoretical discussion has governance mechanisms, such as policy councils, that focused on understanding the ‘alternativeness’ of aim to raise the profile of food across multiple policy local food initiatives in relation to the conventional agendas. dynamics that have been shaping the global food In conclusion, urban food strategies are bringing to system (Allen et al. 2003; Goodman 2004; Sonnino the fore the vital role of physical infrastructure and of and Marsden 2006). From a methodological pers- policy integration for enhancing food security and pective, this tendency has resulted in a widespread sustainability. Connectivities are beginning to emerge empirical emphasis on individual case studies and as both intervention sites and analytical lenses to producer initiatives (Ilbery and Kneafsey 2000; Sage understand and support a new agenda that is striving

The Geographical Journal 2016 182 190–200 doi: 10.1111/geoj.12129 © 2014 Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers) 198 The new geography of food security to foster the multifunctional potential of food in and physical, but also, as I explain in this section, relation to public health, community development, socioeconomic, sectoral and political. environmental integrity and sustainable land use – the values that are increasingly implicated by the References complex dynamics of the new geography of food security. Allen P, FitzSimmons M, Goodman D and Warner K 2003 Shifting plates in the agrifood landscape: the tectonics of alternative agrifood initiatives in California Journal of Rural Acknowledgements Studies 19 61–75 The author would like to thank colleagues who have Ashe L and Sonnino R 2013 At the crossroads: new paradigms of commented on early drafts of this paper (especially food security, public health nutrition and school food Public Terry Marsden). Special thanks also to the editor of Health Nutrition 16 1020–7 this journal and to two anonymous referees for their Barling D, Sharpe R and T Lang 2008 Rethinking Britain’s Food very insightful and constructive comments and Security City University, London suggestions. The usual disclaimer applies. Blay-Palmer A 2009 The Canadian pioneer: the genesis of urban food policy in Toronto International Planning Studies 14 401–16 Notes Boggs J S and Rantisi N M 2003 The ‘relational turn’ in human 1 The sample includes Toronto and Vancouver (Canada); New geography Journal of Economic Geography 3 109–16 York City, Chicago, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Oakland and Brighton and Hove Food Partnership 2006 Spade to spoon: San Francisco (USA); Plymouth, Bristol, London, Newquay, making the connections. A food strategy and action plan for Brighton and Hove, Manchester and Lewisham (UK). Brighton and Hove Brighton and Hove Food Partnership, Food 2 As one reviewer pointed out, feminist scholars played an Matters and Brighton and Hove City Council, Brighton and important role in the development of this ‘intra-household Hove entitlements’ framework. In her 1987 book on famine in Brighton and Hove Food Partnership 2012 Spade to spoon: Malawi, for example, Megan Vaughan strongly criticised the digging deeper. A food strategy and action plan for Brighton tendency to draw conclusions on the causes of hunger from and Hove Brighton and Hove Food Partnership, Food Matters aggregate data on food supplies and stressed the local variety and Brighton and Hove City Council, Brighton and Hove of experiences and perceptions that are historically associated Bristol Food Network 2009 A sustainable food strategy for Bristol with famine. and Bristol Food Network Bristol Food Network, Bristol 3 Engel’s law predicts that a rise in household and national Chan M 2009 Focus on health is the key to welfare of humanity income tends to decrease the proportion of that income (www.who.int/dg/speeches/2009/health_focus_20090706/ spent on food. The new geography of food security is en/) Accessed 10 November 2014 affecting this trend. In the UK, for example, a recent Chappell M J and LaValle L A 2011 Food security and Parliamentary Inquiry into Hunger and Food Poverty revealed biodiversity: can we have both? An agroecological analysis that the proportion of household income spent on food Agriculture and Human Values 28 3–26 increased between 2003 and 2011, mostly as a result of Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning 2010 Chicago: GO rising food prices (Field 2014). Predictably, the effects have TO 2040 Regional comprehensive plan Chicago been especially negative for households in the lowest Collette L, Hodgkin T, Kassam A, Kenmore P, Lipper L, Nolte C, income group, which are consuming less healthy foods (such Stamoulis K and Steduto P 2011 Save and grow: a policy as fruit and vegetables) and more processed products (such makers guide to the sustainable intensification of smallholder as bacon and cheese). crop production (www.fao.org/ag/save-and-grow/index_en 4 This may reflect an effort by urban governments to subsume .html) Accessed 10 November 2014 food security under a wider sustainability agenda that DavisCGC,Thomas Y and Amponsah W A 2001 Globalization resonates more widely across policy and civil society and poverty: lessons from the theory and practice of food communities. As I will explain, urban food strategies make a security American Journal of Agricultural Economics 83 clear effort to emphasise the connections between food and 714–21 other sectors and to stress its potential contributions to the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission (DVRPC) 2011 achievement of other environmental and socioeconomic Eating here: greater Philadelphia’s food system plan DVRPC, objectives. Philadelphia 5 The language here evokes the ‘garden city’ (a blending of the Dibden J, Gibbs D and Cocklin C 2013 Framing GM crops as a benefits of rural and urban life) first envisioned by planner E. food security solution Journal of Rural Studies 29 59–70 Howard at the end of the nineteenth century. As Carolyn Dilley M and Boudreau T E 2001 Coming to terms with Steel (2008, 301) recalls, the progressive land reform that vulnerability: a critique of the food security definition Food forms the basis of this ideal has however failed to Policy 26 229–47 materialise, turning the garden city into a ‘utopia for all Duchy of Cornwall ESD Restormel Borough Council and Sustain seasons’. Urban food strategies seem to move beyond this 2007 Newquay growth area food strategy Newquay utopia by broadening the vision around the linkages FAO 2011a Food, agriculture and cities: challenges of food and between city and countryside, which are not just spatial nutrition security, agriculture and ecosystem management in

an urbanizing world FAO Food for the Cities Multidisciplinary Marsden T and Sonnino R 2012 Human health and wellbeing Initiative Position Paper, FAO, Rome and the sustainability of urban-regional food systems Current FAO 2011b Food for the cities factsheet FAO, Rome Opinion in Environmental Sustainability 4 427–30 Field F 2014 All party parliamentary inquiry into hunger and Maxwell S 1996 Food security: a post-modern perspective Food food poverty in Britain. Evidence paper 1 – Expenditure (http:// Policy 21 155–70 foodpovertyinquiry.org) Accessed 23 September 2014 McIntyre B D, Herren H R, Wakhungu J and Watson R T eds Fish R, Lobley M and Winter M 2013 A license to produce? 2009 International assessment of agricultural knowledge, Farmer interpretations of the new food security agenda Journal science and technology for development: global report of Rural Studies 29 40–9 IAASTD, Washington Food Plymouth 2008 The Plymouth food charter Plymouth, UK Mendes W 2008 Implementing social and environmental Garnett T 2013 Food sustainability: problems, perspectives and policies in cities: the case of food policy in Vancouver, Canada solutions Proceedings of the Nutrition Society 72 29–39 International Journal of Urban and Regional Research 32 Gladwin C H, Thomson A M, Peterson J S and Anderson A S 942–67 2001 Addressing food security in Africa via multiple livelihood Metro Vancouver 2011 Regional food system strategy Metro strategies of women farmers Food Policy 26 177–207 Vancouver, Vancouver Goodman D 2004 Rural Europe redux? Reflections on alternative Misselhorn A, Aggarwal P, Ericksen P, Gregory P, agro-food networks and paradigm change Sociologia Ruralis Horn-Phathanothai L, Ingram J and Wiebe K 2012 A vision for 44 3–16 attaining food security Current Opinion in Environmental Harsch E 1992 Enhanced food production: an African priority in Sustainability 4 7–17 Maxwell S ed Food security in Africa: priorities for reducing Morgan K J and Sonnino R 2010 The urban foodscape: world hunger Africa Recovery Briefing Paper No. 6 United Nations cities and the new food equation Cambridge Journal of Department of Public Information, New York Regions, Economy and Society 3 209–24 Holt-Giménez E 2008 The world food crisis – what’s behind it Mullie P, Clarys P, Hulens M and Vansant G 2010 Dietary and what we can do about It Food First Policy Brief Note 16 patterns and socioeconomic position European Journal of Ilbery B and Kneafsey M 2000 Producer constructions of quality Clinical Nutrition 64 231–8 in regional speciality food production: a case study from South Nally D 2014 Governing precarious lives: land grabs, West England Journal of Rural Studies 16 217–30 geopolitics, and ‘food security’ The Geographical Journal 181 Knight L and Riggs W 2010 Nourishing urbanism: a case for a 340–49 new urban paradigm International Journal of Agricultural New York City Council 2010 FoodWorks: a vision to improve Sustainability 8 116–26 NYC’s food system The New York City Council, New York Lang T 2010 Crisis? What crisis? The normality of the current City food crisis Journal of Agrarian Change 10 87–97 Parfit J, Barthel M and Macnaughotn S 2010 Food waste within Lang T and Barling D 2012 Food security and food sustainability: food supply chains: quantification and potential for change to reformulating the debate The Geographical Journal 178 4 2050 Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: 313–26 Biological Sciences 365 3065–81 Lang T, Barling D and Caraher M 2009 Food policy. Integrating Renting H, Marsden T K and Banks J 2003 Understanding health, environment & society Oxford University Press, Oxford alternative food networks: exploring the role of short supply Lerner A M and Eakin H 2011 An obsolete dichotomy? chains in rural development Environment and Planning A 35 Rethinking the rural–urban interface in terms of food security 393–411 and production in the global South The Geographical Journal Rosin C 2013 Food security and the justification of productivism 177 311–20 in New Zealand Journal of Rural Studies 29 50–8 Lewisham Council 2006 Lewisham food strategy: are you Sage C 2003 Social embeddedness and relations of regard: thinking about food? Lewisham Council, The Lewisham alternative ‘good food’ networks in South-West Ireland. Hospital NHS Trust, NHS Lewisham Primary Care Trust, Journal of Rural Studies 19 47–60 Lewisham Sage C 2013 The interconnected challenges for food security Lindenberg M 2002 Measuring household livelihood security at from a food regimes perspective: energy, climate and the family and community level in the developing world World malconsumption Journal of Rural Studies 29 71–80 Development 30 301–18 SenAK1981 Poverty and famines: an essay on entitlement and London Development Agency 2006 Healthy and sustainable deprivation Clarendon Press, Oxford food for London: the mayor’s food strategy London Shaw D J 2007 World food security: a history since 1945 Development Agency and The Mayor of London, London Palgrave Macmillan, New York Los Angeles Food Policy Task Force 2010 The good food for all Sonnino R 2007 Embeddedness in action: saffron and the making agenda: creating a new regional food system for Los Angeles of the local in southern Tuscany Agriculture and Human Values Food Policy Task Force, Los Angeles 24 61–74 Manchester City Council 2007 Food futures Manchester: a food Sonnino R 2009a Feeding the city: towards a new research and strategy for Manchester Manchester City Council, Manchester planning agenda International Planning Studies 14 425–35 Marsden T 2013 From post-productionism to reflexive Sonnino R 2009b Quality food, public procurement, and governance: contested transitions in securing more sustainable sustainable development: the school meal revolution in Rome food futures Journal of Rural Studies 29 123–34 Environment and Planning A 41 425–40

Sonnino R 2013 Local foodscapes: place and power in the Toronto Toronto Public Health Department and Toronto Food agri-food system Acta Agriculturae Scandinavica Section B – Strategy Steering Group, Toronto Soil and Plant Science 63 2–7 UNEP 2012 Avoiding future famines: strengthening the Sonnino R and Marsden T K 2006 Beyond the divide: rethin- ecological foundation of food security through sustainable king relations between alternative and conventional food food systems United Nations Environment Programme networks in Europe Journal of Economic Geography 2 181– (UNEP), Nairobi, Kenya 99 Unger S and Wooten H 2006 A food system’s assessment for Sonnino R, Moragues Faus A and Maggio A 2014 Sustainable Oakland, CA: toward a sustainable food plan Oakland Mayor’s food security: an emerging research and policy Agenda. Ofﬁce of Sustainability and University of California, Berkeley, International Journal of the Sociology of Agriculture and Food Department of City and Regional Planning 21 173–88 UN Habitat 2010 Urban divide: hunger, health and education Sonnino R and Spayde J 2014 The ‘new frontier’? Urban United Nations, State of the World’s Cities, 2010/2011 strategies for food security and sustainability in Marsden T and Valdivia C and Gilles J 2001 Gender and resource management: Morley A eds Sustainable food systems: building a new households and groups, strategies and transitions Agriculture paradigm Routledge, London 186–205 and Human Values 18 5–9 Steel C 2008 Hungry city: how food shapes our lives Chatto and Vaughan M 1987 The story of an African famine: gender and Windus, London famine in twentieth century Malawi Cambridge University Thompson E Jr, Harper A M and Kraus S 2008 Think globally – Press, Cambridge eat locally: San Francisco Foodshed Assessment American Viljoen A and Wiskerke H eds 2012 Sustainable food planning: Farmland Trust, Sustainable Agriculture Education and evolving theory and practice Wageningen University Press, University of California Berkeley, San Francisco Wageningen Toronto Public Health Department 2010 Cultivating food Wrigley N 2002 ‘Food deserts’ in British cities: policy context connections: toward a healthy and sustainable food system in and research priorities Urban Studies 39 2029–40