FOOD AND THE CITY SAMENVATTING
Literature week 1
1. Pothukuchi, K., & Kaufman, J. L. (1999). Placing the food system on the
urban agenda: The role of municipal institutions in food systems planning.
Agriculture and Human Values, 16(2), 213-224.
In our view, four factors are most significant in understanding why the food system
has low visibility among urban policy officials and city residents:
1. Most people living in cities don't think much about where their food comes
from, or if they have any problems are getting it. They often just expect that
they can easily find and buy the food they want without much trouble or the
price.
2. When we talk about city problems, we usually think about things like housing
or crime, not food. People tend to see food issues as more related to rural
areas or farming. This view has been around for a long time and still exists
today. Food isn't considered as big of a problem in cities as things like finding
a place to live or dealing with crime. Food supply challenges were often seen
as farm failures rather than issues in distribution, given the close proximity of
production to urban areas. Despite occasional food shortages and famines,
texts on cities in the past rarely discussed urban food system issues like
access, nutrition, and waste disposal. The process of defining urban issues
was intricately linked with urbanization, which opposed rural issues and
products.
3. As cities grew and expanded, technology made it easy to get food from far
away places. This meant that even when cities spread out into areas that
used to be farmland, people didn't really notice because food was still
available and seemed fine, even if it wasn't from nearby anymore. The third
reason for the invisibility of the urban food system lies in technological
advancements in transportation, food preservation, and processing. By the
1930s, urban populations in the United States grew significantly, and with the
spread of highways, urban development extended rapidly, consuming
farmlands along the way. While maps documented this farmland
disappearance, local grocery stores did not. Technological innovations in
transportation, refrigeration, and food processing enabled food to come from
farther places and larger, corporate farms, hiding the shifts in how cities were
supplied with food from most urban residents' attention. Although the urban
food provisioning system drastically changed, the "thereness" of food on city
shelves remained unchanged for most residents. Advanced transportation,
refrigeration, and processing technologies compensated for the loss of local
farms. Consequently, as long as food flowed into suburban areas and central
city stores remained well-stocked, the urban food system remained unnoticed,
creating a low-visibility system within urban contexts.
, 4. In the US, there's a big separation in how policies are made for cities and rural
areas. For cities, policies mainly come from agencies focusing on housing and
urban development, while issues related to food are often overlooked. On the
other hand, policies regarding farms and agriculture, including food
regulations, are mainly set by the Department of Agriculture, and these don't
usually affect cities directly. This divide leads to food-related matters being left
out of urban policies.
This paper aims to show how important the city's food system is for the overall
quality of life in the area. It affects everything from individual and household health to
the local economy, land use, transportation, waste management, and even the
environment. For poorer households, it's especially crucial because they often spend
more of their money on food and have limited options due to a lack of supermarkets
and transportation.
The paper also talks about creating institutions within cities to manage these
food-related issues better. It suggests three types of institutions: a city department
solely focused on food (which doesn't exist yet), local food policy councils (FPC) that
are already active in around 15 communities, and another potential institution that
could be established if decision-makers prioritize urban food systems more.
Why food is a significant urban system
- Economic Contribution: Food sector activities constitute a significant portion of
a city's economy, accounting for a substantial percentage of retail and
wholesale sales, along with providing employment opportunities to a
considerable number of city residents.
- Household Expenditure: Households in cities allocate a significant portion of
their income for food purchases, varying from 10 to 40 percent, depending on
their income level.
- Agricultural Land Preservation: The preservation of agricultural land has
become increasingly important for cities to address sprawl issues. Loss of
farmland poses challenges, as seen in the reduction of agricultural acres in
certain regions.
- Food Waste and Environmental Impact: Food waste comprises a substantial
part of overall waste in cities, contributing significantly to landfill volumes.
Additionally, agricultural activities' impact on water systems, like chemical
runoffs affecting water quality, remains a concern.
- Health Concerns: Diet-related health problems are prevalent, particularly
among racial and ethnic minority communities concentrated in urban areas.
Diet patterns contribute to chronic diseases within these communities.
, - Transportation and Access: Trips to food outlets significantly contribute to
urban transportation volume, particularly affecting those relying on public
transit or facing transportation limitations.
- Housing and Food Security: Affordable housing shortages can jeopardize
food security among lower-income residents, as rent payments often take
precedence over food expenditures.
There are three potential places where the responsibility for creating a more holistic
understanding of a city’s food system can rest, in our judgment.
1. A proposed City Department of Food aims to centralize various food-related
functions within local government, such as market analysis, policy framing,
and long-term strategic planning for community food security. This department
would offer vital functions akin to other government bodies, alerting the
community to economic risks and proposing remedies, while also evaluating
program outcomes. However, its establishment faces challenges, including
costs, increased governmental responsibilities, staffing, and garnering support
for comprehensive local government involvement in food issues.
2. Food Policy Councils (FPCs) are groups in cities made up of different people
from the community. They work together to solve problems with how food is
grown and distributed locally.
3. City planning agencies, like those designing cities and communities, haven't
paid much attention to food systems. But food is vital to our lives like air and
water. Planners focus on making places better for people and connecting
different aspects of communities. Food isn't seen as a part of these
connections. It's not considered a sector like transportation or housing.
Planners need to include food in their plans to improve communities. Even
though people know food matters, they often don't realize how much it affects
our daily lives and community well-being
Conclusion
This paper emphasizes the importance of understanding the urban food system for
city well-being. It suggests using planning perspectives to address food security and
discusses local solutions like a food department or councils. While local planning
agencies could help, it may take outside forces like food coalitions to drive attention
to food issues. These agencies could use their resources to manage food-related
aspects effectively. Yet, the challenge lies in recognizing food as a vital urban
system. Although awareness is growing, government attention remains uncertain.
Past crises brought focus, but current awareness efforts might pave the way for
future attention to the critical food system.
, 2 Wiskerke, J. S. (2009). On places lost and places regained: Reflections on the
alternative food geography and sustainable regional development.International
Planning Studies, 14(4), 369-387.
Creation of satellite kitchens by the North Limburg Care Group to cater all its clients.
They operate at national and international level and are very well-acquainted with
European tender regulations.
- Upscaling in the care sector has an emotional effect on the quality of life in the care
and nursing homes. Trend of the past few decades in systems of food provision and
consumption is characterized by
three mutually reinforcing processes:
1. Disconnecting → upscaling supply chains increases distance between producers
and supplierson the one hand and consumers and customers on the other hand.
2. Disembedding → the place of production and supply has gradually lost its
influence over the quality and nature of many products: local and regional character
of products has disappeared.
3. Disentwinning → creating separate spheres due to increasing specialization =
disconnecting producers and suppliers. A decline in economic development can
have a negative impact on the quality of life because the economy is one of the
important indicators among many social activities that contribute to the welfare and
wellbeing of citizens. Problems that are relevant to understand
contemporary agri-food dynamics:
- Downward pressure on farm family incomes.
- Environmental pollution and ecological degradation → agricultural modernization
has resulted in the loss of non-agricultural biodiversity due to the destruction of
natural habitats and historico-cultural landscapes.
- Loss of organoleptic quality and diversity.
- Consumers’ uncertainty about, and distrust in, food.
- Health problems.
Two competing paradigms food geographies:
1. The agri-industrial paradigm (the hypermodern food geography) = ongoing
industrialization and globalization of agri-food production chain and standardization
of food production and processing.
2. The integrated and territorial agri-food paradigm (the alternative food geography)
= food production is firmly embedded in and based upon the specific qualities and
distinctive features of the region. Built around a highly differentiated definition of food
quality.
Literature week 1
1. Pothukuchi, K., & Kaufman, J. L. (1999). Placing the food system on the
urban agenda: The role of municipal institutions in food systems planning.
Agriculture and Human Values, 16(2), 213-224.
In our view, four factors are most significant in understanding why the food system
has low visibility among urban policy officials and city residents:
1. Most people living in cities don't think much about where their food comes
from, or if they have any problems are getting it. They often just expect that
they can easily find and buy the food they want without much trouble or the
price.
2. When we talk about city problems, we usually think about things like housing
or crime, not food. People tend to see food issues as more related to rural
areas or farming. This view has been around for a long time and still exists
today. Food isn't considered as big of a problem in cities as things like finding
a place to live or dealing with crime. Food supply challenges were often seen
as farm failures rather than issues in distribution, given the close proximity of
production to urban areas. Despite occasional food shortages and famines,
texts on cities in the past rarely discussed urban food system issues like
access, nutrition, and waste disposal. The process of defining urban issues
was intricately linked with urbanization, which opposed rural issues and
products.
3. As cities grew and expanded, technology made it easy to get food from far
away places. This meant that even when cities spread out into areas that
used to be farmland, people didn't really notice because food was still
available and seemed fine, even if it wasn't from nearby anymore. The third
reason for the invisibility of the urban food system lies in technological
advancements in transportation, food preservation, and processing. By the
1930s, urban populations in the United States grew significantly, and with the
spread of highways, urban development extended rapidly, consuming
farmlands along the way. While maps documented this farmland
disappearance, local grocery stores did not. Technological innovations in
transportation, refrigeration, and food processing enabled food to come from
farther places and larger, corporate farms, hiding the shifts in how cities were
supplied with food from most urban residents' attention. Although the urban
food provisioning system drastically changed, the "thereness" of food on city
shelves remained unchanged for most residents. Advanced transportation,
refrigeration, and processing technologies compensated for the loss of local
farms. Consequently, as long as food flowed into suburban areas and central
city stores remained well-stocked, the urban food system remained unnoticed,
creating a low-visibility system within urban contexts.
, 4. In the US, there's a big separation in how policies are made for cities and rural
areas. For cities, policies mainly come from agencies focusing on housing and
urban development, while issues related to food are often overlooked. On the
other hand, policies regarding farms and agriculture, including food
regulations, are mainly set by the Department of Agriculture, and these don't
usually affect cities directly. This divide leads to food-related matters being left
out of urban policies.
This paper aims to show how important the city's food system is for the overall
quality of life in the area. It affects everything from individual and household health to
the local economy, land use, transportation, waste management, and even the
environment. For poorer households, it's especially crucial because they often spend
more of their money on food and have limited options due to a lack of supermarkets
and transportation.
The paper also talks about creating institutions within cities to manage these
food-related issues better. It suggests three types of institutions: a city department
solely focused on food (which doesn't exist yet), local food policy councils (FPC) that
are already active in around 15 communities, and another potential institution that
could be established if decision-makers prioritize urban food systems more.
Why food is a significant urban system
- Economic Contribution: Food sector activities constitute a significant portion of
a city's economy, accounting for a substantial percentage of retail and
wholesale sales, along with providing employment opportunities to a
considerable number of city residents.
- Household Expenditure: Households in cities allocate a significant portion of
their income for food purchases, varying from 10 to 40 percent, depending on
their income level.
- Agricultural Land Preservation: The preservation of agricultural land has
become increasingly important for cities to address sprawl issues. Loss of
farmland poses challenges, as seen in the reduction of agricultural acres in
certain regions.
- Food Waste and Environmental Impact: Food waste comprises a substantial
part of overall waste in cities, contributing significantly to landfill volumes.
Additionally, agricultural activities' impact on water systems, like chemical
runoffs affecting water quality, remains a concern.
- Health Concerns: Diet-related health problems are prevalent, particularly
among racial and ethnic minority communities concentrated in urban areas.
Diet patterns contribute to chronic diseases within these communities.
, - Transportation and Access: Trips to food outlets significantly contribute to
urban transportation volume, particularly affecting those relying on public
transit or facing transportation limitations.
- Housing and Food Security: Affordable housing shortages can jeopardize
food security among lower-income residents, as rent payments often take
precedence over food expenditures.
There are three potential places where the responsibility for creating a more holistic
understanding of a city’s food system can rest, in our judgment.
1. A proposed City Department of Food aims to centralize various food-related
functions within local government, such as market analysis, policy framing,
and long-term strategic planning for community food security. This department
would offer vital functions akin to other government bodies, alerting the
community to economic risks and proposing remedies, while also evaluating
program outcomes. However, its establishment faces challenges, including
costs, increased governmental responsibilities, staffing, and garnering support
for comprehensive local government involvement in food issues.
2. Food Policy Councils (FPCs) are groups in cities made up of different people
from the community. They work together to solve problems with how food is
grown and distributed locally.
3. City planning agencies, like those designing cities and communities, haven't
paid much attention to food systems. But food is vital to our lives like air and
water. Planners focus on making places better for people and connecting
different aspects of communities. Food isn't seen as a part of these
connections. It's not considered a sector like transportation or housing.
Planners need to include food in their plans to improve communities. Even
though people know food matters, they often don't realize how much it affects
our daily lives and community well-being
Conclusion
This paper emphasizes the importance of understanding the urban food system for
city well-being. It suggests using planning perspectives to address food security and
discusses local solutions like a food department or councils. While local planning
agencies could help, it may take outside forces like food coalitions to drive attention
to food issues. These agencies could use their resources to manage food-related
aspects effectively. Yet, the challenge lies in recognizing food as a vital urban
system. Although awareness is growing, government attention remains uncertain.
Past crises brought focus, but current awareness efforts might pave the way for
future attention to the critical food system.
, 2 Wiskerke, J. S. (2009). On places lost and places regained: Reflections on the
alternative food geography and sustainable regional development.International
Planning Studies, 14(4), 369-387.
Creation of satellite kitchens by the North Limburg Care Group to cater all its clients.
They operate at national and international level and are very well-acquainted with
European tender regulations.
- Upscaling in the care sector has an emotional effect on the quality of life in the care
and nursing homes. Trend of the past few decades in systems of food provision and
consumption is characterized by
three mutually reinforcing processes:
1. Disconnecting → upscaling supply chains increases distance between producers
and supplierson the one hand and consumers and customers on the other hand.
2. Disembedding → the place of production and supply has gradually lost its
influence over the quality and nature of many products: local and regional character
of products has disappeared.
3. Disentwinning → creating separate spheres due to increasing specialization =
disconnecting producers and suppliers. A decline in economic development can
have a negative impact on the quality of life because the economy is one of the
important indicators among many social activities that contribute to the welfare and
wellbeing of citizens. Problems that are relevant to understand
contemporary agri-food dynamics:
- Downward pressure on farm family incomes.
- Environmental pollution and ecological degradation → agricultural modernization
has resulted in the loss of non-agricultural biodiversity due to the destruction of
natural habitats and historico-cultural landscapes.
- Loss of organoleptic quality and diversity.
- Consumers’ uncertainty about, and distrust in, food.
- Health problems.
Two competing paradigms food geographies:
1. The agri-industrial paradigm (the hypermodern food geography) = ongoing
industrialization and globalization of agri-food production chain and standardization
of food production and processing.
2. The integrated and territorial agri-food paradigm (the alternative food geography)
= food production is firmly embedded in and based upon the specific qualities and
distinctive features of the region. Built around a highly differentiated definition of food
quality.
