Research Proposal: Food Security and the City

Food insecurity is a prevailing problem around the world in both developing and developed countries
and in urban and rural areas. The challenge of tackling urban food security specifically is increasing
as cities expand, resources become scarcer and the affect of climate change is felt around the world.
The proposed research will explore how cities, as an increasingly important spatial and governance
scale, might best understand the nature of their urban food system and their exposure to future food
insecurity. The research will focus on comparative case study analysis of two contrasting locations to
provide new insights and approaches for assessing urban food security at the city scale. The research
will bring together the disciplines of urban planning, infrastructure planning, environmental
management, health services and risk management at the urban scale with a unique multi-disciplinary
approach to understanding the urban food system. The researcher has an ongoing relationship with
the consultancy Arup who are interested supporting this research.

1. Introduction

Food Security – A global problem

Globally, hunger is widespread. Just under one billion people do not have adequate access to
sufficient food to meet their daily energy and nutritional needs with almost all (98%) of these people
live in developing countries (FAO, 2010). Asia and the Pacific continue to be home to the majority of
undernourished people (62%) with over 40% living in China and India alone (FAO, 2010). Food
security is also increasingly an issue in developed countries (Food Ethics Council, 2010). Across
Europe and North America, the number of people seeking emergency assistance to combat hunger and
food insecurity is rising. In the UK, national surveys1 have found a substantial number of low
income households experiencing food insecurity. Over one third surveyed worried about lack of
money to pay for food and a fifth regularly reduced or skipped meals due to financial constraints
(FSA, 2007). These figures are rising with a leading UK foodbank charity indicating a tripling in the
number of emergency food supplies provided in the six months between April and September 2013
compared to the previous year; the charity also reports opening two foodbanks per week nationally to
cope with demand (Trussell Trust, 2013).

Urban Food Security – A unique challenge

It is often cited that there is sufficient food to feed the world’s population measured on a ‘calories per
capita’ basis yet in spite of this, hunger prevails and much literature has discussed the failures of the
food system in fairly and equitably distributing food resources to achieve food security for all people
(Food Ethics Council, 2010)(SDC, 2009)(Evans, 2009) (Hawkesworth, 2010). The distribution of
the world’s hungry and food insecure is also changing. With more than half the world’s population
now living in cities, and urbanisation trends continuing to raise this percentage, securing an adequate
food supply for urban populations is now a key challenge. In this context, the stability, governance,
and resilience of food supply and distribution systems into cities is a critical component of tackling
global food security.

Addressing food security in the urban environment presents unique challenges over traditional rural
issues. These include a greater relative importance of physical and economic accessibility to food, a
conflict between resource requirements for expanding cities and their food supply catchments and the
affects of pressure exerted by global markets on local (city scale) food systems (Koc, et.al., 2009).

1
The UK’s Low Income Diet and Nutrition Survey (LIDNS) surveys the dietary intake of people living in
households with lowest 20% of income.

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 Research Proposal: Food Security and the City

Furthermore, the urban food system is complex including components relating to international,
regional and local supply, wholesale and retail distribution, diverse consumption patterns, and waste
disposal requirements; to manage the system to ensure urban food security, issues of food availability,
accessibility and utilisation must all be addressed (Barret, 2010) (Ingram, et.al., 2010).

Cities around the world are already taking steps to address their food system sustainability and
security with a wide ranging focus, including, for example, on city food policy, cross-sector
governance, urban production, asset mapping, food aid, and nutrition education (FAO, 2011)
(Morgan, 2009) (Morgan & Sonnino, 2010). While the nature and focus of approaches and
interventions has varied considerably in different locations, an acknowledgement that cities are key
actors in addressing urban food security has emerged. Those involved in governing the urban
environment have an important role to play in managing the food system to ensure food security and
public health (Raja, Born & Russell, 2008) (Morgan & Sonnino, 2010).

Cities in the Future

To add to the challenge facing cities, addressing current food security is no longer sufficient. Cities
must act against a backdrop of global drivers of change which will present unpredictable and
unprecedented risks and challenges to the urban environment. A complex and interconnected mix of
drivers will apply pressure on the urban food system moving forward, including (Foresight,
2011)(Evans, 2009):

 Demand Side Drivers (Population, distribution and demographics, urbanisation, the ‘Nutrition
Transition’, and biofuel production),
 Supply Side Drivers (climate change, resource scarcity, environmental quality, and
biodiversity), and
 Market and Governance Drivers (Political instability and conflict, price volatility, and the
impact of commodity markets).

Addressing the affects of these issues at the city scale requires new approaches that consider both
current and future pressures and their impact on this complex system along with acknowledging the
likely spatial, environmental, geo-political and cultural variations that exist between cities.

The gap in knowledge

While practitioners have explored ways of assessing and monitoring current food security (i.e. the
existing state of play, for example (USDA, 2000) (FAO, 2008)), little work has been done to address
future risk and resilience of urban food systems. Meanwhile, frameworks seeking to assess future
risks and vulnerabilities (for example (Defra, 2010)), tend to be applied at a regional or national
perspective with little focus at the city scale.

Given that the urban environment is under increasing stress, there is a clear need to take a forward-
looking perspective in tackling food insecurity at the city scale. Assessing future risks to the food
system at the city scale is an important step.

The proposed research therefore seeks to explore how cities, as a unique and important spatial scale,
might explore and assess risks and pressures facing their food system and their system’s inherent
vulnerabilities in a changing future.

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 Research Proposal: Food Security and the City

2. Aims of the Research

The specific aims of this research are two-fold.

First, to improve understanding of the nature of the urban food system to enable a better
understanding of the role that a city plays in controlling and influencing its food system.

Second, to develop and test a city scale approach for assessing the resilience of an urban food system
to future food insecurity and exploring the role that a city might play in managing its food system for
improved food security.

In this context, the research will address a series of questions, including:

 What are the key components of the food system for a city?
 What are the factors which influence the resilience of a city’s food system? How do local
versus global trends affect those factors?
 Can a framework be developed to assess the vulnerability of a city’s food system to stresses
and shocks?
 Would such a framework result in being able to identify policy and practice interventions to
improve food security for a city?
The research questions will be developed and refined through an initial scoping phase and more
detailed literature review.

3. Methodology

The research will be divided into two main phases: framework development and case study analysis.

Framework Development

A conceptual assessment framework will be developed though desk based literature review, focus
groups and stakeholder interviews. Developing this framework will involve:

 Identifying the components, characteristics, flows, actors, assets, and boundaries of the urban
food system that may contribute to understanding a city’s food security;
 Identifying pressures, vulnerabilities and risks facing the urban food systems and factors
contributing to its resilience; and
 Reviewing existing food security and resilience assessment theory to identify themes and
approaches. Urban system resilience thinking and approaches such as those discussed by
(Resilience Alliance, 2010), (Bahadur, et.al., 2010), (ICE, 2012), and (Tanner, et.al., 2009)
provide a useful conceptual model for looking at this problem but their application to food
systems has been limited. The research will consider the applicability of these approaches in
an urban food security context.

Case Study Analysis

Using the assessment framework, the research will involve detailed case study analysis of two cities
in different development and geopolitical contexts. The research will engage with local practitioners

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 Research Proposal: Food Security and the City

and city actors in both locations to gain a diverse viewpoint on the functioning of the urban food
system. Forecast and modeled data on key global trends (e.g. changing climate, urbanisation,
demographic shifts, economic development trends, etc.) will also be collated to review how the case
study cities are vulnerable to future pressures.

The researcher has an ongoing relationship with Arup (engineering and environmental consultants)
who are interested in supporting this research.

Cities will be in the UK and south-east Asia where Arup have existing relationships with city leaders.
Working with Arup in both locations, the firm’s networks will be used to access key city actors,
projects, experience and data not otherwise readily available. The researcher will use local Arup
offices as a base during fieldwork and have access to key Arup staff in these locations. Arup have
provided in-principle support to this research including access to travel and subsistence expense
funding.

The case studies will compare and contrast the nature of the urban food system in the selected cities
along with the risks and vulnerabilities facing each food system. Not only will the ability to assess
food system resilience be explored but a more nuanced understanding of the issues, potential
pathways and branching points for transitions to increase food security might be identified. Coupled
with the framework, these findings will provide a unique approach to assessing city scale food
security and food system resilience.

4. Research Significance

The research will provide city planners (and those involved in managing the urban food system at the
city scale) with a new approach to identifying and assessing future risks and vulnerabilities facing the
urban food system. The framework and case study analysis will address a gap in our understanding of
the critical factors affecting food security in the urban environment, particularly in the face of drivers
of change, and the role that a city can meaningfully play.

A unique characteristic of the proposed research is its focus on the socio-economic aspects of food
security at a city-scale. The issue of food availability (agriculture in the rural, peri-urban and urban
environment) is largely technical and more comprehensively researched. However, physical and
economic accessibility and utilisation of food within the city are less well understood components of
urban food security and a focus on these issues at the city scale allows for issues of governance, land
use, policy (such as transport and development) and equality to be examined.

With greater knowledge and new decision making tools, cities will be better placed to engage with the
management of the urban food system on a more informed basis to improve food security and public
health for residents, now and in the future.

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 Research Proposal: Food Security and the City

References

Barret, C., 2010. Measuring Food Insecurity. Science, Volume 327, pp. 825-828.

Bahadur, A., Ibrahim, M. & Tanner, T., 2010. The resiliance renaissance? Unpacking resilience for tackling
climate change and disasters, Brighton, UK: Institute of Development Studies.

Defra, 2010. UK Food Security Assessment: Detailed Analysis, London: Department for Environment Food and
Rural Affairs.

Evans, A., 2009. The Feeding of the Nine Billion: Global food security for the 21st Century, London: Chatham
House.

FAO, 2008. Deriving Food Security Information from National Household Budget Surveys, Rome: Food and
Agriculture Organisation.

FAO, 2010. The State of Food Insecurity in the World, Rome: Food and Agriculture Organisation.

FAO, 2011. Food, Agriculture and Cities: Challenges of food and nutrition security, agriculture and ecosystem
management in an urbanizing world, Rome: FAO.

Food Ethics Council, 2010. Food Justice, The report of the Food and Fairness Enquiry, Brighton: Creative
Commons.

Foresight, 2011. The Future of Food and Farming, London: UK Government Office for Science.
(The UK government’s Foresight study into the Future of Food and Farming developed a consolidated set of drivers of change for the food
system. This summary consolidated the findings of a series of academic papers in the area. As such, this reference represents the
consolidated work of a wider academic community.)

FSA, 2007. Low income diet and nutrition survey: Summary of key findings, London: The Stationary Office.

Hawkesworth, S. E., 2010. Feeding the world healthily: the challenge of measuring the effects of agriculture on
health. Philisophical Transactions of the Royal Society, Volume 365, pp. 3083 - 3097.

ICE, 2012. Shifting Agendas: response to resilience - the role of the engineer in disaster risk reduction, London:
The Institute of Civil Engineers 9th Brunel International Lecture Series.

Ingram, J., Ericksen, P. & Liverman, D., 2010. Food Security and Global Environmental Change, London:
Earthscan.

Koc, R. et al., 1999. For Hunger Proof Cities: Sustainable Urban Food. Ottawa: International Development
Research Centre.

Morgan, K., 2009. Feeding the City: The Challenge of Urban Food Planning. International Planning Studies,
November, 14(4), pp. 341-348.

Morgan, K. & Sonnino, R., 2010. The urban foodscape: world cities and the new food equation. Cambridge
Journal of Regions, Economy and Society, Volume 3, pp. 209-224.

Resilience Alliance, 2006. Case Studies. [Online] Available at:

http://www.resalliance.org/index.php/case_studies [Accessed August 2012].

Resilience Alliance, 2010. Assessing Resilience in Social Ecological Systems: Workbook for Practitioners.
Version 2.0, s.l.: Resilience Alliance.

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Raja, S., Born, B. & Russell, J., 2008. A Planners Guide to Community and Regional Food Planning, Chicago:
American Planning Association.

SDC, 2009. Food Security and Sustainability - The Perfect Fit, London: UK Sustainable Development
Commission.

Tanner, T., Mitchell, T., Polack, E. & Guenther, B., 2009. Urban Governance for Adaptation: Addressing
Climate Change Resilience in Ten Asian Cities, Brighton, UK: Institute for Development Studies.

Trussell Trust, 2013. Press Release - Tripling in foodbank usage sparks Trussell Trust to call for an inquiry
[Online] Available at: http://www.trusselltrust.org/foodbank-numbers-triple [Accessed 3 December 2013]