Resilience of Community Food Systems (CFS): Co-Design as a Long-Term Viable Pathway to Face Crises in Neglected Territories?

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought on a global crisis, with impacts an ongoing food security and nutrition, exposing the vulnerabilities of our society. However, it can be a time for reflection and an opportunity to propose and stimulate initiatives that are ready to facilitate resilience within the food system. The food to fork must be shortened and diversified where it is viable and feasible, while made affordable for all societal levels. To face these challengers, the community food systems (CFS) approach has a crucial role, since it copes with relevant principles, including the necessities of low-income societies from areas particularly marginalized from mainstream food systems, of which those land areas also can pose as additional insurance just in case of occurrence of whatever crises. Systematizing the components and contributions of CFS can facilitate the advance of strategies to better deal with crises and increase resilience. Therefore, in this paper, through key elements of CFS, we propose a theoretical framework that can be applied by decision makers as a conceptual guide for combating threats to food systems in neglected territories.

Systematic Literature Review: Inter-Reletedness of Innovation, Resilience and Sustainability - Major, Emerging Themes and Future Research Directions

“…We review the papers that were published in one year before data collection. The results show that literature reviews [ 8 , 16 , 25 , 35 , 43 , 51 , 55 , 67 , 79 , 91 ] and case studies [ 2 , 4 , 9 , 17 , 24 , 30 , 54 , 61 , 83 , 88 ] are still the predominant research methods, although more sophisticated methods of research are starting to become adopted, though, such as systematic literature reviews [ 15 ], comparative analysis of the investment criteria and other reports [ 33 ], interviews [ 23 , 81 ] and surveys [ 32 , 50 , 66 , 90 ].…”

“…The first emerging theme, on food security and agriculture, encompasses the largest set of articles ([ 2 , 8 , 16 , 33 , 55 , 67 , 76 , 79 , 81 , 83 , 91 ] which could be due to the rising need to consider food security within the frame of resilience, sustainability and innovation. The constraint of the natural resources should not exceed natural regenerative capacity, while the economic return should meet certain expectations to be considered sustainable [ 16 ].…”

“…Benitez et al [ 2 ] investigated how more specifically how females as stakeholders through participation and leadership contribute to positive economic, ecological and sociocultural changes in farming households and communities. Researchers looked at different scales, such as various spatial scales (small, medium vs. large) and territorial scale (municipal, provincial and national vs. local, national and international) [ 8 , 16 , 33 , 67 , 76 , 79 , 81 ], and individual vs. household scale [ 2 ], or at the level of the forest, farm, community and territory ([ 79 , 83 , 91 ]. The related technologies have the potential to play a role in improving the sustainability and resilience of food systems, at cell, plant, field and farm scales [ 8 ].…”

Social learning as an underlying mechanism for sustainability in neglected communities: The Brazilian case of the Bucket Revolution project

“…Community-based organic residues management has proven potential to effectively recycle, improve residues flow, and promote new kinds of sustainable food systems (Abreu, 2013 ; Pope, 2020 ). It promotes fork-to-fork cycles that interconnect local composting and food production in urban and rural areas (Turetta et al, 2021 ). Although community composting is common in some countries, there is still a lack of information on the enabling conditions necessary to optimize logistical, environmental, economic, and social impacts (Bruni et al, 2020 ), especially in vulnerable communities.…”

Considering Ecosystem Services in Food System Resilience

“…The literature on food systems resilience has generally concentrated on the responses of food systems to climate change [ 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 ]; natural hazards [ 11 , 12 ]; socioeconomic crises, e.g., due to the COVID-19 pandemic [ 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 ]; and implications for interventions to build resilience [ 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 ]. There is a growing number of studies on food system resilience in rural and marginalized communities and neglected territories that focus on the role of natural resources [ 23 , 24 , 25 ]. Most of the studies on food systems resilience have focused on the measurement or assessment of livelihood, community resilience [ 26 , 27 , 28 , 29 , 30 , 31 ], determinants of livelihood resilience [ 20 , 32 , 33 ], and the linkages between sustainable agricultural practices and resilience [ 33 , 34 , 35 ].…”