The Elgar Companion to Food System Transformation for Sustainable Development (Elgar Companions to the Sustainable Development Goals series)

This expansive Companion examines the relationship between food systems and sustainability, exploring why transforming the food system is a vital step in achieving sustainability that extends beyond the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Combining theoretical insights with practical applications, this Companion presents regional case studies spanning every continent to identify both current challenges and future prospects for sustainable food system development. Contributors interrogate the synergies and trade-offs between the SDGs and how they relate to nexus thinking, including the water-energy-food nexus and its recent variations. Examining governance from state, market, and voluntary sector perspectives, contributing authors argue that governance by goals, such as the SDGs, is an insufficient way to adequately reshape food systems in order to be more sustainable.

The Elgar Companion to Food System Transformation for Sustainable Development is a crucial resource for students and scholars of human geography, agronomy, agroecology, political ecology, climate science, and environmental studies. Policymakers, advocacy groups and civil society actors will also benefit from the book’s forward-thinking strategies and policy recommendations.

Edited by Prajal Pradhan, Faculty of Science and Engineering, University of Groningen, the Netherlands and Laxmi Prasad Pant, Natural Resources Institute, University of Greenwich, UK