Sustainable Food System Assessment: Lessons from Global Practice

Sustainable Food System Assessment provides both practical and theoretical insights about the growing interest in and response to measuring food system sustainability. Bringing together research from the Global North and South, this book shares lessons learned, explores intended and actual project outcomes, and highlights points of conceptual and methodological convergence.

Interest in assessing food system sustainability is growing, as evidenced by the Milan Urban Food Policy Pact and the importance food systems initiatives have taken in serving as a lever for attaining the UN Sustainable Development Goals. This book opens by looking at the conceptual considerations of food systems indicators, including the place-based dimensions of food systems indicators and how measurements are implicated in sense-making and visioning processes. Chapters in the second part cover operationalizing metrics, including the development of food systems indicator frameworks, degrees of indicator complexities, and practical constraints to assessment. The final part focuses on the outcomes of assessment projects, including impacts on food policy and communities involved, highlighting the importance of building connections between sustainable food systems initiatives.

The global coverage and multi-scalar perspectives, including both conceptual and practical aspects, make this a key resource for academics and practitioners across planning, geography, urban studies, food studies, and research methods. It will also be of interest to government officials and those working within NGOs.

Alison Blay-Palmer is Director, Centre for Sustainable Food Systems and Professor of Geography and Environmental Studies, Wilfrid Laurier University, Canada

Damien Conaré is Secrétaire general of the Chaire Unesco Alimentations du monde, Montpellier SupAgro, France

Ken Meter is President of the Crossroads Resource Center, USA

Amanda Di Battista is a Project Coordinator at the Laurier Centre for Sustainable Food Systems, Canada

Carla Johnston is a PhD candidate, Balsillie School of International Affairs, Laurier Center for Sustainable Food Systems, Canada