Food, Agriculture, and Nutrition Issues for Planning

Food and Agriculture Issues for Planning

New evidence this year corroborates the rise in world hunger observed in this report last year, sending a warning that more action is needed if we aspire to end world hunger and malnutrition in all its forms by 2030. Updated estimates show the number of people who suffer from hunger has been growing over the past three years, returning to prevailing levels from almost a decade ago. Although progress continues to be made in reducing child stunting, over 22 percent of children under five years of age are still affected. Other forms of malnutrition are also growing: adult obesity continues to increase in countries irrespective of their income levels, and many countries are coping with multiple forms of malnutrition at the same time – overweight and obesity, as well as anaemia in women, and child stunting and wasting.

The integration of food into urban planning is a crucial and emerging topic. Urban planners, alongside the local and regional authorities that have traditionally been less engaged in food-related issues, are now asked to take a central and active part in understanding the way food is produced, processed, packaged, transported, marketed, consumed, disposed of and recycled in our cities. Despite a growing body of literature on food and cities, the issue of planning cities in such a way they will increase food security and nutrition, not only for the affluent segments of society but primarily for the poor, is much less discussed, and much less informed by practices. This volume intends to fill this gap by putting more than 20 city-based experiences in perspective: Toronto, New York City, Providence and Portland in North America; Cape Town and Ghana in Africa; Milan in Europe; Lima and Belo Horizonte in South America; and, in Asia, Bangkok, Solo and Yogyakarta in Indonesia, and Tokyo. By drawing on cities of different sizes, from regions across the global north and south, in both developed and developing areas, the contributors collectively attest to the importance of global knowledge rooted in local food planning practices, programmes and policies.

This book features a comprehensive foresight assessment, exploring the pressures — threats as well as opportunities — on the global agriculture & food systems between now and 2050. The overarching aim is to help readers understand the context, by analyzing global trends and anticipating change for better planning and constructing pathways from the present to the future by focusing on the right questions and problems. The book contextualizes the role of international agricultural research in addressing the complex challenges posed by UN 2030 Agenda and beyond, and identifies the decisions that scientific leaders, donors and policy makers need to take today, and in the years ahead, to ensure that a global population rising to nine billion or more combined with rising incomes and changing diets can be fed sustainably and equitably, in the face of the growing climate threats.