Policy-related challenges to building community-based agriculture and food systems that are ecologically sustainable and socially just are also highlighted.

Members of civil society organizations are among the most vociferouscritics of the modern food system and its crippling effect on thewell-being of people and the environment. Yet even after decades ofcampaigns, governments have failed to address health and sustainabilityissues in a systematic and effective way. Recognizing that new approaches are in order, Rod MacRae andElisabeth Abergel bring together experts and advocates from diversedisciplinary backgrounds to examine the food system from multipleangles. They conclude that solutions lie not just in lobbying electedofficials but in initiatives at the subparliamentary level. Casestudies on a range of topics -- from breastfeeding to sustainable pestmanagement promotion to the efforts of organizations and programs suchas the Canadian Biotechnology Advisory Council and the federalgovernment's Action Plan on Food Security -- tell a story ofmisguided campaigns and missed opportunities. Real change, this inspiring volume shows, is possible. It will comewhen advocacy groups develop innovative strategies of influencingdecision makers more resistant to public pressure: business lobbieswell connected to government agencies, middle managers, and ministriesunused to collaborating across departmental mandates. Rod MacRae is an associate professor of food policy inthe Faculty of Environmental Studies at York University.Elisabeth Abergel is a professor in the SociologyDepartment and a member of the Institut des Sciences del'Environnement at the Université du Québec à Montréal.

Food systems around the world face a triple challenge: providing food security and nutrition for a growing global population; supporting livelihoods for those working along the food supply chain; and contributing to environmental sustainability. Better policies hold tremendous promise for making progress in these domains.

For Hunger Proof Cities: Sustainable urban food systems

An increasing number of rural and urban-based movements are realizing some political traction in their demands for democratization of food systems through food sovereignty. Some are pressuring to institutionalize food sovereignty principles and practices through laws, policies, and programs. While the literature on food sovereignty continues to grow in volume and complexity, there are a number of key questions that need to be examined more deeply. These relate specifically to the processes and consequences of seeking to institutionalize food sovereignty: What dimensions of food sovereignty are addressed in public policies and which are left out? What are the tensions, losses and gains for social movements engaging with sub-national and national governments? How can local governments be leveraged to build autonomous spaces against state and corporate power? The contributors to this book analyze diverse institutional processes related to food sovereignty, ranging from community-supported agriculture to food policy councils, direct democracy initiatives to constitutional amendments, the drafting of new food sovereignty laws to public procurement programmes, as well as Indigenous and youth perspectives, in a variety of contexts including Brazil, Ecuador, Spain, Switzerland, UK, Canada, USA, and Africa. Together, the contributors to this book discuss the political implications of integrating food sovereignty into existing liberal political structures, and analyze the emergence of new political spaces and dynamics in response to interactions between state governance systems and social movements voicing the radical demands of food sovereignty.