IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/jenvss/v5y2015i4p543-559.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The role of knowledge in building food security resilience across food system domains

Author

Listed:
  • Molly Anderson

Abstract

Food systems are social-ecological systems essential for human life. Many food systems are in parallel operation globally, differing in their practices, impacts, use of knowledge, and resilience. Those that are adapted to local constraints and assets and intentionally use and preserve ecosystem services result in lower environmental impacts and are less prone to lead to catastrophic environmental thresholds. Actors within food systems are constantly changing their practices to adapt to pressure and perturbations. Changing activities are correlated with changes in knowledge systems as well. Contributions to the resilience of social-ecological systems have been identified and evaluated, primarily based in ecosystem studies. Many of these attributes (e.g., memory, learning, self-organization) have to do with forms of knowledge. This paper suggests characteristics of “resilient knowledge” and links it with enabling power to make needed changes. How can this enabling power allow social organizations from the community to the international scale to build resilience to all kinds of perturbations into their food systems and create the knowledge systems that resilience requires? This paper compares knowledge generation, transmission, access, and use in four food system domains (global industrial, independent commercial, local and sustainable, and fair trade) discriminated on dimensions of globalization and multifunctionality. The objective of these comparisons is to understand connections among the resilience of food systems, food security, and knowledge systems. The paper concludes with a case study of the Committee on World Food Security (CFS), hosted by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization. The CFS embodies and facilitates many of the attributes of resilient knowledge generation and access; some of the tensions within the CFS reflect whether knowledge used by the Committee will have attributes of resilient knowledge. I argue that forms of knowledge generation, transmission, and access must be participatory, multi-actor, iterative, and transparent in order to build food security resilience. I also argue that knowledge at multiple scales must be resilient and interlocking in order to protect social organizations from food shortages and impaired food security. Copyright AESS 2015

Suggested Citation

  • Molly Anderson, 2015. "The role of knowledge in building food security resilience across food system domains," Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, Springer;Association of Environmental Studies and Sciences, vol. 5(4), pages 543-559, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:jenvss:v:5:y:2015:i:4:p:543-559
    DOI: 10.1007/s13412-015-0311-3
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1007/s13412-015-0311-3
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s13412-015-0311-3?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Sally Brooks & Michael Loevinsohn, 2011. "Shaping agricultural innovation systems responsive to food insecurity and climate change," Natural Resources Forum, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 35(3), pages 185-200, August.
    2. Jennifer Clapp & Sophia Murphy, 2013. "The G20 and Food Security: a Mismatch in Global Governance?," Global Policy, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 4(2), pages 129-138, May.
    3. AfDB AfDB, . "Report of the High Level Panel - Investing in Africa’s Future," High Level Panel Report, African Development Bank, number 97 edited by AfDB AfDB.
    4. Dion Harmon & Blake Stacey & Yavni Bar-Yam & Yaneer Bar-Yam, 2010. "Networks of Economic Market Interdependence and Systemic Risk," Papers 1011.3707, arXiv.org, revised Nov 2010.
    5. James Evans, 1992. "Issues in equitable access to agricultural information," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 9(2), pages 80-85, March.
    6. E. M. Fischer & R. Knutti, 2015. "Anthropogenic contribution to global occurrence of heavy-precipitation and high-temperature extremes," Nature Climate Change, Nature, vol. 5(6), pages 560-564, June.
    7. Molly Anderson, 2008. "Rights-based food systems and the goals of food systems reform," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 25(4), pages 593-608, December.
    8. Cash, David & Clark, William & Alcock, Frank & Dickson, Nancy & Eckley, Noelle & Jager, Jill, 2002. "Salience, Credibility, Legitimacy and Boundaries: Linking Research, Assessment and Decision Making," Working Paper Series rwp02-046, Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School of Government.
    9. Wang, Sun Ling, 2014. "Cooperative Extension System: Trends and Economic Impacts on U.S. Agriculture," Choices: The Magazine of Food, Farm, and Resource Issues, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 29(1), pages 1-8.
    10. Keith O. Fuglie & Andrew A. Toole, 2014. "The Evolving Institutional Structure of Public and Private Agricultural Research," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 96(3), pages 862-883.
    11. Vincent Gitz & Alexandre Meybeck, 2011. "The establishment of the High Level Panel of Experts on food security and nutrition (HLPE). Shared, independent and comprehensive knowledge for international policy coherence in food security and nutr," CIRED Working Papers hal-00866427, HAL.
    12. Thomas Reardon & C. Peter Timmer, 2012. "The Economics of the Food System Revolution," Annual Review of Resource Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 4(1), pages 225-264, August.
    13. Vincent Gitz & Alexandre Meybeck, 2011. "The establishment of the High Level Panel of Experts on food security and nutrition (HLPE). Shared, independent and comprehensive knowledge for international policy coherence in food security and nutr," Working Papers hal-00866427, HAL.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Karoliina Rimhanen & Hanna Mäkinen & Miia Kuisma & Helena Kahiluoto, 2023. "What enhances dairy system resilience? Empirical cases in Finland and Russia," Agricultural and Food Economics, Springer;Italian Society of Agricultural Economics (SIDEA), vol. 11(1), pages 1-23, December.
    2. Gerald Marten & Nurcan Atalan-Helicke, 2015. "Introduction to the Symposium on American Food Resilience (Part 2)," Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, Springer;Association of Environmental Studies and Sciences, vol. 5(4), pages 537-542, December.
    3. Maywa Montenegro de Wit & Matt Canfield & Alastair Iles & Molly Anderson & Nora McKeon & Shalmali Guttal & Barbara Gemmill-Herren & Jessica Duncan & Jan Douwe Ploeg & Stefano Prato, 2021. "Editorial: Resetting Power in Global Food Governance: The UN Food Systems Summit," Development, Palgrave Macmillan;Society for International Deveopment, vol. 64(3), pages 153-161, December.
    4. Gugerell, Katharina & Penker, Marianne & Kieninger, Pia, 2019. "What are participants of cow sharing arrangements actually sharing? A property rights analysis on cow sharing arrangements in the European Alps," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 87(C).
    5. Cory W. Whitney & Eike Luedeling & John R. S. Tabuti & Antonia Nyamukuru & Oliver Hensel & Jens Gebauer & Katja Kehlenbeck, 2018. "Crop diversity in homegardens of southwest Uganda and its importance for rural livelihoods," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 35(2), pages 399-424, June.
    6. Philip H. Howard, 2016. "AFHVS 2016 presidential address: Decoding diversity in the food system: wheat and bread in North America," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 33(4), pages 953-960, December.
    7. Whitney, Cory W. & Tabuti, John R.S. & Hensel, Oliver & Yeh, Ching-Hua & Gebauer, Jens & Luedeling, Eike, 2017. "Homegardens and the future of food and nutrition security in southwest Uganda," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 154(C), pages 133-144.
    8. Gerald Marten & Nurcan Atalan-Helicke, 2015. "Introduction to the Symposium on American Food Resilience," Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, Springer;Association of Environmental Studies and Sciences, vol. 5(3), pages 308-320, September.
    9. Ning Sun & Sai Tang & Ju Zhang & Jiaxin Wu & Hongwei Wang, 2022. "Food Security: 3D Dynamic Display and Early Warning Platform Construction and Security Strategy," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(18), pages 1-16, September.
    10. Jacobi, Johanna & Mukhovi, Stellah & Llanque, Aymara & Augstburger, Horacio & Käser, Fabian & Pozo, Claudia & Ngutu Peter, Mariah & Delgado, José Manuel Freddy & Kiteme, Boniface P. & Rist, Stephan & , 2018. "Operationalizing food system resilience: An indicator-based assessment in agroindustrial, smallholder farming, and agroecological contexts in Bolivia and Kenya," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 433-446.
    11. Hannington Jawoko Odongo & Alfonse Opio & Adrian Mwesigye & Rogers Bariyo, 2023. "Contribution of Pluralistic Agriculture Extension Service Provision to Smallholder Farmer Resilience," Journal of Sustainable Development, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 16(6), pages 1-79, November.
    12. Leticia Canal Vieira & Silvia Serrao-Neumann & Michael Howes, 2019. "Local Action with a Global Vision: The Transformative Potential of Food Social Enterprises in Australia," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(23), pages 1-16, November.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Tambo, Justice A. & Wünscher, Tobias, 2016. "Beyond adoption: welfare effects of farmer innovation behavior in Ghana," Discussion Papers 235297, University of Bonn, Center for Development Research (ZEF).
    2. Keith B. Matthews & Ansel Renner & Kirsty L. Blackstock & Kerry A. Waylen & Dave G. Miller & Doug H. Wardell-Johnson & Alba Juarez-Bourke & Juan Cadillo-Benalcazar & Joep F. Schyns & Mario Giampietro, 2021. "Old Wine in New Bottles: Exploiting Data from the EU’s Farm Accountancy Data Network for Pan-EU Sustainability Assessments of Agricultural Production Systems," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(18), pages 1-26, September.
    3. Zoe E. Petropoulos & Oriana Ramirez-Rubio & Madeleine K. Scammell & Rebecca L. Laws & Damaris Lopez-Pilarte & Juan José Amador & Joan Ballester & Cristina O’Callaghan-Gordo & Daniel R. Brooks, 2021. "Climate Trends at a Hotspot of Chronic Kidney Disease of Unknown Causes in Nicaragua, 1973–2014," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(10), pages 1-13, May.
    4. George W. Norton & Jeffrey Alwang, 2020. "Changes in Agricultural Extension and Implications for Farmer Adoption of New Practices," Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 42(1), pages 8-20, March.
    5. Sara A. L. Smaal & Joost Dessein & Barend J. Wind & Elke Rogge, 2021. "Social justice-oriented narratives in European urban food strategies: Bringing forward redistribution, recognition and representation," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 38(3), pages 709-727, September.
    6. Pigford, Ashlee-Ann E. & Hickey, Gordon M. & Klerkx, Laurens, 2018. "Beyond agricultural innovation systems? Exploring an agricultural innovation ecosystems approach for niche design and development in sustainability transitions," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 164(C), pages 116-121.
    7. Kristjanson, Patti & Reid, Robin & Dickson, Nancy & Clark, William C. & Vishnubhotla, Prasad & Romney, Dannie & Bezkorowajnyj, Peter & Said, Mohammed & Kaelo, Dickson & Makui, Ogeli & Nkedianye, David, 2008. "Linking International Agricultural Research Knowledge with Action for Sustainable Poverty Alleviation: What Works?," Working Paper Series rwp08-045, Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School of Government.
    8. Suttie, D. & Vargas-Lundius, R., 2016. "IFAD RESEARCH SERIES 2 - Migration and transformative pathways: a rural perspective," IFAD Research Series 280036, International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).
    9. Islam, Md. Mofakkarul & Sarker, Md. Asaduzzaman & Al Mamun, Md. Abdullah & Mamun-ur-Rashid, Md. & Roy, Debashis, 2021. "Stepping Up versus Stepping Out: On the outcomes and drivers of two alternative climate change adaptation strategies of smallholders," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 148(C).
    10. Moazami, Amin & Nik, Vahid M. & Carlucci, Salvatore & Geving, Stig, 2019. "Impacts of future weather data typology on building energy performance – Investigating long-term patterns of climate change and extreme weather conditions," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 238(C), pages 696-720.
    11. Coderoni, Silvia & Pagliacci, Francesco, 2023. "The impact of climate change on land productivity. A micro-level assessment for Italian farms," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 205(C).
    12. Sini Forssell & Leena Lankoski, 2015. "The sustainability promise of alternative food networks: an examination through “alternative” characteristics," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 32(1), pages 63-75, March.
    13. Shuangzhi Li & Xiaoling Zhang & Zhongci Deng & Xiaokang Liu & Ruoou Yang & Lihao Yin, 2023. "Identifying the Critical Supply Chains for Black Carbon and CO 2 in the Sichuan Urban Agglomeration of Southwest China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(21), pages 1-19, October.
    14. Greg Lusk, 2017. "The social utility of event attribution: liability, adaptation, and justice-based loss and damage," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 143(1), pages 201-212, July.
    15. Golam Saleh Ahmed Salem & So Kazama & Shamsuddin Shahid & Nepal C. Dey, 2018. "Groundwater-dependent irrigation costs and benefits for adaptation to global change," Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change, Springer, vol. 23(6), pages 953-979, August.
    16. David J. Spielman & Patrick S. Ward & Deepthi E. Kolady & Harun Ar-Rashid, 2017. "Public Incentives, Private Investment, and Outlooks for Hybrid Rice in Bangladesh and India," Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 39(1), pages 154-176.
    17. Ronaldo Tavares Souza, 2020. "Box-scheme as alternative food network—the economic integration between consumers and producers," Agricultural and Food Economics, Springer;Italian Society of Agricultural Economics (SIDEA), vol. 8(1), pages 1-25, December.
    18. Tran, Thong Anh & Nguyen, Tri Huu & Vo, Thang Tat, 2019. "Adaptation to flood and salinity environments in the Vietnamese Mekong Delta: Empirical analysis of farmer-led innovations," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 216(C), pages 89-97.
    19. Kristina Beethem & Sandra T. Marquart-Pyatt & Jennifer Lai & Tian Guo, 2023. "Navigating the information landscape: public and private information source access by midwest farmers," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 40(3), pages 1117-1135, September.
    20. Stéphane Lemarié & Valérie Orozco & Jean-Pierre Butault & Antonio Musolesi & Michel Simioni & Bertrand Schmitt, 2020. "Assessing the long-term impact of agricultural research on productivity: evidence from France," European Review of Agricultural Economics, Oxford University Press and the European Agricultural and Applied Economics Publications Foundation, vol. 47(4), pages 1559-1586.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:jenvss:v:5:y:2015:i:4:p:543-559. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.