IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jagris/v15y2025i7p718-d1622114.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The State of Local Food Systems and Integrated Planning and Policy Research: An Application of the Climate, Biodiversity, Health, and Justice Nexus

Author

Listed:
  • Alesandros Glaros

    (School of Environment & Sustainability, Royal Roads University, Victoria, BC V9B 5Y2, Canada)

  • Robert Newell

    (School of Environment & Sustainability, Royal Roads University, Victoria, BC V9B 5Y2, Canada)

Abstract

Food systems are difficult to model, given the challenge of defining socially desirable food system outcomes. Research that aims to advance agri-food systems must reveal opportunities for integrated food systems planning and assess its outcomes. The climate, biodiversity, health, and justice (CBHJ) nexus provides such a lens, and it is a potentially useful tool for understanding how (or whether) food systems planning and policy studies employ a systems-based, integrated perspective. Further, it may be used to identify how agri-food systems planning and policy engage with local objectives and co-benefits related to climate change adaptation and mitigation, biodiversity conservation, community health, and social justice. This research proposes an indicator framework to operationalize the CBHJ nexus, by undertaking a scoping review of over one hundred local agri-food planning and policy studies. Outcomes from this work reveal the nature and degree to which agri-food systems research adopts a systems lens that comprehensively models resilience, sustainability, and justice. Outcomes related to biodiversity, procedural justice, and mental wellbeing were not common in the dataset. Recommendations from the work include guidance on how the nexus can broaden the quantitative and qualitative data-driven measurements of food system outcomes. Future work is required to define appropriate CBHJ outcomes and their possible measurements across scales beyond just local levels.

Suggested Citation

  • Alesandros Glaros & Robert Newell, 2025. "The State of Local Food Systems and Integrated Planning and Policy Research: An Application of the Climate, Biodiversity, Health, and Justice Nexus," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 15(7), pages 1-21, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jagris:v:15:y:2025:i:7:p:718-:d:1622114
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/15/7/718/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/15/7/718/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. C. Hinrichs, 2014. "Transitions to sustainability: a change in thinking about food systems change?," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 31(1), pages 143-155, March.
    2. Manganelli, Alessandra & Moulaert, Frank, 2019. "Scaling out access to land for urban agriculture. Governance hybridities in the Brussels-Capital Region," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 82(C), pages 391-400.
    3. Alison Blay-Palmer & Guido Santini & Marielle Dubbeling & Henk Renting & Makiko Taguchi & Thierry Giordano, 2018. "Validating the City Region Food System Approach: Enacting Inclusive, Transformational City Region Food Systems," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(5), pages 1-23, May.
    4. Fernianda Rahayu Hermiatin & Yuanita Handayati & Tomy Perdana & Dadan Wardhana, 2022. "Creating Food Value Chain Transformations through Regional Food Hubs: A Review Article," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(13), pages 1-24, July.
    5. Giacomarra, Marcella & Tulone, Antonio & Crescimanno, Maria & Galati, Antonino, 2019. "Electric mobility in the Sicilian short food supply chain," Studies in Agricultural Economics, Research Institute for Agricultural Economics, vol. 121(2), August.
    6. Sahar Daghagh Yazd & Sarah Ann Wheeler & Alec Zuo, 2019. "Key Risk Factors Affecting Farmers’ Mental Health: A Systematic Review," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(23), pages 1-23, December.
    7. Schmit, Todd M. & Jablonski, Becca B.R. & Bonanno, Alessandro & Johnson, Thomas G., 2021. "Measuring stocks of community wealth and their association with food systems efforts in rural and urban places," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 102(C).
    8. Michel Mouléry & Esther Sanz Sanz & Marta Debolini & Claude Napoléone & Didier Josselin & Luc Mabire & José Luis Vicente-Vicente, 2022. "Self-Sufficiency Assessment: Defining the Foodshed Spatial Signature of Supply Chains for Beef in Avignon, France," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 12(3), pages 1-14, March.
    9. Flores, Hector & Villalobos, J. Rene, 2018. "A modeling framework for the strategic design of local fresh-food systems," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 161(C), pages 1-15.
    10. Kimberley Reis & Cheryl Desha & Sioux Campbell & Prudence Liddy, 2022. "Working through Disaster Risk Management to Support Regional Food Resilience: A Case Study in North-Eastern Australia," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(4), pages 1-28, February.
    11. Taylor Harris Braswell, 2018. "Fresh food, new faces: community gardening as ecological gentrification in St. Louis, Missouri," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 35(4), pages 809-822, December.
    12. de Jong, Anna & Varley, Peter, 2017. "Food tourism policy: Deconstructing boundaries of taste and class," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 212-222.
    13. Giorgia Iovino & Eleonora Guadagno & Daniele Bagnoli, 2023. "Food for Thoughts: The District Approach to Rural Areas Development—A Case Study in Campania," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(23), pages 1-26, November.
    14. Christophe Béné & Timothy R. Frankenberger & Suzanne Nelson & Mark Alexander Constas & Gregory Collins & Mark Langworthy & Karyn Fox, 2023. "Food system resilience measurement: principles, framework and caveats," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 15(6), pages 1437-1458, December.
    15. Dsouza, Ajwal & Newman, Lenore & Graham, Thomas & Fraser, Evan D.G., 2023. "Exploring the landscape of controlled environment agriculture research: A systematic scoping review of trends and topics," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 209(C).
    16. Adriana Ruiz-Almeida & Marta G. Rivera-Ferre, 2019. "Internationally-based indicators to measure Agri-food systems sustainability using food sovereignty as a conceptual framework," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 11(6), pages 1321-1337, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Katrin Martens & Sebastian Rogga & Jana Zscheischler & Bernd Pölling & Andreas Obersteg & Annette Piorr, 2022. "Classifying New Hybrid Cooperation Models for Short Food-Supply Chains—Providing a Concept for Assessing Sustainability Transformation in the Urban-Rural Nexus," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(4), pages 1-24, April.
    2. Sheriden Keegan & Kimberley Reis & Anne Roiko & Cheryl Desha, 2024. "Exploring resilience concepts and strategies within regional food systems: a systematic literature review," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 16(3), pages 801-825, June.
    3. Tong Zou & Ayotunde Dawodu & Eugenio Mangi & Ali Cheshmehzangi, 2023. "Exploring Current Trends, Gaps & Challenges in Sustainable Food Systems Studies: The Need of Developing Urban Food Systems Frameworks for Sustainable Cities," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(13), pages 1-32, June.
    4. Yi Gu & Jinyu Sun & Jianming Cai & Yanwen Xie & Jiahao Guo, 2024. "Urban Planning Perspective on Food Resilience Assessment and Practice in the Zhengzhou Metropolitan Area, China," Land, MDPI, vol. 13(10), pages 1-27, October.
    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. Antonino Galati & Giuseppina Migliore & Alkis Thrassou & Giorgio Schifani & Giuseppina Rizzo & Nino Adamashvili & Maria Crescimanno, 2023. "Consumers’ Willingness to Pay for Agri-Food Products Delivered with Electric Vehicles in the Short Supply Chains," FIIB Business Review, , vol. 12(2), pages 193-207, June.
    8. Alexandra Doernberg & Annette Piorr & Ingo Zasada & Dirk Wascher & Ulrich Schmutz, 2022. "Sustainability assessment of short food supply chains (SFSC): developing and testing a rapid assessment tool in one African and three European city regions," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 39(3), pages 885-904, September.
    9. Coline Perrin & Adrien Baysse-Lainé, 2020. "Governing the coexistence of agricultural models: French cities allocating farmlands to support agroecology and short food chains on urban fringes," Review of Agricultural, Food and Environmental Studies, Springer, vol. 101(2), pages 261-286, December.
    10. Sibylle Bui & Ionara Costa & Olivier De Schutter & Tom Dedeurwaerdere & Marek Hudon & Marlene Feyereisen, 2019. "Systemic ethics and inclusive governance: two key prerequisites for sustainability transitions of agri-food systems," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 36(2), pages 277-288, June.
    11. Manel Díaz Llobet & Manel Plana-Farran & Micaela L. Riethmuller & Victor Rodríguez Lizano & Silvia Solé Cases & Mercè Teixidó, 2023. "Mapping the Research into Mental Health in the Farming Environment: A Bibliometric Review from Scopus and WoS Databases," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 14(1), pages 1-15, December.
    12. Roberta Sonnino & Helen Coulson, 2021. "Unpacking the new urban food agenda: The changing dynamics of global governance in the urban age," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 58(5), pages 1032-1049, April.
    13. Vladimir A. Ermolaev & Natalia N. Yashalova & Dmitry A. Ruban, 2019. "Cheese as a Tourism Resource in Russia: The First Report and Relevance to Sustainability," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(19), pages 1-11, October.
    14. Jing Hou & Linhai Wu & Bo Hou, 2020. "Risk Attitude, Contract Arrangements and Enforcement in Food Safety Governance: A China’s Agri-Food Supply Chain Scenario," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(8), pages 1-16, April.
    15. Brune, Sara & Vilá, Olivia & Knollenberg, Whitney, 2023. "Family farms' resilience under the COVID-19 crisis: Challenges and opportunities with agritourism," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 134(C).
    16. Ana Esteso & M. M. E. Alemany & Angel Ortiz & Shaofeng Liu, 2022. "Optimization model to support sustainable crop planning for reducing unfairness among farmers," Central European Journal of Operations Research, Springer;Slovak Society for Operations Research;Hungarian Operational Research Society;Czech Society for Operations Research;Österr. Gesellschaft für Operations Research (ÖGOR);Slovenian Society Informatika - Section for Operational Research;Croatian Operational Research Society, vol. 30(3), pages 1101-1127, September.
    17. Qureshi, Salman & Tarashkar, Mahsa & Matloobi, Mansour & Wang, Zhifang & Rahimi, Akbar, 2022. "Understanding the dynamics of urban horticulture by socially-oriented practices and populace perception: Seeking future outlook through a comprehensive review," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 122(C).
    18. Sonja Wilhelm Stanis & Emily Piontek & Shuangyu Xu & Andrew Mallinak & Charles Nilon & Damon M. Hall, 2024. "Residents’ Perceptions of Urban Greenspace in a Shrinking City: Ecosystem Services and Environmental Justice," Land, MDPI, vol. 13(10), pages 1-17, September.
    19. Adanella Rossi, 2017. "Beyond Food Provisioning: The Transformative Potential of Grassroots Innovation around Food," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 7(1), pages 1-21, January.
    20. Saisai Wu & Lang Qin & Chen Shen & Xiangyang Zhou & Jianzhai Wu, 2022. "Food Retail Network Spatial Matching and Urban Planning Policy Implications: The Case of Beijing, China," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(5), pages 1-19, May.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:gam:jagris:v:15:y:2025:i:7:p:718-:d:1622114. 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: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.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.