Urban food security, urban resilience and climate change - weADAPT

The seven themes used in the review were used also to structure a set of interviewswith a sample of key players in urban agriculture policy and practice in Melbourne andthe Gold Coast. These interviews provided the opportunity to explore in more detail thepractical implications of some of our interim conclusions and have been followed upwith a further round of interviews in the case study areas before the completion of theproject. The findings from this fieldwork will be reported separately.Literature review findings1. What do we mean by food security in general and urban food security inparticular?There is broad consensus that one of the major issues confronting society into thefuture is food security a term that is widely used in policy circles (see for exampleLawrence, Lyons and Wallington, 2010). In Australia, the Prime Minister’s Science,Engineering and Innovation Council (PMSEIC) ‘Expert Working Group’ draw upon theUN Food and Agriculture Organisation’s definition, that:Food security is achieved when all people at all times have physical andeconomic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet dietary needs andfood preferences for an active and healthy life (PMSEIC, 2011).Food security was first introduced as a concept in the 1970s, and as articulated above,refers primarily to access, affordability and availability (Patel, 2007). While definitions offood security have shifted over time, an emphasis on the market, technologicalinnovation and increasing productivity remain enduring narratives underpinning foodsecurity discourse.It is important to note there is also a range of related terms that seek to engage withsimilar issues. Food sovereignty was introduced by the International Farmers’Organisation La Via Campesina in 1996 as a necessary precursor for food security(Patel 2009). While there is a diversity of understandings, at the heart of foodsovereignty movements is a ‘rights-based approach’. In the groundbreakingInternational Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge, Science and Technology forDevelopment, food sovereignty is defined as ‘the right of peoples and sovereign statesto democratically determine their own agricultural and food policies’ (McIntyre, et al.,2009, p. 111). More than simply access (as articulated by food security advocates)food sovereignty seeks to make transparent the power relationships inherent inagriculture and food systems.Whilst there is general agreement around the definition of food security (and itscounterpart, food sovereignty) – indeed the FAO definition is widely used and cited –there is significant contestation around the scale and causes of food insecurity and theresponses required to ensure adequate food access for the global population.The Spatiality of Food InsecurityMany view food insecurity as a local-level, issue. For instance, Gregory et al. (2005)state that food insecurity can be experienced at various spatial scales, from theindividual and household level through the regional to the global. There is clear policydiscourse often health-focussed which tends to identify disadvantaged andmarginalised groups at the individual, household and community level as beingvulnerable to food insecurity (see Browne, Laurance and Thorpe, 2009; Burns, 2004and Temple 2006). These approaches often reflect the jurisdictional boundaries ofpolicy makers, such as local government, thus confining interventions to the local level,Urban food security, urban resilience and climate change 76