From Food Production to Food Security - Global Environmental ...

Developing research in the context of food systems helped to identify and integrate the linksbetween a number of activities “from plough to plate” (Atkins and Bowler, 2001), includingproducing, harvesting, storing, processing, distributing and consuming food. But it was alsorealised that research on these activities alone was insufficient: an innovative,interdisciplinary framework was needed that combined this with work on the consequences(or outcomes) of the activities for the well-established food security components of foodavailability, access to food and food utilisation, all of which need to be stable over time(FAO, 1996b). The development of a conceptual framework also helps to bridge disciplines,showing where each contributes. Further, it is also especially valuable when devisingmanagement interventions, development strategies and policies (Thompson et al., 2007) byidentifying the range of issues stakeholders involved in food security discussions need toaddress.GECAFS research towards this framework culminated in the ‘GECAFS Food System’concept (Ericksen, 2008a; Ingram, 2011: Paper 3). Drawing on earlier food systemapproaches (e.g. Sobal et al., 1998), this integrated framework provided a structured approachto GEC-food security research, with particular emphasis on interactions with GEC driversand vulnerability (Ericksen, 2008b). The vulnerability aspects was further refined to clearlydifferentiate the vulnerability ‘of what’ (i.e. the food system; Eakin, 2010) from the ‘to what’(i.e. to combined socio-economic/GEC drivers; Misselhorn et al., 2010); vulnerability debatescan be nebulous without clearly stating vulnerability of what, to what.Multiple scales and levels, and multiple stakeholdersIn addition to realising the need for a broad food systems approach, it was also realised thatthis needed to be implemented at regional level. This was because it was noted thatconsiderable GEC-food production research had been conducted at local (i.e. plot) level (andwhich has subsequently formed the substance of many reviews and syntheses (e.g. Fuhrer,2006; Easterling et al., 2007), and several major studies had also been conducted at globallevel (e.g. Parry et al., 1999), but little information existed in between local and global levels– i.e. at the regional level.This realisation shaped the original charge by the GEC Programmes to the international GECresearch community to move beyond the local-level, production-orientated research that hadcharacterised international GEC ‘food’ research thus far (Gregory et al., 1999); an innovativeinternational research project was needed not only to address food security in a broader sense(including stability over time), but also to undertake research at the ‘regional’ (i.e. subcontinental)level (Ingram et al., 2005). Multi-scale, multi-level approaches were needed,where ‘scale’ is the spatial, temporal, quantitative, or analytical dimensions used to measureand study any phenomenon, and ‘level’ is the units of analysis that are located at differentpositions on a scale (Gibson et al., 2000; Cash et al., 2006). GEC and food security issuesspan a number of different scales (e.g. spatial, temporal, jurisdictional, institutional,management) and a number of levels along each of these scales (e.g. national, regional; days,seasons) (Ericksen et al., 2010a). Social, economic, cultural and political factors largely7