Addressing Policy Challenges for More Sustainable Local–Global Food Chains: Policy Frameworks and Possible Food “Futures”

Julie Smith, Tim Lang, Bill Vorley and David Barling
Additional contact information
Julie Smith: Centre for Food Policy, City University London, Northampton Square, London EC1V 0HB, UK
Tim Lang: Centre for Food Policy, City University London, Northampton Square, London EC1V 0HB, UK
Bill Vorley: International Institute for Environment and Development, 80-86 Gray’s Inn Road, London WC1X 8NH, UK
David Barling: Centre for Agriculture, Food & Environmental Management (CAFEM), Department of Biological & Environmental Sciences, University of Hertfordshire, College Lane, Hatfield, Hertfordshire AL10 9AB, UK

Sustainability, 2016, vol. 8, issue 4, 1-17

Abstract: The article considers how policy can address the local–global within a wider commitment to food sustainability and draws on research conducted for the EU-funded GLAMUR project (Global and local food assessment: a multidimensional performance-based approach). Case study data identifies four key policy challenges for policymakers. Addressing these challenges in order to make links between current (and future) more sustainable food policy involves three phases. The first identifies processes of engagement in three spheres (public policy, the market and civil society); the second identifies points of engagement offered by existing policy initiatives at global, EU, national and sub-national policy levels; and the third builds scenarios as possible “food futures”, used to illustrate how the project’s findings could impact on the “bigger policy picture” along the local–global continuum. Connections are made between the policy frameworks, as processes and points of engagement for food policy, and the food “futures”. It is suggested that the findings can help support policymakers as they consider the effects and value of using multi-criteria interventions.

Keywords: sustainability; global food chains; local food chains; food policy frameworks; food “futures”; policy coherence (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

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