Political economy | TableDebates

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Tomorrow on the table: The politics and economics of food system transformation

In October 2024, TABLE brought together a diverse range of stakeholders across the food system with the aim of exploring how they envisaged a better food future, and what system transformations would be needed to get there. The participants included non-governmental and civil society organisations, policymakers, philanthropists, community leaders, and academics from diverse disciplines. Over the course of the workshop, they together discussed, developed and refined different visions for the future of the food system based on three initially conceived visions: market-led, state-led, and bottom-up. This report synthesises the workshop methods and dialogue process, the discussions participants had and the areas of agreement that emerged. https://www.doi.org/10.56661/421fa6df

"Is a fossil fuel free food system possible?" episode flyer for Fuel to Fork

Podcast episode

F2F. Is a fossil free food system possible? (Live at ORFC)

A farmer, economist, and biodiversity researcher meet in Oxford to explore phasing out fossil fuels in food and farming.

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Journal articles

Is parity pricing enough?

Parity pricing, or setting a price floor comparatively equal to an historical period of fair compensation for agricultural commodities, has been debated by scholars as a solution to continually falling farm gate prices in the US. This paper explores the validity of this claim and offers a critique that parity pricing is no silver bullet. Low farm gate prices are rooted in complex and long standing injustices and if farmers are to achieve fair living wages, multi-pronged efforts across scales of governance will be required.

Report cover titled recipe for a liveable planet

Recipe for a liveable planet

This report provides comprehensive data regarding the current state of the global agri-food system at country level. It highlights the most cost effective points of intervention to reduce emissions associated with the agri-food sector, including land and soil management strategies, dietary shifts, and the protection and restoration of forests.

Imagen de un paisaje y la bandera de Colombia

Ensayo: Alimentando al pueblo, a la nación o al mundo

Durante las últimas décadas, la visión agrícola dominante de Colombia ha sido la de convertirse en una potencia alimentaria: una nación que podría "alimentar al mundo". Sin embargo, si bien las exportaciones de algunos productos tropicales de Colombia han aumentado, esta expansión internacional no necesariamente ha conducido a mejoras en las condiciones de vida de los millones de personas en áreas rurales que aún experimentan pobreza, inseguridad alimentaria y desnutrición.Los movimientos agrarios han buscado durante mucho tiempo promover visiones alternativas del sistema alimentario bajo las narrativas de i) alimentar al país y ii) alimentar al pueblo. Estas visiones alternativas se basan en un enfoque más localizado de la agricultura y el consumo de alimentos que valora aspectos como la proximidad de las personas a la producción de alimentos, la protección de los recursos ambientales locales, los vínculos urbanos-rurales y la importancia de promover el bienestar rural y urbano a través de dietas saludables.Este ensayo explora las tensiones entre estas visiones alternativas de provisión de alimentos. Está escrito por el Dr. Felipe Roa-Clavijo, Profesor Asistente en la Escuela de Gobierno de la Universidad de Los Andes en Colombia. Este ensayo fue publicado originalmente en inglés el 14 de febrero de 2023.

Front cover of booked titled "Regenerative Strategies"

Regenerative strategies

The authors of this book propose a new regenerative business management strategy that seeks to reduce negative environmental externalities and create new positive environmental externalities by linking climate science to management studies.

Image of graffiti on a wall in Almeria, written in Spanish, 'no hay mejor regalo que el futuro' - there is no better gift than the future

The hidden cost of Europe’s affordable food: a story of informality and resilience

Affordable food, particularly fresh produce, is a key feature of food system goals in the EU, but the provision of year-round fresh fruit and vegetables relies on a growing system that offers little stability to its workers. Researcher María Alonso Martínez asks what we can learn from the resilience of the workers in this community, and how to reconcile affordability with the precarity it seems to require. María Alonso Martínez is Junior Officer in Circular Development at the ICLEI World Secretariat. This research was carried out at Wageningen University & Research, Netherlands.

Image of a farmer carrying two baskets surrounded by the Food Systems Economic Commission symbol.

The Economics of the Food System Transformation

The Food System Economics Commission, an independent economic commission comprising experts on climate change, health, nutrition, agriculture and natural resources, has released a global policy report which maps the impacts of two possible futures for the global food system.

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Journal articles

How Neoliberalism dismantled public food procurement programs aimed at environmental good: a case study of Brazil

Successful programmes in both Global North countries (such as United States and Sweden) and Global South countries (including Paraguay and South Africa) demonstrate that public food procurement programmes have the potential to promote food security, stimulate biodiversity, revitalise local economies, foster sustainable production systems and more. However, these programmes can be hindered by a neoliberal government committed to financial austerity and the free market.