Project: urban food systems and nested institutions

[Aaron Vansintjan]

Hi all,

I got accepted to a conference in mid-June to present my masters thesis in the context of local urban food policies. I'm basically looking at the issue of food banks from an institutional perspective, and approaching policy options through a 'nested institutions' lens. 

I'm also integrating what people are calling a 'joined-up food policy' approach, which is gaining ground in the UK and Canada specifically. The idea is that food policy fails because diverse governance institutions are not aligned (e.g. health and agriculture have opposite policies, one spending a lot of money to minimize effects of super-bugs and the other encouraging hormone and antibiotic use), and that to align them requires both top-down and bottom-up approaches, starting with supporting community efforts of food supply and then shifting up to eventually integrate national policies better. You can see how this framework would align well with a nested institutions approach. 

I'm attaching my presentation for your interest (and comments) here. 

I'm also discussing with a friend, Hugo Martorell, to write a more theoretical article, where we apply these frameworks to our own case studies, showing how an institutions/joined-up policy approach to urban food systems can be complimentary. The article would be intended for more policy-oriented food studies journals. We were wondering if anyone at the lab might be interested in collaborating, either by contributing another case study, or, more broadly, helping formalize what an urban nested institutions approach could look like. 

Let me know what you think

Aaron

[Aaron Vansintjan]

Hi all,

I got accepted to a conference in mid-June to present my masters thesis in the context of local urban food policies. I'm basically looking at the issue of food banks from an institutional perspective, and approaching policy options through a 'nested institutions' lens. 

I'm also integrating what people are calling a 'joined-up food policy' approach, which is gaining ground in the UK and Canada specifically. The idea is that food policy fails because diverse governance institutions are not aligned (e.g. health and agriculture have opposite policies, one spending a lot of money to minimize effects of super-bugs and the other encouraging hormone and antibiotic use), and that to align them requires both top-down and bottom-up approaches, starting with supporting community efforts of food supply and then shifting up to eventually integrate national policies better. You can see how this framework would align well with a nested institutions approach. 

I'm attaching my presentation for your interest (and comments) here. 

I'm also discussing with a friend, Hugo Martorell, to write a more theoretical article, where we apply these frameworks to some case studies, illustrating how institutions/joined-up policy approaches to urban food systems could be complimentary. The article would be intended for more policy-oriented food studies journals. We were wondering if anyone at the lab might be interested in collaborating, either by contributing another case study, or, more broadly, helping formalize what an urban nested institutions approach could look like.