The Emergence of Local Integrated Food Strategies: a Global Assessment

Governments and other policy actors have become more aware of the systemic nature of a range of food-related societal challenges, including food insecurity, global environmental change, obesity, and insecure livelihoods of primary producers. To deal with these challenges more effectively, an increasing number of governments has developed, or are in the process of developing, integrated food (security or system) policy. This trend can be particularly observed at the local level, where administrators have proceeded beyond abstract debates and adopted ambitious strategies. Despite the intuitive appeal of these integrated strategies, little is known about their effect in practice. More than that, so far, there is no overview of the number of local food strategies, the goals that governments pursue, and the instruments they deploy to achieve these goals. Given the large differences in experienced food system challenges, political priorities, and policy styles, the question arises as to how these food strategies relate to each other, i.e. what are their main commonalities and differences. This paper addresses this question by presenting a global assessment of the emergence of local food strategies. As such, it functions as the first step of a research line on how these strategies affect relevant practices within administrations and broader governance networks after their adoption, which has theoretical relevance beyond the domain of food. The assessment entails a systematic search and analysis of local policy outputs, starting with cities that committed to the 2015 Milan Urban Food Policy Pact. Data was obtained through governmental websites and search engines. The paper sets out the main findings and lays down an agenda for follow-up research.