Thumbnail Image

Methodological Approaches To Analysis Of Food Supply And Distribution Systems

Food Supply and Distribution to Cities in French-speaking Africa

Year of publication 1998

Author Maurizio Aragrande;Rural Infrastructure and Agro-Industries Division

Product type Book (stand-alone)

ISBN 9252042040

Series title Food Into Cities Collection

Series number 10101365|1010-1365

Edition 1

Synopsis (short abstract) This work is intended to provide an overview of the ways different disciplines approach analysis of food supply and distribution systems (FSDSs), showing the conceptual and methodological tools used. The list of approaches is admittedly incomplete and the description brief. The aim of the description is twofold: to define the area(s) covered by each discipline; and describe the specific role each can play in an interdisciplinary approach to research on FSDSs. Research focuses on some g eneral questions: Which disciplines are concerned with this subject? What are the bases on which they approach it? What methodologies do they use? What type of results do they reach? Are they alternatives, or complementary to one another? On what level(s) are they effective? Some portions of the present work are based on documents drawn up by specialists for this purpose (the geographical, nutritional and legal approaches). The following approaches are examined: economic (neoclassica l, pipeline, evolutionary), historical, geographical, nutritional and legal. The pipeline approach is further divided into a socio-economic and geographical approach (a special section is also devoted to the latter). The point of this whole essay in methodological description lies not so much in the reading of each approach as in their juxtaposition. The various approaches belong to a wide range of scientific fields, but come together when the FSDSs are considered not as an abstrac t activity but as the outcome of dynamic processes arising in a given environment in some area, at a given moment in its development, and managed by agents with specific aims.

Language English

Also available in:

Related items

Showing items related by metadata.

  • Thumbnail Image
    Book (stand-alone)
    Globalization of food systems in developing countries: impact on food security and nutrition 2005
    Also available in:
    No results found.
    Food systems are being transformed at an unprecedented rate as a result of global economic and social change. Urbanization, foreign direct investment in markets of developing countries and increasing incomes are prime facilitators for the observed changes, while social changes, such as the increased number of women in the workforce and rural to urban migration, provide added stimulus. Changes are also facilitated in concrete ways by food production based on intensive agriculture, new food proces sing and storage technologies, longer product shelf-life, the emergence of food retailers such as fast food outlets and supermarkets and the intensification of advertising and marketing of certain products. The sum of these changes has resulted in diverse foods that are available all year for those who can afford them, as well as a shift in home-prepared and home-based meals to pre-prepared or ready-to-eat meals, often consumed away from home. These food system and lifestyle changes are in turn having an impact on the health and nutritional status of people in developing countries. There is an indication of rapid increases in overweight and obesity, particularly among adults, and an increasing prevalence of diet-related non-communicable diseases. At the same time, social inequalities are increasing, particularly in urban areas. The papers appearing in this publication were first presented at the workshop "Globalization of food systems: impacts on food security and nutrition" held at FA O headquarters in Rome from 8 to 10 October 2003 . The chapters are arranged in two parts. The first contains overview chapters providing a synthesis of findings from 11 country case studies, an overview of issues related to urban food insecurity, a review of nutritional change in developing countries and some policy options to address these changes.
  • No Thumbnail Available
    Book (stand-alone)
    Food into cities - Selected papers
    FOOD INTO CITIES COLLECTION
    2000
    Also available in:
    No results found.
    The rapid growth of African cities is increasing food insecurity for urban households, especially for the poor ones. The challenge confronting cities consists in ensuring an adequate supply of food to satisfy their nutritional needs in terms of quantity, variety and taste, at accessible/affordable prices. Food supply and distribution systems (FSDs), whether formal or informal, are a key element in this challenge. They are a link between the production areas (mostly rural and peri-urban) and the consumption areas (urban). An FSD can, in effect, increase the availability of food to the urban consumer, and at the same time increase the revenues of both traders and producers. However, a number of different constraints impede the necessary efficiency and dynamism of FSDs to ensure the food security of urban households. These constraints affect both the urban and non-urban areas and are discussed in the various papers in this Bulletin. The papers are a selection of those originally published in the French version of AGS Bulletins 132-133 Aliments dans les villes and cover the major issues affecting urban food supply and distribution systems and their role in increasing urban food security. They are addressed towards urban managers and planners together with professionals and researchers concerned with urban food security.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Book (stand-alone)
    Multi-Channel Food Supply Systems to Francophone African Cities.
    Food Supply and Distribution to Cities
    1998
    Also available in:
    No results found.
    The issue of supplying food to African towns will remain a major challenge in the coming years in view of the steep urban growth, the small increase in extensive agricultural production and the risks of bottlenecks in the supply and distribution circuits. Yet it is very difficult to summarize this issue for French-speaking Africa. The situations vary widely and are reversible. Information systems are rather unreliable. Any analysis of supplies to Sub-Saharan African towns ra ises problems for the inquirer in terms of measurement, the scale of the phenomena being investigated and the time scale.
Show more

Users also downloaded

Showing related downloaded files

No results found.