A Human Ecological Approach to Policy in the Context of Food and Nutrition Security

Date

2020-06-16

Authors

Dyball, Robert
Davila Cisneros, Federico
Wilkes, Bronwyn

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Publisher

Springer Singapore

Abstract

In addressing the complex challenge of ensuring food and nutrition security for a growing and rapidly urbanizing global population, we need appropriate tools for developing policies that are not only effective but sustainable and socially just. In this chapter we outline a human ecological approach that can be used by policy thinkers, managers, governments, and others to support the analysis, critique, and design of policies, programs, and services to manage problems in complex human-environment systems. At its core, the approach involves consideration of the interactions and feedbacks between the following main components of the given system: the environment; human health; policies/institutions; and cultural paradigms. While the general approach can be applied to any human-environment system, here we present the framework through the example of food and nutrition security, in particular contrasting two examples of how different paradigms can influence policy and management approaches and in turn give rise to different systems and different outcomes for both human and environmental well-being.

Description

Keywords

Human ecology, Food security, Nutrition security, Systems thinking, Justice, Sustainability, Productionist paradigm, Ecological paradigm, Feedback systems

Citation

Source

Type

Book chapter

Book Title

Handbook of Systems Science

Entity type

Access Statement

License Rights

Restricted until

2099-12-31