In April 2022, I was fortunate enough to join the newly formed EcoFood Systems team in NUIG. As I began working on some tasks which were related to the working goals of the project, I found myself deeply enthralled by the areas of city region food systems, food system mapping, the nutritional outcomes of food systems and food systems within the Global South.
The Effects of Urbanisation on Dietary Transformations
Rapid global urbanisation has truly transformed urban areas into major hubs, where most of the living, production and consumption occurs.
The Forgotten Crisis of Food Fraud
Have you ever read or heard the words “have been recalled due to…” from your news source? More than likely that’s a yes. It’s also likely that you are more familiar with the term “food fraud” than you might have previously thought.
We Need to Talk about the Cucumber Crisis
Background: Cucumbers have a special place in my family’s shopping basket, and I would nearly go as far as to say have a special place in my family’s hearts. Now, this might sound a tad dramatic to some but let me set the scene. My mother is Estonian aka my mother cannot go a day […]
Food Mapping-What Is It?
Hunger and malnutrition – are both felt and feared by many globally. With the recent mumbles of rising energy, food and essential commodity prices, ensuring that food systems can deliver the right produce, to the right people, at the right time, in a manner that promotes healthy people, and a healthy planet is critical.
Defining Sustainable Food Supply Chains
Sustainable. Resilient. Inclusive. All words that are thrown around as often as a teething toddler throws tantrums but what do they mean in the context of food supply chains? The Covid-19 pandemic unequivocally highlighted the vulnerabilities and inadequacies of global food systems, with estimates of between 720 and 811 million people facing food insecurity in […]
“Food Security – The Current Weapon of Choice”
As the war rumbles on in Ukraine, the Russian emphasis on food security as a domestic and international tool is not an entirely novel concept.
Who was Lost and Damaged at COP26?
In a time marked by escalating climate impacts, climate anxiety, and uncertainty, mounting attention has been brought to the urgent needs of climate-vulnerable countries. Developing countries and small island nations are bearing the brunt of devastating storms, rising sea levels, and dwindling crop yields, despite not being responsible for a large portion of the greenhouse gas emissions that have induced climate change.
What is the BLOCK against using Circular Economy to Build Back Better after Covid-19?
After the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared a novel coronavirus, ‘Covid-19’, a pandemic on the 11th of March 2020, a sprawling path of destruction soon followed. Government-imposed mandatory lockdowns restricting the movement of millions to isolate and limit cases ultimately saving the lives of many but concurrently gave rise to a severe increase in poor, unemployed and food-insecure people, exposing the vulnerabilities of global systems, disrupting global supply chains and the core sustaining pillars of modern world economies, causing the global economy to contract at a rate not seen since World War II (FAO, 2021).
“Key Issues for Sustainable Food Systems and Climate Action raised at the IFIAD 2021 Annual Conference”
Stimulating, engaging, and thorough discussions surrounding the interconnectedness of food systems and climate action were thrashed out at the IFIAD 2021 Annual Conference. This year’s conference was based on the theme of “A Year of Action: Food and Climate. Taking agriculture and food systems to COP26 and beyond” in celebration of World Food Day and to continue the building momentum of the Food Systems Summit’s urgent plea to place food systems at the centre of climate discussions to carry forward into COP26.