Local Markets and Food Chains Key to Tackling Global Hunger

Food - good food on display

We are pleased to highlight a new report from IPES-Food, Food From Somewhere, which tackles the pressing issue of building resilience in this hunger-afflicted world :

https://ipes-food.org/report/food-from-somewhere/

Recent shocks – from COVID-19 disruptions to the 2022 spike in food prices – have exposed the deep vulnerabilities in global industrial food chains and their inability to ensure food security in a crisis-prone world.

The report highlights the power of localised food systems, or ‘territorial markets,’ to build resilience. These community-based markets and food chains – from public markets and street vendors to cooperatives, from urban agriculture to online direct sales, from food hubs to community kitchens – nourish a majority of the world’s population daily, yet remain overlooked.

The report provides a comprehensive overview of these diverse food webs. It documents their critical contributions to sustaining producer livelihoods, ensuring access to healthy food for the poorest populations, sustaining cultures and communities, and keeping populations fed in the face of shocks. The report urges governments to reinvest in local and regional supply infrastructures, relocalise public purchasing and food security strategies, and curb corporate capture of food systems.

Read the IPES-Food report & summary, ‘Food From Somewhere’ and access graphics at: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1MtCdhLQz-9xcVp1mGq4p1SvOTamG3m3J