The Future of our Food: Resilience, Security and Justice in a Global Context

Globally, agriculture and food systems ('agri-food' systems) are undergoing rapid and significant transformations as a result of globalisation, industrial development and changing lifestyles. These result in a variety of ecological, social, cultural, political and economic changes which affect the ability of agri-food systems to grow food sustainably and distribute it fairly.

Globally, a billion people are hungry while another billion are overweight. Agriculture contributes significantly to climate change, water depletion, pollution and habitat loss. It is, in turn, also threatened by these sustainability crises. Within the food system, access to food is severely constrained for the poor, food waste is endemic, and food is unjustly distributed.These complex challenges have been discussed in a range of disciplines, sub-disciplines and scholarly fields. They have also been addressed by a range of international, regional and national policy frameworks, political institutions, civil society organisations, corporations and popular social movements.

However, there is very little consensus on what sustainable agriculture entails and how to design just and resilient food systems. Three key bodies of academic literature, however, are converging around the idea that sustainability, justice and resilience are, first, interlinked and, second, that they all emerge from democratic food systems in which producers and consumers can exercise autonomy over the choices they make. Especially on the producer side, however, there is often very little autonomy, as independent farmers struggle with climate change and access to land. Equally, consumers are often dominated by powerful retailers and advertising regimes.

Our proposed series of workshops will bring together academics, policy makers and representatives of the private and third sectors, along with input from members of the general public, to advance understanding of what sustainable, resilient and just agri-food systems look like, and how we can change policy and practice in order to deliver better outcomes.

In order to focus our discussion, we will examine the workings of agri-food systems in the UK (to represent a 'developed' context), Brazil and India (to represent two important, fast-growing'developing' country contexts). Developments in these three countries provide us with the opportunity to ground our theoretical discussions within real-world concerns. During the workshops, academic speakers will present an overview of the key issues, followed by a facilitated roundtable discussion with researchers, policy-makers and practitioners. Public views will be solicited by presenting a brief introduction to the topic of each workshop, and asking members of the public to submit their views via comment threads and social media forums. The roundtable discussions will specifically focus on advancing theoretical understanding, highlighting key debates and contradictions in the literature and using existing theory to inform an agenda for improved policy and practice in the UK, India and Brazil.

In order to inform these evolving agendas, the outputs of the workshops will be widely disseminated via a variety of means. Each talk will be live-streamed, and a recording will be freely available on the project website. The outcomes of the seminars will be written up as key policy report, to be launched with the Royal Society, as well as briefs targeted at private sector organisations. A summary of the key outputs of the workshops will be written up as editorials to be presented within the online and print media in the UK, India and Brazil. Key academic outputs will include a journal special issue, an edited volume and, over time, a new and vibrant research network which will systematically explore the interlinked issues of food justice, sovereignty, resilience and sustainability.

The workshop series will benefit a range of non-academic audiences, including policy-makers, public and third sector organisations and the wider public.

Beneficiaries within the sphere of policy and decision-making will include international, regional and national bodies. These include the World Bank, the World Health Organisation, the Food and Agriculture Organisation, UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights to Food, the World Economic Forum, the United Nations Environment Programme and the United Nations Development Programme. In the UK, the work of the proposed network would inform the interests of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, the Department of Health, the Food Standards Agency and the Department of International Development. In Brazil, beneficiaries include the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Food Supply; the Ministry of Agrarian Development, the Ministry of Social Development and Combating Hunger and the Ministry of Environment. In India, governmental beneficiaries would include the Government's Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, the Indian Council of Agricultural Research and the Department of Agriculture and Cooperation.

A number of public and third-sector organisations in each country would also benefit. In the UK, these would include, amongst others, the Transition Research Network and specifically its interests in alternative food systems, the UK Food Sovereignty Movement, the Research Council UK's Global Food Security programme, the World Development Movement, Friends of the Earth, Nourish Scotland, the Plunkett Foundation, Sustain, the Soil Association, the National Farmers Union and the Campaign to Protect Rural England. In Brazil, beneficiaries would include the FIAN Brazil, National Agriculture Confederation, the National Federation of Workers in Family Agriculture, the National Agroecology Articulation, the Sustainable Agriculture Network, the Brazilian Agroecology Association, the Association of National Agriculture Producers (Sao Paolo), the Ecology Centre (Rio Grande do Sul) and the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (Embrapa). In India, beneficiary organisations include, among others, the Centre for Sustainable Agriculture, the Centre for Rural Operations Programmes Society, FIAN India and the Centre for Environment and Society.

Outside these institutional settings, the issues of food security, food justice and sustainable agri-food systems are of direct concern to members of the general public on both opposite ends of the food chain - i.e., farmers and consumers. While these beneficiaries will be reached through the above-named civil society organisations, we are also committed to reaching them in their capacity as individual stakeholders. To do so, we will initiate and actively facilitate a two-way communication with the most direct stakeholders in sustainable, just and resilient agri-food systems.

How will they benefit?
The above-named beneficiaries and groups of academic and non-academic beneficiaries will benefit from the series in a number of ways. The series will offer a forum in which to deliberate on the key contradictions and tensions within the academic and grey literature on agri-food systems. This will bring substantial clarity by offering us a chance to map the theoretical field on agri-food system sustainability and justice, identify overlaps and gaps and contribute to the development of a synthetic understanding of what just, resilient and productive agri-food systems look like. The series will build a forum in which mixed and conflicting agendas for productivity, resilience and justice can be deliberated in an open way.