Integrated food policy: What is it, and how can it help transform food systems?

Kelly Parsons

Research output: Book/ReportCommissioned report

Abstract

Integrated food policy is a response to a paradox: food is increasingly understood as
an interconnected system, but policies targeting different parts of the food system are
typically made in isolation. So what does integrated food policy look like in practice?
For at least two decades, there has been pressure
– from academics, civil society, industry and
some policymakers – to join up the many policies
influencing food systems and move food up the
policy agenda. Food systems are increasingly
understood as an interconnected system of
“everything and everybody that influences, and is
influenced by, the activities involved in bringing
food from farm to fork and beyond”.1
Taking a systems approach means looking at
connections between the different parts of a
system, understanding where activities in one
part of the system impact on another and where
feedback within the system is broken.
A systems approach to food policy means making
these connections across discrete policy areas,
different levels of government, and between the
public, private and third sectors. Developing more
integrated policy has the potential to support such
connections. But there are currently few examples
of integrated food policy, and those that have been
tried have often fallen short of their aims.
Original languageEnglish
PublisherCentre for Food Policy, City University, London
Publication statusPublished - 2019

Publication series

NameRethinking Food Policy

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