The Ecology of Food

The Ecology of Food presents food as a ’total social fact’, as ‘an encounter with the world… the entire world’. It situates food at the intersection of a range of social, cultural, economic, political and environmental potential inflection points, and as such seeks to install in readers a well informed enthusiasm for food systems transformation. This is a hopeful text in a time of many challenges. * Jane Battersby, University of Cape Town, South Africa *
The Ecology of Food takes a comprehensive look at the manifold ways in which food shapes our lives and society and offers a usefully interdisciplinary yet integrated approach to creating more sustainable, equitable and nourishing food systems. * Carolyn Steel, author of Sitopia: How Food Can Save the World *
From the outset The Ecology of Food: Sustainable Food Systems and Diets immerses us in fundamental, intertwined questions about our food systems and how explicit action can catalyze their potential towards much needed transformation. This collection gives the reader a primer on the dynamics of our currently dysfunctional food system and a deep dive into how relationships, ecologies and food citizenship can move the needle in a truly sustainable direction. As a reflection on the pathbreaking contributions of the UNESCO Chair in Global Food Systems, the The Ecology of Food provides a cogent review of the many significant contributions enabled by the Chair as well as a roadmap for future action. This book is as relevant for food systems practitioners, students and scholars as it is for citizens who want to engage and change the world through food. * Alison Blay-Palmer, UNESCO Chair on Food, Biodiversity and Sustainability Studies *

Nicolas Bricas is the director of the UNESCO Chair on World Food Systems at Montpellier SupAgro and CIRAD, the French agricultural research and international cooperation organization working for the sustainable development of tropical and Mediterranean regions. In this role, he leads research programs and training sessions on Sustainable Urban Food System and policies in France and Africa. He is also a member of the IPES-Food panel and an expert in the socio-economics of food systems. His main research interests are in the effects of rapid urbanization, industrialization, and liberalization on food systems and food styles in Africa and Asia.

Damien Conaré is the Secretary General of the UNESCO Chair in World Food Systems at the International Centre for Higher Education in Agricultural Sciences (SupAgro) in Montpellier, France. He works to increase and disseminate academic and empirical knowledge on world food systems, and particularly urban food systems, while emphasizing their diversity, their dynamics, and their human and environmental impacts from the standpoint of sustainable development.

Marie Walser is Project Manager at the UNESCO Chair in World Food at the Agro Institute, Montpellier SupAgro. Walser is an agricultural engineer with research interests in world agricultural food systems and their environmental and human impacts.

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