DIGGING DEEPER: Bringing a Systems Approach to Food Systems: The Many Uses of a New Report on Food Systems Assessments

Kate Clancy

doi:10.5304/jafscd.2016.062.006

Authors

Kate Clancy Center for a Livable Future, Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University; Minnesota Institute for Sustainable Agriculture; Tufts University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5304/jafscd.2016.062.006

Keywords:

Assessments, Complex Adaptive System, Report

Abstract

First paragraph:

A new contribution to the efforts to bring a systems approach to food systems work is the report A Framework for Assessing the Effects of the Food System (Institute of Medicine [IOM] & National Research Council [NRC], 2015a). It was released a year ago and became available for purchase in June 2015. I was a member of the committee that prepared and wrote the report under the auspices of the Institute of Medicine and the National Research Council and I want to highlight in this column what I see as the report's multiple uses.

The task presented to the committee was to propose a framework that could be utilized by researchers and stakeholders to assist in food and agriculture decision-making. We were also asked to provide examples of current food system issues for which there are present and future alternatives, and for which the utilization of the framework could be helpful in decision-making. The charge was to develop the framework and not to do any actual analyses of a particular issue....

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Author Biography

Kate Clancy, Center for a Livable Future, Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University; Minnesota Institute for Sustainable Agriculture; Tufts University

Kate Clancy is a food systems consultant, visiting scholar at the Center for a Livable Future, Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University, senior fellow at the Minnesota Institute for Sustainable Agriculture, and adjunct professor at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University. She received her bachelor's and Ph.D. degrees in nutrition at the University of Washington and the University of California Berkeley, respectively. She has studied food systems for over 40 years and has held positions in several universities, the federal government and two nonprofit organizations. Her present interests are regional food systems, food security, agriculture of the middle, and policies at all levels to encourage the development of resilient food systems.