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This thesis examines the enduring problem of food insecurity in Africa, with a particular focus on Ethiopia and Kenya. It considers food insecurity both in acute terms - the occurrence of famine and chronic terms - famine vulnerability. More specifically it provides a new interpre~tion of the causes of food insecurity in East Africa, with respect to some of the causal factors and viable solutions. It does so by locating the occurrence of famine, and countries vulnerability to it, in the context of the global food system. The global food system is, as yet, an under-examined factor in contemporary famine analysis, particularly in East Africa and this thesis aims to explore it more comprehensively than hitherto. This thesis also makes a substantive contribution to understanding the concept of Food Sovereignty in an African context. Food Sovereignty deserves to be a more significant part of contemporary narratives that at present dominate the political and social dilemmas about food insecurity. However there are serious obstacles such as political relationships, land tenure and the industrial system of agriculture that hinder the development of Food Sovereignty as a viable option. Natural disasters, demographic pressures and ill conceived economic policies are an ongoing part of the story but in essence food insecurity is ultimately political. This thesis concludes that Food Sovereignty should be explored as a political . solution to a political problem.

Addressing malnutrition (in all its forms) whilst developing a global food system compatible with environmental sustainability remains one of the most pressing challenges of the 21st century. The current framing of our food systems fails to fully capture the inequities in production, distribution, efficiency and sufficiency of all components necessary to end malnutrition. This research presents a holistic, scalable and replicable framework to model food system pathways (across all essential nutritional components, including macronutrients, micronutrients and amino acids), providing quantification of production, losses, allocation and conversions at all stages of the value chain. Furthermore, this framework attempts to translate current food metrics-often presented in tonnage or absolute terms-into daily per capita figures to provide important context for how this translates into food security and nutrition. This framework can be applied at global, regional and national levels. Here, this model is first presented at a global level and then focuses on India as a national-level example. Results highlight that, at a global level, we produce the equivalent of 5800 kilocalories and 170 grams of protein per person per day through crops alone. However, major system inefficiencies mean that less than half of crop calories and protein are delivered (or converted) for final food supply. Pathway inefficiencies are even more acute for micronutrients; more than 60% of all essential micronutrients assessed in this study are lost between production and consumer-available phases of the food supply system. Globally we find very large inequalities in per capita levels of food production, ranging from 19,000 kilocalories (729 grams of protein) per person per day in North America to 3300 kilocalories (80 grams of protein) in Africa. Large variations are also seen in terms of food system efficiency, ranging from 15-20% in North America to 80-90% in Africa. Understanding regional inefficiencies, inequalities and trade imbalances will be crucial to meet the needs of a growing global population. This case is exemplified in India-specific framework results. India's domestic production capacity would result in severe malnutrition across a large proportion (>60%) of the population (even under ambitious yield and waste reduction scenarios) in 2030/50. This shortfall will have to be addressed through optimised intervention and trade developments. This work also explores a number of solutions which couple improved nutritional outcomes with sustainability. Analyses of global and national nutritional guidelines conclude that most are incompatible with climate targets; the recommended USA or Australian diet provides minimal emissions savings relative to the business-as-usual diet in 2050. Low-cost, high-quality protein will remain a crucial element in developing an effective and sustainable food system. This research explores the potential of two sources. Results find that meat substitute products have significant health and emission benefits, but are strongly sensitive to both price and consumer acceptability. The environmental impact of aquaculture is strongly species-dependent. This study provides the first quantification of global greenhouse gas emissions from aquaculture, estimated to be 227±61 MtCO2e (approximately 3-4% of total livestock emissions). This is projected to increase to 365±99MtCO2e by 2030.

Local food systems (LFS) connect producers and consumers in a geographically restricted food supply chain. Local food advocates argue that limiting the spatial scope of food systems can help to address the sustainability challenges present in the global food system. LFS are argued to eliminate intermediaries, enable clear product provenance, encourage community interactions, and involve few food miles. LFS are growing in Sweden, where the government launched a National Food Strategy in 2016, which among other aims promotes the proliferation of local food. This study aims to understand why several farmers from Uppland, central Sweden engage in local selling and whether concerns about sustainability influence the choice of selling channels among them. Using on-farm, semi-structured interviews with the farmers, this research explores three research questions concerning: (1) farmer motives for engaging in local selling channels, (2) factors constraining farmer involvement in LFS, and (3) farmer perceptions on the future of local selling channels. The overall purpose of this research is to provide a critical perspective on local selling as a sustainable food system solution. The study reveals a wide range of motives, including economic advantages from responding to consumer demand and cutting out middlemen, price premiums, more customer interactions, job satisfaction, and proximity to markets. Various economic and personal constraints limit the farmers’ use of local selling channels. Such constraints include seasonality of produce, performing time-consuming middlemen tasks, limited access to essential infrastructure, low transport load utilisation, and individual reasons for not wanting to up-scale local production. The results indicate that better access to on-farm or nearby infrastructure, improved small-scale efficiency, increasing food prices for consumers, changing consumer preferences, more diverse farm products, and better congruency between government objectives and import policies could all help to support LFS in the future. This research exposes a number of underlying contradictions and tensions associated with local food in the literature and among the interviewed farmers. The study finds that sustainability concerns are not a critical motive for the farmers’ involvement in local selling. Some of the farmers even question the sustainability of such channels and challenge the idea that LFS are inherently more sustainable than food systems on other scales. Furthermore, almost all the farmers are involved in both local and global food systems. The farmers do not find it conflicting to be part of both food systems, and are in fact consciously using both systems to their economic advantage. Thus the clear distinction between local and global food systems made in the LFS literature is not reflected in the practical experiences of the farmers involved in this study.

Last century witnessed an unprecedented growth of cities which has led to the consolidation of an eminently urbanised world population. Meanwhile, agriculture has adopted industrial methods of production in the shape of large-scale, chemical-laden crops in the countryside, which, together with the liberalisation of global trade, have undermined the livelihood of small-scale peasants throughout the world, forcing many of them out of business. The food industry has responded to the high rates of hunger and malnutrition with an extraordinary increase in production that has not solved food security problems, as these have turned out to be more a question of unequal access to food rather than insufficient supply. Furthermore, the activity of large agri-food corporations has resulted in the degradation of natural ecosystems and an increasing pressure over already overburdened critical resources for food production. Consequently, facing the imminent threat of climate change, more and more voices are questioning the sustainability of the current food system and rising against the burgeoning hunger and escalating inequalities resulting from it. Hence, several alternatives to the neoliberal food system are emerging these days with the aim of reducing social inequalities and curbing environmental degradation, being urban agriculture one of them. Precisely, this thesis explores, from a social-ecological justice perspective, whether urban agriculture can address issues of environmental stewardship and disparities in food distribution. Although the many virtues of urban farming might not be enough to subvert the structures of power that are deeply rooted in the foundations of the present food regime, it could still play a significant role in alleviating the gaps in food needs. However, food security comes only after the core reasons of poverty have been addressed and social justice is achieved in the larger society. The pathway towards a greater social and ecological justice seems to require not only to re-examine how to feed the urban population, but also a significant transformation that goes beyond aspects from the whole food supply chain and embraces societal systemic change.

L’intensità del trasporto alimentare è un trend destinato ad aumentare nella sua complessità. La ricerca attesta come sia rilevante analizzare “come il cibo viaggia”, forse più di “quanto il cibo viaggia”, nel mercato globalizzato dei prodotti agroalimentari, nelle realtà urbane che modificano le abitudini di consumo e nel “global food system” composto da cinque tipologie di sistemi agroalimentari. Gli impatti in sostenibilità sono strettamente dipendenti dall’efficienza del trasporto e della logistica, di merci agroalimentari e di persone che si spostano per l’approvvigionamento, dal campo al consumatore e viceversa. Eppure il concetto di food miles si è ampiamente diffuso tra gruppi di consumatori, attestando mutamenti culturali significativi. Si pensi all’idea tutta italiana di “km-zero”. “Può il trasporto del cibo essere economicamente, socialmente e culturalmente sostenibile, per conservare l'ecosistema?” Questa domanda, approfondita pedagogicamente, può essere riformulata: “How can consumers, economical stakeholders and policy makers become environmentally friendly about transportation of food?” Il quesito conduce all’interrogativo di quale formazione e ricerca interdisciplinare progettare per orientare gli sforzi verso questo fine. Una nuova formulazione concettuale potrebbe promuovere azioni sostenibili per la mobilità e i trasporti sulle lunghe, medie e corte distanze, per la filiera lunga e corta: il “Kmetro verde”. / The transportation of agro-alimentary products is constantly evolving. The research has been focusing on long distances, tied with the global market. But results in a lack of investigations in medium and short distances which also possess some efficiency gain. The investigation of these shorter mode of transport is paramount as they have significant impact on the triptych of sustainability. In this context, the concepts of "food miles" and of "km-zero" have spread widely among the consumers, attesting the community awareness regarding sustainability issues. However, as environmental concerns arise, such concept has showed it's limit. Therefore the question, "Can transportation of food become economically, socially and culturally sustainable, to preserve the ecosystem?", that lead to this concept, needs to be reassessed. Starting from a pedagogical standpoint, this question can be rephrased as “How can consumers, economical stakeholders and policy makers become environmentally friendly about transportation of food, to preserve the ecosystem?”. For a successful undertaking of such problematic, it is paramount to evaluate the need of novel training practises as well as the design of interdisciplinary research. A new formulation of such concept, embodied in "kmeter green", would aim to promote sustainable mobility on all the distances and chains' lengths.