5f. Food Security and Agriculture

Track Chairs:

Catherine Macombe. IRSTEA, University Montpellier, France. Catherine.macombe@irstea.fr

Raymond Auerbach. Nelson Mandela University, South Africa. Raymond.Auerbach@nmmu.ac.za

Goals and objectives of the track

Agricultural production has reached a point where radical transformation is necessary if food quality, food security and food sovereignty are to serve the needs of humanity. The industrial model of production and processing produces cheap food which increasingly costs the environment and the healthcare system dearly. Agriculture is essential for generating broad-based growth necessary for sustainable development. Agricultural production is also fundamental to the sustenance of life and is the bedrock of rural economic and industrial development, especially in the provision of adequate and nutritious food so vital for human development and raw material for industries. In most developing economies, agriculture accounts for a substantial proportion of foreign exchange earnings and employs much of the active labour force. Similarly, agricultural production (food crops, livestock, fisheries and forestry) promotes rural incomes which in turn enhance rural welfare especially in developing and emerging economies. The developed countries on the other hand are faced with challenges of intensive agriculture, unemployment and environmental concerns.

The goal of this track is to highlight actions for a sustainable world, in the wake of food security and agriculture. We acknowledge the importance of considering many different scales (from the single farm until the city or the continent), even if actions may be easier to report on at certain scales.

Accordingly, we invite submissions from various disciplines, in the context of (but not limited to) agroecological concerns:

• What about food security (including quantitative and qualitative matters) and/or agriculture, if the business goes on?
• What are the systems to be implemented to cope with the purpose of food security? The topic may be addressed in terms of consumers' habits, agricultural methods of production, food storage and repartition, subsidies, distribution and logistics, international trade, regulations or any other issue.
• What are the paths from here towards the systems generating food security? What are the main levers and challenges? What about practical experiences?
• What are the other impacts on society of the changes towards food security?

It invites also contributions which review the actions and ambitions of stakeholders in disrupting existing unsustainable systems of food growing and provisioning, and endeavouring to secure more just and sustainable practices of production, access and supply.

There is also much to be gained by further investigating, comparing, and where relevant contrasting, the shared practices, spaces, knowledges and cultural conceptions of food security across the northern and southern hemispheres, as well as rural and urban settings. Related theoretical, conceptual and empirical concerns arise with regards to understanding the significance and potential of grassroots and alternative food movements in bringing about transformations capable of benefiting even the most vulnerable of societal groups; identifying possibilities for new (more sustainable and socially innovative) types of production and consumption relations; and fitting these empirical expressions into broader concepts of societal transition, adaptation and justice at both a local and global scale.

You may submit your abstract by visiting the Ex Ordo abstract submission system (you will be required to setup an account first): http://isdrs2018.exordo.com
Deadline for abstracts: 30 November 2017 7 January 2018