This paper aims to better understand the resilience and further entrenchment of food aid through food banks in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. During the first months of the pandemic in the Netherlands, concerns quickly rose about the number of people falling into conditions of food...

The issue of food security is relevant for all countries, but it does not have a universal solution. In particular, this is confirmed by the countries of the European Union, which, despite a common food policy, demonstrate different levels of food security. Using their example, this study aims to...

The food system's decreasing ability to deliver food security has led to the emergence of food assistance initiatives. Food assistance is highly contested; as some argue, it is a "failure of the state", while others regard food assistance to be an "extension of the welfare state". Either way,...

The COVID-19 pandemic has been detrimental to food security globally. The Netherlands, despite its advanced stage of development, saw a surge in food insecurity among its most vulnerable citizens. Dutch food aid is managed by private charities and social organisations that often aim to address the...

Making use of Life Cycle Thinking, the Metropolitan Foodscape Planner (MFP) tool provides ecological footprint maps and supply/demand data showing a large potential for metropolitan food supplies. In the discussion, we examine these results in the light of recent research on the impacts of the...

Food insecurity is a growing concern due to man-made conflicts, climate change, and economic downturns. Forecasting the state of food insecurity is essential to be able to trigger early actions, for example, by humanitarian actors. To measure the actual state of food insecurity, expert and...

In order to foster a transition of the food system toward more sustainable outcomes, scholars have increasingly pointed at the need for organizing strengthened food democracy. By increasing the participation of citizens and food system actors, democratic innovations, such as food policy councils,...

This book highlights aspects of food policy from the perspective of regulation. The book consists of 14 chapters presented in three parts. The first presents the sources of the right to food and explains how this human right has been caught up in dead-end reasoning. The second part argues that the...

The repurposing of surplus food and food processing by-products is a key aspect of the shift towards a circular bioeconomy. In the Netherlands, food supply chain actors are already working towards making better use of agri-food surpluses to improve food security and resource efficiency. By...

The objective of this report is to provide insights into the factors that enable the development and delivery of urban food policies and how these enablers can be harnessed and barriers overcome. By exploring a series of case studies, the report shares lessons that cities of all sizes and at all...