Cultivating Food Equity

A University at Buffalo team at Habitat II in Quito Ecuador.

The University at Buffalo team at Habitat II in Quito, Ecuador

Despite producing 70% of the world’s food, small-scale farmers remain undernourished, as do their neighbors throughout the Global South. Improving food security cannot be done by increasing agricultural production alone; a systems approach is needed to advance access to nutritious, culturally meaningful food. To cultivate food equity, we work with both local stakeholders, such as farm operators, and international influencers, like the UNFAO, studying, developing, and implementing cross-sector policies-in-action.

What is Food Equity?

By Samina Raja

Food equity is the expansive concept that all people have the ability and opportunity to grow and to consume healthful, affordable, and culturally significant foods. In an equitable food system, all community members are able to grow, procure, barter, trade, sell, dispose and understand the sources of food in a manner that prioritizes culture, equitable access to land, fair and equitable prices and wages, human health, and ecological sustainability. Food equity requires that food systems be democratically controlled and community stakeholders  determine the policies that influence their food system.  

What is a Community Food System?

A community food system is the soil-to-soil system that enables the production, processing, distribution, acquisition, and consumption of food, and management of food waste. A CFS depends on natural resources, technologies, cultural norms, governance structures, policies and laws that shape and influence how food moves from farm to plate. An equitable CFS enhances the environmental, economic, social, and health equity of a place and its inhabitants. In the Global South, where hunger and malnutrition remain a pressing problem, community food systems are rapidly changing, creating both challenges and opportunities. Because of its complexity and breadth, community food systems are ripe for transdisciplinary scrutiny and innovation. 

In cities across the United States and in countries around the world, communities lack the ability and opportunity to access healthful, affordable, and culturally significant foods. In particular, food inequity leads to broken food systems that heighten undernourishment and hunger in low- and middle-income countries. 

Samendy.
Samendy Brice applies design to bridge food access along Haiti, Dominican Republic border
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Our Working Solutions

Dr. Samina Raja and her team in Kerala, India.

Dr. Samina Raja and her team in Kerala, India

Identifying Needs Testing Options Scaling Up Evaluating Solutions
  • Planning for Regenerative Equitable Food Systems in Urbanizing Global Environments (Plan-REFUGE)
    2/12/21
    Plan-REFUGE aspires to understand and mitigate food inequities experienced by small-holder farmers in the Global South. Using a transdisciplinary approach we investigate how small-holder farmers in the Global South adapt their daily living practices in the face of a number of challenges including globalization and climate change. Lessons from on-the-ground experiences are used to inform purposeful community development and planning strategies. The project ensures a Global South to Global South learning exchange as well as capacity building of policy makers both locally and globally through publications and trainings. Plan-REFUGE is a collaborative effort that aims to have multiple study countries including India.
  • Ground-level Agricultural Survey System (GLASS)
    7/6/20
    Smallholder farmers produce over 80% of the world’s food but are often poor and food-insecure themselves (FAO, 2014). Food insecurity is linked to a host of diet-related health outcomes, including the so-called “double burden” of deficient and excessive caloric intake. 
  • Dealing with Disparities in Food Acquisition Among Refugees (DDFAR)
    2/27/20
    At the end of 2014, 19.5 million people were reported to be refugees in the world, and the number has continued to rise.  In 2014, 4,085 refugees were resettled in New York State, with Erie County receiving the highest number. Resettlement is meant to be a durable, long-term habitation solution so refugees can lead full, healthy lives. However, refugees are often resettled in neighborhoods that expose populations to a variety of health risks. 
  • The Story of Haakh (Collard): Tracing the Trajectory of Collard in the Face of Land Use Change in the Region of Kashmir
    1/17/18
    Presented at the 56th Annual Conference of the American Collegiate Schools of Planning in Portland, Oregon, this working paper, the result of collaboration with researchers at the University of Kashmir, documents how land use change, poor planning decisions, and recent extreme weather events coupled with the arrival of the global food system affect production and consumption of healthy foods, particularly haakh (a green much like collards), in the Kashmir region of India. At the time of the presentation the working paper was a review of the small body of literature and government documents available. 
  • Annual Global Innovation Challenge
    4/14/21
    The annual Global Innovation Challenge is a competition and course open to all undergraduate, graduate, doctoral, and nontraditional students focused on developing solutions to some of the major, unsolved global health challenges around the world. For one week, participants engage in team-building and creative problem-solving activities with international experts and UB faculty. 

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Our work is done in collaboration with many talented community partners. We list these partners on the affiliated project pages.