Urban Food Systems

Food is crucial to life. However, due to extreme climate change and rapidly rising populations, secure food access is not always guaranteed.

This course will teach you about food systems and their core concepts, in relation to urban growth and land-use patterns.

Key topics include spatial, social and economic accessibility, food choice and foodsheds. Additionally, these concepts are linked to city governance dynamics to help you understand stakeholder involvement and urban food policy making.

Putting theory to practice, these concepts will be connected to African city case studies, giving you a deep understanding of what shapes food systems in African cities.

What you'll learn

• Understand the core concepts of a food system in the context of urban growth and land-use configurations and apply them to other contexts
• Understand urban food value chains and create your own food value chain chart
• Define the vulnerabilities and opportunities of urban food value chains
• Explain the three dimensions of food access: spatial, social and economic accessibility
• Evaluate the vulnerability and sustainability of the food system through the concept of foodsheds
• Understand dietary choices, the double burden of malnutrition and obesity
• Define and distinguish food security and dietary diversity, and identify target foods
• Understand and analyse urban food governance and develop a stakeholder map for an urban food system, inclusive of key governance activities
• Understand and analyse the governance dynamics regarding (peri)urban agriculture, food retail, food safety and infrastructure