Kiah Smith is a Collaborating Researcher with The United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD). As part of the UNRISD Think Piece Series The Time is Now! Why We Need a New Eco-Social Contract for a Just and Green World, Kiah contributes evidence from the Fair Food Futures project to demonstrate how a new eco-social contract can be extended through the principles and practices of food justice.
The concept of food justice provides a necessary foundation for enabling eco-social justice, going beyond food security.
In listening to civic food networks, research indicates possible directions for a new eco-social contract with food justice at the centre of food system transformation. This underscores a “deep systems” approach, whereby food security goes beyond production or consumption to prioritize addressing the systemic causes of hunger, food poverty and inequality. It will require urgent reform of food systems to respect, protect and enhance ecological systems on which all life depends (land, soils, water and seeds), through practical policies that support shorter supply chains, agroecological and regenerative farming practices, circular food economies, real climate action and degrowth. This will only be achieved with improved participation of civil society in food governance.
Fair Food Futures 