WAVES Lab Contributes to 2017 FAO State of Food & Agriculture Report

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) released its flagship report 2017 The State of Food and Agriculture: Leveraging Food Systems for Inclusive Rural Transformation last week. Focused on strengthening rural livelihoods through rural-urban linkages, the report outlines the challenges and opportunities for food systems in rapidly urbanizing low- and lower-middle-income countries. Cascade Tuholske, WAVES lab member and PhD student in Geography at UCSB, had the fortune to contribute to sections on urbanization and urban food systems. Rural communities may benefit from urbanization as urban consumer demand for food increases. However, urbanization can also lead to neglect of rural communities. To capitalize on urbanization to grow rural economies, the report encourages policymakers to develop inclusive and integrative strategies that specifically link rural economies and food systems with neighboring small towns and cities. Through such policies, countries can work toward achieving zero hunger and zero poverty by 2030.