The call to adopt a food systems approach has been made increasingly over the past two decades. A systems perspective contends that the only way to understand a problem fully is to understand the elements (parts) in relation to the system (whole). Systems science and research has been pursued in a...

The theory of participatory action research recommends finding tools for community participation in analysis of the situation and development of community programmes. Two case studies, from KwaZulu-Natal and from Philippi near Cape Town, are examined. Participatory rural appraisal (PRA) techniques...

This volume brought together research on concepts and global perspectives on organic food systems, on methods of building capacity in times of climate change, on supporting organic farmers and on upscaling the organic sector in Africa. This chapter summarizes these findings and concludes that four...

Sustainable models are needed in order to transform the current food systems. This chapter presents arguments for using organic food systems as such a model. Food systems can be recognized as coupled human and natural systems, with a set of activities and outcomes in which the boundaries of the...

This book pursues a twofold aim: (i) to assess the welfare impacts of either an organic or a Fair Trade certification system, or of both systems in combination, on smallholders in developing countries; and (ii) to examine the willingness of consumers in the developed world to pay for such certified ...

This chapter provides an overview of the organic agriculture and Fair Trade certification bodies, and discusses how organic agriculture and Fair Trade differ with respect to scope, consumer motivation, certification, microfinance institutions and price mechanisms.

An overview is presented of the global organic and Fairtrade market. The data highlight the size and growth of the market, the per capita consumption, and the market shares of different countries.

This chapter discusses trends in production of organic and Fairtrade certified products globally as well as in the developing continents of Africa, Asia and Latin America. Data on area, number of producers, retail sales and exports are analysed.

This chapter summarizes the results of European research on consumer preferences, buying motives, willingness to pay as well as barriers for buying organic and Fair Trade food products. It also demonstrates the implications for standard setting, certification, labelling and communication.

The study in this chapter fills the gap in consumers' choice and willingness to pay for multiple certified coffee by focusing on three specific labels: 'Organic', 'Fair Trade' and 'Wild Grown'; and on the two large Arabica coffee production countries: Brazil and Ethiopia. In addition to identifying ...