Impacts of COVID-19 on Urban Food Security

A special issue of Land (ISSN 2073-445X).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 June 2023) | Viewed by 12136

Special Issue Editors

Balsillie School of International Affairs, Waterloo, ON N2L 6C2, Canada
Interests: global migration and development; rapid urbanization and food security in the Global South
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Balsillie School of International Affairs, Waterloo, ON N2L 6C2, Canada
Interests: population health and wellbeing in the Global South; urbanization and food security and public health; environmental health
Balsillie School of International Affairs, Waterloo, ON N2L 6C2, Canada
Interests: urbanization and food security in the Global South; corporate food system expansion in the Global South; food systems development

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

COVID-19 and its associated health policies have dramatically affected food systems and food security in cities around the world. The pandemic has led to increases in levels of vulnerability and has created complexities within urban food systems by worsening household income and chronic and acute hunger, and disrupting food supply chains, which were widespread issues even prior to the pandemic. COVID-19 has exacerbated these issues by affecting vulnerable households in almost every city, and more specifically, the overcrowded cities of the Global South. As the threat of new variants looms, these impacts are expected to persist for the foreseeable future. Our changing food systems, livelihood strategies, and food security experiences remain areas of concern that require more research.

In this Special Issue, we bring together papers that reveal the complexities and impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and its associated health policies on urban food security in the Global South. We are seeking empirical research or conceptual/theoretical works which examine key processes and issues including, but not limited to:

  • Disruptions to income and livelihood vulnerability in cities;
  • Food supply chain disruptions;
  • Urban household food access, availability, utilization and stability;
  • Social relations of inequality and/or difference such as gender, age, race, class and ethnicity;
  • Urban food system governance and resilience;
  • Rural-to-urban, urban-to-urban, transboundary, and multiscalar linkages.

Prof. Dr. Jonathan Crush
Dr. Elizabeth Opiyo Onyango
Jeremy Wagner
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • food security
  • COVID-19
  • urbanization
  • food access
  • urban food system
  • urban food policy
  • food supply chain

Published Papers (5 papers)

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Research

17 pages, 2240 KiB  
Article
The Threat of COVID-19 on Food Security: A Modelling Perspective of Scenarios in the Informal Settlements in Windhoek
by Ndeyapo M. Nickanor, Godfrey Tawodzera and Lawrence N. Kazembe
Land 2023, 12(3), 718; https://doi.org/10.3390/land12030718 - 21 Mar 2023
Viewed by 1817
Abstract
Due to the heterogeneity among households across locations, predicting the impacts of stay-at-home mitigation and lockdown strategies for COVID-19 control is crucial. In this study, we quantitatively assessed the effects of the Namibia government’s lockdown control measures on food insecurity in urban informal [...] Read more.
Due to the heterogeneity among households across locations, predicting the impacts of stay-at-home mitigation and lockdown strategies for COVID-19 control is crucial. In this study, we quantitatively assessed the effects of the Namibia government’s lockdown control measures on food insecurity in urban informal settlements with a focus on Windhoek, Namibia. We developed three types of conditional regression models to predict food insecurity prevalence (FIP) scenarios incorporating household frequency of food purchase (FFP) as the impacting factor, based on the Hungry Cities Food Matrix. Empirical data were derived from the 2017 African Food Security Urban Network (AFSUN) Windhoek study and applied univariate probit and bivariate partial observability models to postulate the relation between food insecurity and FFP within the context of stay-at-home disease mitigation strategy. The findings showed that FFP was positively correlated with the prevalence of food insecurity (r = 0.057, 95% CI: 0.0394, 0.085). Daily purchases portrayed a survivalist behaviour and were associated with increased food insecurity (coeff = 0.076, p = 0.05). Only those who were purchasing food twice monthly were significantly associated with reduced food insecurity (coeff = −0.201, p = 0.001). Those households in informal settlements were severely impacted by food insecurity (coeff = 0.909, p-value = 0.007). We conclude that public health compliance should precede with cash or food support to poor households in balance with the need for long-term placement of control measures to fully contain COVID-19 or related infectious diseases. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Impacts of COVID-19 on Urban Food Security)
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12 pages, 495 KiB  
Article
Venezuelan Migration, COVID-19 and Food (in)Security in Urban Areas of Ecuador
by Taymi Milán and Cheryl Martens
Land 2023, 12(2), 517; https://doi.org/10.3390/land12020517 - 20 Feb 2023
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1601
Abstract
The forced migration of nearly 6 million Venezuelans is a global issue that is transforming urban contexts, particularly in Latin America. Ecuador is the third main recipient country of displaced Venezuelans. The lack of State migration policies and the deteriorating economic situation throughout [...] Read more.
The forced migration of nearly 6 million Venezuelans is a global issue that is transforming urban contexts, particularly in Latin America. Ecuador is the third main recipient country of displaced Venezuelans. The lack of State migration policies and the deteriorating economic situation throughout the region have had significant impacts on migrants. While food security and migration have been studied extensively in Latin America, their intersection remains under-explored. Through a systematic review and focus group research, this exploratory study analyzes the food security conditions of Venezuelans in Ecuador and the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the levels of food insecurity using an intersectional approach. Quantitative, systematic review results demonstrate that demands for food assistance outweighed the planning and provisions supplied by both state and non-state actors. Focus groups results support the findings from the systematic review and demonstrate that in the medium-sized port cities of Manta and Machala, food demands during the pandemic lockdown measures were met through the direct food supply and resilience strategies, including the securing of personal loans and bartering. In contrast, in the cities of Quito and Huaquillas, strict enforcement of COVID-19 lockdown measures, reduced access to work and systematic food access and increased reliance on food assistance from non-governmental actors. This study also found that the impacts of food (in)security in the context of COVID-19 disproportionately affected women in all cities, as they offered their food rations to meet the needs of their children, grandchildren, or other dependents. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Impacts of COVID-19 on Urban Food Security)
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24 pages, 630 KiB  
Article
COVID-19 and Urban Food Security in Ghana during the Third Wave
by Elizabeth Opiyo Onyango, Bernard Owusu and Jonathan S. Crush
Land 2023, 12(2), 504; https://doi.org/10.3390/land12020504 - 17 Feb 2023
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1983
Abstract
While the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on household food security have been documented, the intensity and forms of food insecurity in urban households in the Global South have not been adequately explored. This is despite the emerging consensus that impacts of the [...] Read more.
While the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on household food security have been documented, the intensity and forms of food insecurity in urban households in the Global South have not been adequately explored. This is despite the emerging consensus that impacts of the pandemic were more severe in urban than rural Africa. This paper addresses this knowledge gap by examining the relationship between pandemic precarity and food insecurity in Ghana’s urban areas during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. This study is based on the World Bank (WB) and Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) COVID-19 High-Frequency Phone Survey. Using a sub-sample of 1423 urban households, the paper evaluates household experiences of the pandemic. Our findings show that household demographic characteristics are not a major predictor of food insecurity. Economic factors, especially the impact of the pandemic on wage income and total household income, were far more important, with those most affected being most food insecure. Additionally, food-insecure households were most aware of and were affected by food-price increases during the pandemic. These findings are important in planning the post-pandemic recovery initiatives and in addressing current and future emergencies and shocks to urban food systems. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Impacts of COVID-19 on Urban Food Security)
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25 pages, 1468 KiB  
Article
Boon or Bane? Urban Food Security and Online Food Purchasing during the COVID-19 Epidemic in Nanjing, China
by Yajia Liang, Taiyang Zhong and Jonathan Crush
Land 2022, 11(6), 945; https://doi.org/10.3390/land11060945 - 19 Jun 2022
Cited by 8 | Viewed by 3148
Abstract
This paper examines the relationship between the rapid growth of online food purchasing and household food security during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in China using the city of Nanjing as a case study. The paper presents the results of an [...] Read more.
This paper examines the relationship between the rapid growth of online food purchasing and household food security during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in China using the city of Nanjing as a case study. The paper presents the results of an online survey of 968 households in Nanjing in March 2020 focused on their food purchasing behavior and levels of food security during the early weeks of the pandemic. While online food purchasing has increased rapidly in many countries during the COVID-19 pandemic, little research attention has been paid to the relationship between online food purchasing and household food security. This paper provides detailed insights into this relationship in China. The medium- and longer-term food security and other consequences of the pandemic pivot to online food purchasing are a fertile area for future research in China and elsewhere. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Impacts of COVID-19 on Urban Food Security)
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20 pages, 736 KiB  
Article
The Household Food Security Implications of Disrupted Access to Basic Services in Five Cities in the Global South
by Cameron McCordic, Bruce Frayne, Naomi Sunu and Clare Williamson
Land 2022, 11(5), 654; https://doi.org/10.3390/land11050654 - 28 Apr 2022
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 2004 | Correction
Abstract
COVID-19 has caused significant disruptions regarding the extent to which households can access basic services and resources in cities around the world. Previous studies have indicated a predictive relationship between the consistency of resource access and food access among urban households. These investigations, [...] Read more.
COVID-19 has caused significant disruptions regarding the extent to which households can access basic services and resources in cities around the world. Previous studies have indicated a predictive relationship between the consistency of resource access and food access among urban households. These investigations, however, have predominantly been isolated to Southern Africa and have not accounted for other dimensions of food security. To test whether these results are observable outside Southern Africa, and with a more multidimensional measure of food security, this investigation proposes a method for building an index of urban household food access, utilization and stability. The scores for the constructed index are then compared across household survey samples collected from five cities in the Global South. The investigation then assesses the predictive relationship between the consistency of household resource access and this more multidimensional index of food insecurity. While the general trend of inconsistent resource access predicting food insecurity is confirmed, there are geographic differences in the strength and quality of this relationship. These findings suggest that the resource access disruptions inflicted by COVID-19 will likely have a heterogeneous impact on urban food security dependent upon the affected resource and the city in which a given household resides. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Impacts of COVID-19 on Urban Food Security)
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