UWCScholar :: Browsing by Author "Crush, Jonathan"

Browsing by Author "Crush, Jonathan"

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Boon or bane? Urban food security and online food purchasing during the Covid-19 epidemic in Nanjing, China
(MDPI, 2022) Liang, Yajia; Zhong, Taiyang; Crush, Jonathan
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.
Comprehensive food system planning for urban food security in Nanjing, China
(MPDI, 2021) Zhong, Taiyang; Si, Zhenzhong; Crush, Jonathan
Food system planning is important to achieve the goal of �zero hunger� in the UN�s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (UN, 2016). However, discussion about comprehensive planning for food security is scarce and little is known about the situation in Chinese cities. To narrow this gap, this study collected and analyzed four medium-term plans and two annual plans for the �vegetable basket project� in Nanjing, China. This study examines the strategies for urban food security in Nanjing to shed light on how the city developed a comprehensive approach to food system planning over the past three decades. The evolution of incremental food system planning in Nanjing provides valuable lessons for other cities facing food security challenges and shortages of financial resources. Reducing food insecurity is an ongoing challenge for the city governments in the Global South and comprehensive planning is a useful tool for addressing the challenge of urban food insecurity.
Emergency food supplies and food security in Wuhan and Nanjing, China, during the COVID-19 pandemic: Evidence from a field survey
(Wiley, 2021) Zhong, Taiyang; Crush, Jonathan; Si, Zhenzhong
Detailed empirical work on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on food security is scant. Local management of food security has received little attention.This article describes emergency food policies in Wuhan and Nanjing, China during lockdown in 2020 and their implications for household food security in the two cities.Policy documents and background data describe the emergency measures. Online surveys of residents of two Chinese cities were used to gauge household food security.
Factors determining household-level food insecurity during COVID-19 epidemic: A case of Wuhan, China
(Swedish Nutrition Foundation, 2021) Zhang, Yu; Yang, Kui; Crush, Jonathan
: In coping with the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) epidemic, cities adopted social isolation and lockdown measures; however, little is known about the impacts of these restrictions on household food security.This study provides a timely assessment of household food insecurity (HFI) in the Chinese city of Wuhan during the COVID-19 epidemic period and also investigates its determinant factors. We collected valid data on food insecurity from 653 households in Wuhan via an online questionnaire in March 2020. The Household Food Insecurity Access Scale Score (HFIASS) was used to measure HFI, and a multiple linear regression model was used to determine the HFIASS.
Farming the city: The broken promise of urban agriculture
(Routledge, 2019) Crush, Jonathan; Hovorka, A; Tevera, D
Urban population growth is extremely rapid across Africa and this book places urban food and nutrition security firmly on the development and policy agenda. It shows that current efforts to address food poverty in Africa that focus entirely on small-scale farmers, to the exclusion of broader socio-economic and infrastructural approaches, are misplaced and will remain largely ineffective in ameliorating food and nutrition insecurity for the majority of Africans. Using original data from the African Food Security Urban Network�s (AFSUN) extensive database it is demonstrated that the primary food security challenge for urban households is access to food. Already linked into global food systems and value chains, Africa�s supply of food is not necessarily in jeopardy. Rather, the widespread poverty and informal urban fabric that characterizes Africa�s emerging cities impinge directly on households� capacity to access food that is readily available.
Food security in Southern African cities: the place of urban agriculture
(Sage Publications, 2011) Crush, Jonathan; Hovorka, Alice; Tevera, Daniel
Several decades of research on �urban agriculture� have led to markedly different conclusions about the actual and potential role of household food production in African cities. In the context of rapid urbanization, urban agriculture is, once again, being advocated as a means to mitigate the growing food insecurity of the urban poor. This article examines the contemporary importance of household food production in poor urban communities in 11 different Southern African Development Community (SADC) cities. It shows that urban food production is not particularly significant in most communities and that many more households rely on supermarkets and the informal sector to access food. Even fewer households derive income from the sale of produce. This picture varies considerably, however, from city to city, for reasons that require further research and explanation.
Informal food deserts and household food insecurity in Windhoek, Namibia
(MDPI, 2019) Crush, Jonathan; Nickanor, Ndeyapo; Kazembe, Lawrence
nformal settlements in rapidly-growing African cities are urban and peri-urban spaces with high rates of formal unemployment, poverty, poor health outcomes, limited service provision, and chronic food insecurity. Traditional concepts of food deserts developed to describe North American and European cities do not accurately capture the realities of food inaccessibility in Africa�s urban informal food deserts. This paper focuses on a case study of informal settlements in the Namibian capital, Windhoek, to shed further light on the relationship between informality and food deserts in African cities. The data for the paper was collected in a 2016 survey and uses a sub-sample of households living in shack housing in three informal settlements in the city. Using various standard measures, the paper reveals that the informal settlements are spaces of extremely high food insecurity. They are not, however, food deprived. The proximity of supermarkets and open markets, and a vibrant informal food sector, all make food available. The problem is one of accessibility. Households are unable to access food in sufficient quantity, quality, variety, and with sufficient regularity.
The informal food sector and cohabitation with supermarkets in Windhoek, Namibia
(Spinger, 2019) Nickanor, Ndeyapo; Crush, Jonathan; Kazembe, Lawrence
Much of the literature on urban food systems has focused on supermarket expansion and their ability to reach urban consumers. However, the current pace of urbanisation and rising urban poverty has been accompanied by a major upsurge in informality and a growing role for the informal food sector. One of the persistent arguments in the supermarkets literature is that the expansion of modern retail undermines the informal food sector. Critics of this argument suggest that there are two conditions under which this may not occur: first, when there is spatial differentiation with supermarkets servicing higher income areas and the informal sector targeting low-income areas. And second, when there is market segmentation when the formal and informal sectors focus on the sale of different product types. This paper examines the case of Windhoek, Namibia, which has undergone a major supermarket revolution in the last two decades.
Introduction to urban food security in the Global South
(Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd., 2022) Crush, Jonathan; Frayne, Bruce; Haysom, Gareth
This volume addresses the connections between three transformative processes in the Global South. First, the South is undergoing a rapid urban transition fueled by natural population increase and migration. Second, the cities of the South have witnessed major changes in the ways in which their food supply is organized, including new linkages to global processing and distribution networks and incorporation into global food markets. Third, there is a major upsurge in levels of food insecurity in the cities of the South. Undernutrition and overnutrition are both rising in most cities and towns. The chapters in this interdisciplinary volume provide new insights into these global processes and how they are experienced and responded to at the local level.
Living with xenophobia: Zimbabwean informal enterprise in South Africa
(Southern African Migration Programme, 2017) Crush, Jonathan; Tawodzera, Godfrey; Tevera, Daniel
South Africa�s crisis of xenophobia is defined by the discrimination and intolerance to which migrants are exposed on a daily basis. A major target of the country�s extreme xenophobia � defined as a heightened form of xenophobia in which hostility and opposition to those perceived as outsiders and foreigners is expressed through violent acts � is the businesses run by migrants and refugees in the informal sector. Attitudinal surveys clearly show that South Africans differentiate migrants by national origin and that Zimbabweans are amongst the most disliked. Zimbabweans are certainly not the only small-business owners to have become victims of extreme xenophobia.
Migration, rural�urban connectivity, and food remittances in Kenya
(MPDI, 2021) Onyango, Elizabeth Opiyo; Crush, Jonathan; Owuor, Samuel
This paper draws on data from a representative city-wide household food security survey of Nairobi conducted in 2017 to examine the importance of food remitting to households in contemporary Nairobi. The first section of the paper provides an overview of the urbanization and rapid growth of Nairobi, which has led to growing socio-economic inequality, precarious livelihoods for the majority, and growing food insecurity, as context for the more detailed empirical analysis of food security and food remittances that follows. It is followed by a description of the survey methodology and sections analyzing the differences between migrant and non-migrant households in Nairobi. Attention then turns to the phenomenon of food remitting, showing that over 50% of surveyed households in the city had received food remittances in the previous year. The paper then uses multivariate logistic regression to identify the relationship between Nairobi household characteristics and the probability of receiving food remittances from rural areas. The findings suggest that there are exceptions to the standard migration and poverty-driven explanatory model of the drivers of rural�urban food remitting and that greater attention should be paid to other motivations for maintaining rural�urban connectivity in Africa.
Pathways to food insecurity: Migration, hukou and Covid?19 in Nanjing, China
(Wiley) Crush, Jonathan; Xu, Fei; Zhong, Taiyang
The COVID?19 pandemic has issued significant challenges to food systems and the food security of migrants in cities. In China, there have been no studies to date focusing on the food security of migrants during the pandemic. To fill this gap, an online questionnaire survey of food security in Nanjing City, China, was conducted in March 2020. This paper situates the research findings in the general literature on the general migrant experience during the pandemic under COVID and the specifics of the Chinese policy of hukou. Using multiple linear regression and ordered logistic regression, the paper examines the impact of migration status on food security during the pandemic. The paper finds that during the COVID?19 outbreak in 2020, households without local Nanjing hukou were more food insecure than those with Nanjing hukou. The differences related more to the absolute quantity of food intake, rather than reduction in food quality or in levels of anxiety over food access. Migrants in China and elsewhere during COVID?19 experienced three pathways to food insecurity�an income gap, an accessibility gap, and a benefits gap. This conceptual framework is used to structure the discussion and interpretation of survey findings and also has wider potential applicability.
Preparing for COVID-19: Household food insecurity and vulnerability to shocks in Nairobi, Kenya
(Public Library of Science, 2021) Onyango, Elizabeth Opiyo; Crush, Jonathan; Owuor, Samuel
An understanding of the types of shocks that disrupt and negatively impact urban household food security is of critical importance to develop relevant and targeted food security emergency preparedness policies and responses, a fact magnified by the current COVID-19 pandemic. This gap is addressed by the current study which draws from the Hungry Cities Partnership (HCP) city-wide household food insecurity survey of Nairobi city in Kenya. It uses both descriptive statistics and multilevel modelling using General Linear Mixed Models (GLMM) to examine the relationship between household food security and 16 different shocks experienced in the six months prior to the administration of the survey. The findings showed that only 29% of surveyed households were completely food secure. Of those experiencing some level of food insecurity, more experienced economic (55%) than sociopolitical (16%) and biophysical (10%) shocks. Economic shocks such as food price increases, loss of employment, and reduced income were all associated with increased food insecurity. Coupled with the lack of functioning social safety nets in Nairobi, households experiencing shocks and emergencies experience serious food insecurity and related health effects. In this context, the COVID-19 pandemic is likely to have a major negative economic impact on many vulnerable urban households. As such, there is need for new policies on urban food emergencies with a clear emergency preparedness plan for responding to major economic and other shocks that target the most vulnerable. Copyright: � 2021 Onyango et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Resituating Africa’s urban informal food sector
(Spinger, 2019) Crush, Jonathan; Young, Graeme
The complex dynamics of the informal food sector in urban Africa are poorly understood. Urban informal food systems are beginning to receive attention from scholars and policymakers, but the notable absence of detailed empirical information and necessary theoretical engagement with their emergence, structure, and operation has thus far limited efforts to understand the central role that they play in urban development processes. This Special Issue brings together a diverse collection of case studies from seven countries across the Global South—China, Jamaica, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, South Africa, and Uganda—to explore these dynamics by placing Africa’s urban informal food sector in comparative international context.
Urban food insecurity and the impact of China�s affordable food shop (AFS) program: a case study of Nanjing City
(Applied Geography, 2023) Zhong, Taiyang; Crush, Jonathan; Song, Yaya
Food subsidies are widely implemented as part of government policies globally to mitigate food insecurity amongst the urban poor. Subsidies to retail outlets are one a type of supply-side subsidy designed to make food more affordable to low-income consumers. China�s Affordable Food Shop (AFS) program introduced by the central government in 2011 and implemented by municipal governments is one example. To date, there has been little research examining the effectiveness of the AFS program despite more than a decade of implementation. This paper presents a case study of the program�s effectiveness in Nanjing which was one of the first Chinese cities to introduce the program which grew very rapidly in the years that followed. In early 2020, the Nanjing program was closed which raises important questions about its effectiveness and impact. We show that food insecurity in Nanjing is generally low but that increased food insecurity is associated with lived poverty, lower income, and unaffordability of staple foods. Food insecurity is not mitigated by proximity to an AFS Program shop. The paper argues that the program had various deficiencies and a limited effect in reducing food insecurity and increasing food accessibility. These included inappropriate targeting, program redundancy, and competition from supermarkets and public markets. In the circumstances, the decision by the city government to close the program is understandable.

Browsing by Author "Crush, Jonathan"

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