Unveiling Perspectives: The Inspiring Journey Through Food Systems Blogging

The 20 bloggers are participants of the 2024 food systems e-course. They are from 12 countries: Australia, Cameroon, Egypt, Ethiopia, Kenya, Netherlands, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sudan, Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. Their blogs present a rich mosaic of topics and perspectives, written by individuals with diverse backgrounds and expertise. Among them are researchers, consultants, project managers, post-graduate students, hotel managers, and practitioners and experts in government offices or NGOs. I feel incredibly lucky and privileged to have worked with such a talented and diverse group of people.

Some individuals are natural writers, delivering an almost-final version in one go, while blog writing can be challenging for many. Those accustomed to writing lengthy project reports or conceptual research articles often find crafting a short, simple personal blog difficult. The challenge intensifies with mandatory rules and requirements.

In our case, the instructions were to write a blog with a 500-word limit. The content had to be a personal reflection, narrated in a conversational manner, revolving around food systems. We also asked the writers to incorporate key insights from the food systems e-course and reflect on how they aspire to contribute to food systems transformations in their respective contexts. Relating food systems thinking to daily activities is indeed a challenge, but it’s also exciting.

The result is fulfilling: twenty fascinating blogs, impressive reflections on food systems. From irrigation and agronomic practices, food safety and public health, food loss and waste, and nutrition and healthy diets, to school feeding programmes, writers explored many relevant and timely issues. Topics like climate change adaptation, digital solutions, innovative practices, collaborative approaches, systems thinking, and changing mindsets are central to several blogs. Some blogs unveil the true cost of food and advocate for a gendered power shift for just and equitable food systems, while another emphasizes the need to treat “Big Food” companies as allies for food systems transformation. The bloggers narrate these issues in an enjoyable fashion, spotlighting their personal contexts and experiences, with some even going back in time to depict their childhood memories.

I invite you to read all of them – you will enjoy them. As reflections and perspectives from different countries, contexts, and experiences, you will definitely learn a lot and be inspired. I extend my appreciation to all the authors for their commitment in relentlessly revising their drafts. I am also grateful to the NFP colleagues for their support and guidance in facilitating the writing process and publishing the blogs.

You will find them here: 20 Blogs on Food Systems.