LIST OF PANELS

Diet-related causes are the leading preventable risk factor for death and disability globally, and the opportunity to consume a healthy diet is unequally shared. The escalation in diet-related diseases in the 20th and 21st centuries reflects a population nutrition transition, with a rapid rise in noncommunicable diseases and obesity as societies, economies, and environments transform. Food and beverages that are energy dense and nutrient poor have become widely available, and industry consolidation in food production, processing, distribution, and retailing have altered people’s participation and power in the food system, from producers to consumers. Many of these changes have accompanied a shift to residence in urban environments, and a widening gap exists in optimizing food and nutrition for rural and remote populations, as well as low income communities. Alongside overconsumption, inadequate caloric and nutrient intake has persisted worldwide. This has created an unprecedented mixed state of diet-related poor health worldwide, termed the ‘double burden’ of malnutrition. The United Nations proclaimed 2016-2025 a Decade of Action on Nutrition, linked to the Sustainable Development Goals, to recognize this profound challenge.

The aim of this panel is to interrogate the tensions in policy formulation, implementation, and evaluation for contemporary food and nutrition inequities, with a focus on increasing access to affordable healthy food across the population. The papers in this session will include, but will not be limited to, the following debates:

· Problematization of food insecurity as an issue of economic versus geographic access

· Framing of nutrition policies and the relative responsibilities of individual, state, and market

· Implementation of intersectoral action for food system transformation, including the role of business in promoting healthy diets

· Food and the intersection of public and private spheres

· Authority and accountability for food in an era of networked governance

· Evaluating natural policy experiments in food and nutrition

· Food policy practices: meaning-making among diverse actors in food and nutrition policy and advocacy

· Enshrining the right to food, food sovereignty, and Indigenous food systems in public policy

· Where food policy meets food law: regulatory frameworks and inequalities

We invite papers from diverse scholars engaged in policy studies related to food and nutrition from both health and social scientific lenses. We encourage critical analyses that interrogate tensions in policy formulation, implementation, and evaluation for contemporary food and nutrition disparities (e.g., from an interpretivist perspective). Additionally, we are interested in substantive empirical research including analyses of food and nutrition policy content and case studies of policy change. Papers incorporating practitioner insights will be given priority. Given that the institutionalization of food and nutrition policymaking (and emergent practices) vary widely across jurisdictions, we anticipate that this panel will include examples of municipal as well as regional and national policy, or matters under international jurisdiction such as trade. The core question is a practical and interventionist one, and will promote evidence sharing across jurisdictions: with the Decade of Action on Nutrition well underway, how can and should a wide range of policy actors best accomplish their aims in addressing food and nutrition inequities? What policy research hypotheses are needed to support improving nutrition and health, and reduce disparities in access to healthy food across diverse population groups?