Scale of analysis and cross-region effects are important consideration when assessing urban/rural transformation for food security and nutrition. Take land use for example. Rising household demand for meat in urbanizing China may be impacting deforestation in the Amazon. This has implications for household health in urban China, household livelihoods in the Amazon frontieer in Brazil, regional implications for the Amazon, and global implications for climate change.
Land use is just one example of why scale and cross-regional effects should be taken into account in many aspects of the rural-urban FSN linkages. Resource demand, markets, trades, etc. are a few other important issues that should be viewed through a lens that places an importance on scale of analysis. Indeed, fine-scale data for urban areas is lacking for much of the world. Data on urban processes is often published at the city, regional or country level. Yet cities tend to be highly heterogeneous. We need to understand what is happening within cities to best assess urban FNS needs. To developed sound FSN policies, household or neighborhood level data would help created targeted interventions and programming.
Г-н Cascade Tuholske