Smart Food Policy as a Response to a New Sustainable Food System Agenda

This chapter argues that capacity-building across the food system—both at the socio-technological and governance level—will contribute to a shift towards a sustainable food system. It contributes to an understanding of smart policies as essentially a governance heuristic for improving policy design and implementation. Smart food policy can enhance the capacity and performance of the food system. Smart policy applied to the food system is highly linked to the innovation capacity of the sociocyber-physical system. Private and public sectors’ innovation capacity is a key driver of economic and social growth and can contribute as disruptive innovations for complex challenges. In the global demands for food system transition, policy-makers are increasingly confronted with demands to become more responsive and efficient, especially given budgetary constraints, and the growing pressure for keeping low food prices and the push for taking action on climate change and public health.