Food System Transformation, Social Equity and One Health in Africa

Recent trends in food systems across Africa include, but are not limited to: a gradual shift away from the dominance of single staple cereal crops, the expansion and intensification of agricultural land, the increased engagement in export-oriented markets and supply chains, and a diversification of diets (including towards increased consumption of animal-based proteins). These shifts have varied and highly interconnected implications for environmental, animal, human and plant/soil health. It is also increasingly evident that the costs and benefits of these food system shifts are experienced differently in different socio-economic contexts.

The Research Topic will take an interdisciplinary and systems approach to exploring the One Health implications of food systems changes in Africa. Taking a One Health lens encourages to consider the interconnections between animal, human and environmental health, across which food systems play a central role. The topic will provide a diverse and empirically grounded evidence base for improving understandings about the benefits and trade-offs associated with interrelated agricultural, market and dietary shifts in the region, paying particular attention to the interactions between environmental, human, animal, plant and soil health. A critical systems approach to research presented under the Topic will highlight ethical and equality-related dimensions of food system transformation, by asking questions about who benefits and who bears the cost of food systems transformation. It will also interrogate some of the politics of whose and which visions for food systems in Africa are mainstreamed and which are marginalised, and why.


We invite submission of papers that take an interdisciplinary and systems approach to exploring the impacts of one or more ongoing changes in African food systems. Such changes may include, but are not limited to: changes in agricultural practices and crop/livestock production systems; changes in land use and landscape composition; changes in supply chains and domestic/export market participation; changes in food and supply chain regulation; changes in diets, food environments, and food access. Papers should take at least a partial One Health approach by considering impacts across different domains, such as environmental, human, animal, plant and soil health. We would particularly encourage submissions from research that includes considers issues of equity and/or trade-offs within and between different sustainability domains, as well as research that critically explores the politics of food system transformation in Africa.

Article types and fees

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Community Case Study
• Conceptual Analysis
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• General Commentary
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• ... View all formats

Articles that are accepted for publication by our external editors following rigorous peer review incur a publishing fee charged to Authors, institutions, or funders.

Article types

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Community Case Study
• Conceptual Analysis
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• General Commentary
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• Original Research
• Perspective
• Policy and Practice Reviews
• Policy Brief
• Review
• Systematic Review
• Technology and Code

Keywords: Environmental, human health, diets, equity, trade-offs, transformation, soil health, animal health, politics

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.