Food Security in Emerging Economies: Trends From Scoping Review Under the Sustainability Lens

doi:10.21203/rs.3.rs-1981835/v1

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Food Security in Emerging Economies: Trends From Scoping Review Under the Sustainability Lens

https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-1981835/v1

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The effects of food security issues are most evident in developing countries. The research topics influencing the debate on food security are not always easy to assess. Without a deeper understanding of the topics driving the food security research agenda may lead to bias. This study used a scoping review of the research themes associated with food security in two contexts: a world context and a developing country context. Using two sets containing 15,875 articles (for the world context) and 465 articles (for the Brazilian context), we obtained four thematic drivers in the world context (Covid-19 and civilisational socio-economic goals; climate change and food chains for sustainable development; nutrition and security health specifics; emerging economies and public policy) and four thematic drivers on the developing country context (climate change, bioenergy and biofuels; food security, nutrition and health; family farming and public policy; specific biomes and deforestation. Sustainable Development goals supported the assessment of the literature gap and two research directions were proposed as food security trade-offs and public food policy implications.

From a systemic perspective for addressing civilisational challenges for sustainable development, the 2030 Agenda Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) framework is a modern instrument for policy design. Its complexity and diversity of goals represent a call for civilisational progress: safeguarding the socio-economic advances of their predecessors, and moving forward towards an environmental crisis linked to climate action (Sachs, 2012). The 2030 Agenda follows the Millennium Goals (MDGs) and adds to these, from 2015, a high level of attention to environmental issues, without prejudice to the socio-economic advances achieved during the years of the MDGs. On average, the world has become a better place to live: fundamental civilisation indicators have been met across much of the globe. For instance maternal and infant mortality indicators have been reduced and tropical diseases such as malaria have been controlled in several countries (Murray, 2007; Dora, 2015). Nevertheless, pressure on the physical limits of the planet and growing evidence of the complex interconnection of the social, environmental and economic dimensions of sustainable development have brought issues such as the climate urgency to a higher degree of attention (Sachs, 2012). Since its implementation, several fields have used SDGs as a scoping parameter to investigate the literature, such as energy (Nerini et al., 2018; Santika et al., 2019;), water and sanitation (Flörke et al., 2019; Parikh et al., 2020), education (Andreoni & Ruiz Vargas, 2020; Cottafava, Cavaglià & Corazza, 2019; Franco et al., 2019) and artificial intelligence (Vinuesa et al., 2020).

In the food dimension, the MDGs foster a reshaping of the debate from a narrow perspective of the "hunger" issue as an under-nutrition matter to broaden a food-security agenda (Fukuda-Parr & Orr, 2014). The concept expanded with the composition of food sovereignty, in which self-determined citizens produce and consume food according to their culture, preserving the contexts in which they are inserted (Borba et al., 2018). On the other hand, it is essential to point out that food is a universal human right.

The expansion of the concept is reflected in the further design of the Sustainable development goals, where the SDG 2 integrates a more complex set of targets. The SDG 2 still addresses hunger as the main issue (target 2.1), but expands it to all forms of malnutrition, including wasting and stunting in its keywords (target 2.2). Furthermore, SDG 2 connects food with sustainable food supply chains, bringing the debate to the concept of a planetary agenda for nutrition, that is healthy for people while safeguarding planetary boundaries (Willett et al., 2019). Targets 2.3, 2.4 and 2.5 binds the debate together with a sustainable, modern and diverse agricultural model, and in addition, it brings economic targets (2.a, 2.b and 2.c) to make the shift towards sustainable food consumption and production possible.

The effects of food (in) security in emerging markets, where the socio-economic fabric is still fragile, exacerbate a situation of greater vulnerability; this context is exemplified by the resurgence of hunger (Bublitz et al., 2021) in some contexts in which the food security indicators were already established. We have plenty of studies associating the systemic impacts of food insecurity. The chain of adverse conditions resulting from the interaction of food insecurity with undernutrition and obesity aggravated by increased vulnerabilities to illness and adverse health outcomes (such as the COVID-19 pandemic) create the context of the global food syndemic (Huizar et al., 2021).

The practical implication of this increase in complexity for attention to sustainable development can be represented in the 2030 Agenda, composed of 17 objectives and 169 targets. Furthermore, shortcomings related to the 2030 Agenda fulfilment are also linked to a lack of contextualisation of this complex and global set of goals at a territorial level (Annesi et al., 2021). In addition, there are persistent trade-offs regarding the SDGs that resurface from time to time (Kroll, Warchold & Pradhan, 2019) and that must be converted into synergies to advance the agenda as a whole. Evidence of trade-offs and synergies for food security have been identified under the SDGs umbrella in specific scenarios. Momblanch et al., (2022) identifies linkages. Agricultural productivity linked to biodiversity loss, food production and climate change mitigation is also recurrent (Hinz et al., 2020). Despite such effort, no systematic approach of the literature relates to the SDGs in a direct manner.

The promotion of food security and sovereignty is one indicator of advanced commonwealth and intertwined with other economic, social and environmental dimensions, they are also impacted by systemic crises (Gibson, 2012), such as the recent COVID-19 pandemic case. Food security refers to ensuring that all people can produce or buy food that can provide a healthy and active life (Gross et al., 2000). When addressing food security in an emerging economy, there are striking inequalities and bringing the global agenda to a local level is of utmost relevance. Brazil's context of inequalities informs a call for action towards socio-economic development, at the same time, the country's land and water ecosystems are threatened and must be safeguarded. The crossroads between two calls for action grant the country a feasible scenario for research and implementation of policy toolkits related to 2030 Agenda trade-offs.

Therefore, we ground our work on expanding the food security research agenda towards interdisciplinary connections with other fields of knowledge through the paved way of other studies connecting specific subjects with the 2030 agenda framework. Our aim is to identify new research trends on a global and a developing country perspective, using a scoping review and qualitative coding to link published evidence to the SDGs. Our research question can be summarised as follows: "How can food security research trends be framed with the 2030 agenda lens?".

We conducted a literature scoping review for "food security" to find relationships among the main topics, identify gaps in the literature, and related research trends. Scoping reviews are used when little guidance is available about a particular topic (Munn et al., 2018). Also, the research question is broad, as the inclusion and exclusion criteria are usually designed post hoc, since the focus is on a qualitative synthesis that prioritises locating the research gaps rather than rigour of the systematisation of the review (Brien et al., 2010).

Keyword mapping guided the constructs related to food security. The research strings were: "food security" and synonyms, separated by the boolean operator "OR". We narrowed the results using the following parameters:

Keyword string - Food security, Food Insecurity, Hunger, Malnutrition, Undernourishment
Placement - Title, Abstract and keywords	Database - Scopus
Timespan - >=2016	File type: articles fully published in peer-reviewed journals
Language - English

The complete list of papers was exported and mapped using the keyword in context reasoning informed by the tool VosViewer (Yu et al., 2019). To obtain a better visual output of the results we used the following parameters: Method - LinLogModularity; Cluster size - 30 ;Keywords threshold >=3 occurrences. The literature on food-related themes used keyword mapping tools for researching topics (Rusydiana, Rahardjo & Soeparno, 2021; Niknejad et al., 2021), and the software is, overall, one of the most popular bibliometric tools among researchers.

In this study we used the software to identify research trends and themes in two different processes, comparing first the relationship of keywords on the world context and on the Brazilian context. We used the VosViewer default presets. These mappings were then evaluated according to the degree of the central nodes in each of one the clusters, and, in a final stage, the main nodes were matched with Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) keywords.

Discussion is guided by the main clusters identified, and the interlinkages with the SDGs are highlighted by specific target connections. The conclusion of the work comprises a research agenda and policy domains according to the clusters identified.

The initial search string returned 15.875 studies. By narrowing it down to the Brazilian context, we obtained 465 documents. Both samples were uploaded into the Vosviewer tool. Initially, we identified the thematic cluster from the world and Brazilian literature. Table 1 presents a description of both clusters. The keyword mapping for the world resulted in a network with four main thematic clusters, depicted in Fig. 1, Panel A.

Table 1. Food Security Clusters: Brazil and World

Scoping	Clusters
World	I) Covid-19 & civilizational socio-economic goals
	II) Climate change & Global Syndemic
	III) Global syndemic and food insecurity
	IV) Emerging economies & policy
Brazil	I) Climate change, bioenergy & biofuels
	II) Global Syndemic and food security
	III) Family farming & public policy
	IV) Specific biome & deforestation

Among points of similarity, we found out the great relevance given to Climate change, carbon footprint, and GreenHouse Gas emissions on both networks. Another thematic clustered similarly refers to the linkages between nutrition, food security and an array of health-related topics, both in Brazil and the world. In Fig. 1, Panel A, Cluster IV indicates several emerging economies countries, and does not mention Brazil among them. Some unexpected results are the centrality of the keyword "sustainable development" in the world mapping and the total absence of the themes "sustainability" or "sustainable development" in the Brazilian literature network.

Themes such as "refugees" and "conflict" are also linked to the global food security network, but do not emerge in the Brazilian context. Looking closer at both networks' differences, we spot two main trends related to the Brazilian network: aspects that appear when Brazil is scoped, but are missing at the global network of keywords.

The location is signalled in Fig. 2, and includes (a) food security trade-offs involving land use for biofuel and its impacts on Brazilian most threatened biomes and (b) public policy impacts on food security. The focal keywords and the SDGs topics are plotted on the mapping(see Fig. 3). We related food security with four main UN goals, namely #1 No Poverty, #2 Zero Hunger, #3 Good Health and Well-being and #12 Responsible production and consumption. We concentrate on the social and economic dimensions of the sustainable development debate. Most of these topics bring not only a call to action toward food security (e.g., "2.1 By 2030, end hunger and ensure access by all people, [...] to safe, nutritious and sufficient food all year round") but also address noncommunicable diseases (e.g., "3.4 By 2030, reduce by one-third premature mortality from noncommunicable diseases", UN, 2015).

The major role that poverty reduction plays in food security represents the economic dimension. In Brazil, rural settlements and smallholder producers' conditions of poverty lead to the debate about a food production system that is environmentally safe, socially responsible and economically viable. This call is represented in SDG #12, Sustainable Consumption and Production, concerning sustainable supply chains management, from a broad perspective and addressing specific SDGs targets such as land use rights (targets 1.4), land use rights for women (target 5.a.) and fostering of family food production (target 2.3)

We named these four SDGs as Tier 1 since the food security debate must include them in any discussion. Tier 2 SDGs were designated as thematically linked to Brazilian research agenda trends. Among these SDGs, we observe the first cluster with SDG #15, Life on land, which included the sustainable management of forests and is linked to family farming, agroforestry traditional production and specific biome preservations. It also includes SDG #7 Affordable and Clean Energy and SDG #13 Climate action. Finally, a second cluster comprised of SDG #8 Decent work and economic growth, SDG #11 Sustainable Cities and Communities and SDG #16 Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions.

The following discussion is divided into four domains of action, categorised as Climate Change, bioenergy and biofuels (4.1), Global Syndemic and food security (4.2); Family farming and public policy (4.3) and Specific biomes and deforestation (4.4). The discussion is based on the evidence from the scoping review and is enriched by specific linkages with some of the 169 SDG targets.

4.1. Climate Change, bioenergy and biofuels

Biofuel production and land use for agriculture are one of Brazil's most significant and contextual trade-offs when it comes to sustainable development, explicitly represented by the bioethanol clean energy production from sugarcane. Sugarcane production is a historic part of the nation's development, intertwined with Brazilian society's socio-economic configuration. The slavery-based cotton plantations represented in the United States can be paralleled with the Brazilian sugarcane plantations (Schwartz, 1985). In 1975, the Brazilian government implemented the Brazilian Alcohol Program (Proalcool) (target 13.2), aimed at reducing oil exports. In Brazil, ethanol is blended into gasoline as an octane enhancer (Goldemberg, Coelho & Guardabassi, 2008). Socio-environmental impacts related to sugarcane can be linked to pollution-related health issues (target 3.9) (Arbex et al., 2007), labour force exploitation (target 8.7) (Rocha, Marziale & Hong, 2010), soil degradation (target 12.4 and 2.4) (Vera, Wicke & Hilst, 2020), among others. When it comes to greenhouse gas emissions (target 13.1), some studies portray Brazilian sugarcane fields as CO2 sinks, absorbing more carbon than releasing it into the atmosphere (Cabral et al., 2020), while other authors suggest that changing the land-use, for instance, from coffee to sugarcane, can hinder the system sustainability (de Oliveira Bordonal et al., 2017).

When it comes to food security, the crossroads linking the topics form a nexus relating water-food-energy (Benites-Lazaro et al., 2018). The clash between food-security and the green biofuel production has been drawing attention. Sugarcane ethanol is regarded as a win-win strategy, since deforestation and water footprint level, along with nitrogen use efficiency, empowers its sustainability potential (de Oliveira Bordonal et al., 2018). Research on how to make it even greener guides the debate towards innovation fostered by public policies related to greener production practices, such as the second-generation ethanol sourced from residual biomass (de Paula, Pereira & Parmentier, 2019). However, one of the remaining grounds for criticism is the food versus fuel debate, rooted in land use. Studies show in the last decade that sugarcane cultivation rivals food crops, such as cassava, rice, potatoes and fruits. Increasing demand for fuel possibly challenges land use issues, rising concerns related to the increase in land use and food price increase (Caldarelli & Gilio, 2018). Sugarcane expansion is considered a treat for food security and small-scale farmers' livelihoods and culture (Souza et al., 2017).

4.2. Global Syndemic and food security

In the health domain, we highlight the topic of a global syndemic. Which consists of the synergy of pandemics of obesity, undernutrition and climate change with direct impacts on health and the environment. Climate change from extreme weather events, droughts and changes in agricultural production can lead to food insecurity (Swinburn et al., 2019).

Since 1980 the worldwide prevalence of overweight and obesity has doubled, affecting one-third of the population. Obesity rates increase in all ages and sexes, regardless of locality, ethnicity, or socio-economic status. However, there is a higher prevalence of obesity (target 3.4) among the elderly and women (Choi et al., 2019) which denotes a disproportionate burden on the vulnerable populations (target 1.4). In addition to the direct health effects, obesity impacts the economic burden. Comparative analysis of medical costs shows that overweight and obese people spend 32% more annually than those with average weight (Yusefzadeh, Rashidi, Rahimi, 2019).

In the Brazilian context, public food and nutrition policies and the public health system in the field of Primary Health Care contribute to articulating the development of a sustainable food system that confronts the global syndemic (Machado et al., 2021). Changes in the dietary pattern of the Brazilian population in the last three decades are characterised by the increase in the acquisition of ultra-processed foods with a predominance of in natura or minimally processed foods and processed culinary ingredients (Levy et al., 2022). The process of nutritional transition in the Brazilian population is evidenced by the time trend to increase excess weight (target 2.2) that affects adolescents, adults, elderly and pregnant women in all regions (Barancelli, Gazolla, Schneider, 2022). Chronic noncommunicable diseases (target 3.4) associated with poor diet have an economic burden on Brazil's public health system (target 3.8). In 2018, obesity, hypertension, and diabetes costs totalled US$ 890 million (Nilson et al., 2020).

Food insecurity is a severe global public health (target 3.8) problem. By 2020, the scourge of hunger will affect between 720 and 811 million. In addition, more than 3 billion faced quantitative and qualitative food access restrictions (FAO, 2021). In Brazil, data from the II National Survey on Food Insecurity context of the COVID-19 pandemic in Brazil pointed out that in 2022, more than 33 million people in hunger situation (II VIGISAN, 2022), a consequence of political and economic instability and the dismantling of public policies (Santos et al., 2021).

Recent studies indicate the relationship between food and water insecurity (Young et al., 2021). In Brazil, it was observed that in households exposed to moderate (16.5%) and severe (27.3%) levels of Food Insecurity, the occurrence of Water Insecurity was more frequent, especially those considered in food security (target 2.1) and mild food insecurity situations (target 2.2). Thus, it is verified that HI is significantly associated with AI, with potential consequences for safe access to food, the risk of foodborne diseases (ADs), physical, and mental health, nutritional status to the prevention and control of infectious diseases (Miller et al., 2021a; Miller et al., 2021b; Stoler et al., 2021; Hannah et al., 2021).

Despite progress, ensuring the human right to drinking water (target 6.1) is challenging for the 2030 Agenda. It is verified that HI is a global phenomenon, affecting as many developed countries as developing countries, neglected by their governance. In this sense, there is a growing need for measurement in different dimensions (home-individual; new information and communication technologies; and new approaches to managing complex water infrastructures (target 6.4) more inclusively and democratically (target 6.5), capable of monitoring the effectiveness of water interventions and ensuring water security (Wilson et al., 2021).

4.3. Family farming and public policy

The trend related to public food policy impacts on food security gained momentum with Brazil's constant institutional, political and economic crises. Institutional inefficiency (target 16.6) and constant shifts in policy goals explain the paradoxical situation of the existence of hunger in one of the biggest food producers in the world. The most renowned Brazilian public policy refers to the Zero Hunger program, which comprises an overarching of projects and actions. The Food Procurement Programme (PAA) and the National School Feeding Programme (PNAE) are the most extensive programs that act in a synergic way between food security and sustainable procurement (target 12.7). These policies bridge the gap between family-based food producers and consumers by fostering food acquisition locally (Wittman & Blesh, 2017). In addition to the common issues that have been jeopardising the continuity of the programs, the emergency of the COVID-19 pandemic aggravated the vulnerability of communities. Brazil, once a model for hunger eradication (target 2.1), decreased in most food security indicators (Ferreira Costa, 2021).

Trade-offs between food and energy also impact family farming in the Brazilian agricultural frontier. The agrofuel policies related to sugarcane have been a long tension point related to land-use rights. Agrofuel production rewired the land acquisition process (target 1.4) and fostered conflicts (target 16.1) between peasantry and companies, also disrupting or undermining forms of economic participation by family-based farming (target 2.3) (Fernandes, Welch & Gonçalves, 2010). Despite the longevity of this debate, academics still devote significant attention to this topic, including regional specificities for land preservation.

4.4. Specific biomes and deforestation

Brazil is a biodiversity vault that goes beyond the Amazon rainforest. Biomes such as the Cerrado (savanna-like vegetation), the Atlantic forest, the Pantanal (wetlands) and Brazilian mangroves are home to a great diversity of endemic and endangered animal and plant species (Lahsen, Bustamante & Dalla-Nora, 2016), which integrate fragile ecosystems under constant pressure from human actions. In addition, the biodiversity of these regions is an integral part of Brazil's cultural diversity and historical heritage (Bortolotto et al., 2017).

In extremely fragile ecosystems, social and environmental targets can benefit from establishing protected areas. In mangroves and coastal line areas, local populations can improve their food security by consuming local resources such as fished and naturally gathered food items (Nakamura & Hanazaki, 2017) while not destroying the environment. Nutritional gains from consumption of local resources, interlinkage food security and biodiversity conservation in a complex set of drivers that goes beyond economic factors. Hunting of local species, for instance, can posit a thin threshold between trade-offs and synergies; positive outcomes such as nutritional gains from protein consumption (target 2.1) and poverty alleviation (target 1.1) might clash with negative impacts on biodiversity conservation (target 15.1) and illegal poaching (target 15.7). Torres et al. (2021) identified that bushmeat consumption in the Amazon frontier was unrelated to wealth. In contrast, natural and cultural heritage (target 11.4) factors, such as social relations and forest cover, acted as the main drivers for hunting and consumption of local species. In this kind of context, the balance might be found in a sustainable exploration of natural resources (target 2.2).

The primary pressure on the Cerrado and Atlantic forest ecosystem comes from the expansion of the agricultural frontier of sugarcane (Granco et al., 2017) and soy production (Lima et al., 2019). The majority of sugarcane production is in the state of Sao Paulo, a geographical transition spot connecting both biomes. The externalities and trade-offs involved connecting sugarcane to the environmental dimension through water footprint (target 6.4) and deforestation (target 15.5) (Hunke et al., 2015). In addition, both cultivations are non-food related, posing a decision-making trade-off on the land use implications (target 2.4). For sugarcane, the trade-off is between clean energy (target 7.2) and food production (target 2.1); for soy involves food commodities in global markets (target 2.c).

Agricultural intensification also appears as a mitigating driver for trade-offs involving land use, food supply and biodiversity losses not only in Brazil (Garret et al., 2018) but also in other emerging markets such as India (Hinz et al., 2020). Beef production is one of climate change's main drivers (target 13.1). It is one good example of complexity in trade-offs involving different biomes within the same country and food category. Different strategies are needed for the different biomes. For instance, in the southern region, where the Pantanal and Pampa biomes are located, seasonal grazing cattle production using the local ecosystem inputs and preservation of local forage biodiversity (target 2.5) might be the best call in terms of environmental footprint. On the other hand, when it comes to Amazon and Cerrado biomes, up to the central and northern regions of the country, the intensification of agriculture (target 2.3) and the introduction of more efficient forage species can mitigate the impacts of climate change and deforestation (Dick et al., 2021).

The general call for improvement of land and soil quality through expansion of areas under sustainable, modern and productive agriculture (target 2.4) can manifest itself in different ways, as mentioned above, from the establishment of protected areas where its restoration is urgent to address specific characteristics of the biome fostering its resilience to the expansion, and/or combining innovation production methods to increase land productivity. Regardless of the pathways, the social, economic and environmental trade-off will always be present and must be accordingly weighted through evidence-based policy decision-making. Brazil is located right in the middle of this trade-off nexus when it comes to global food supply chains (target 12.2), since it is, at the same time, a biodiversity-rich scenario and holds challenging socio-economic indexes. Policies for improving governance structures, education and involvement of all stakeholders in the decision-making process (Lahsen, Bustamante & Dalla-Nora, 2016) are among the beacons to re-steering the "global food tycoon" to a sustainable food production reference (target 12.6).

5.1. Research Agenda

Among the significant contributions and highlights drawn from this work, we highlight the absence of construct sustainability in the Brazil mapping and the absence of food waste construct in both mappings, world and Brazil. In the Brazil mapping, we identified four major clusters of thematics, namely, (I) climate change, bioenergy and biofuels, (II) global syndemic and food insecurity, (III) family farming and public policy, and (d) specific biomes and deforestation. At the world mapping, we identified four main subjects, namely (I) Covid-19 and civilisational socio-economic goals, (II) climate change and food chains for sustainable development, (III) global syndemic and food insecurity and (IV) emerging economies and public policy.

The two research trends identified first a food security trade-offs involving land-use for biofuel and its impacts in Brazilian most threatened biomes and second, public policies impact on food security, alongside SDGs framing, reinforce recurrent thematics and paved the road for systemic addressing the question under a different lens. Theoretical implications of the work refer to exploring the existing gap in policies for food security research in emerging economies and, primarily, connecting the thematics with the 2030 Agenda.

Table 2

Suggested research agenda
Trend	Suggested research gaps	SDGs	Reference from review
Climate Change, bioenergy and biofuels	SDGs Mapping: trade-offs and synergies between Brazilian renewable energy and the 2030 Agenda	All	Gorayeb et al., (2017)
Climate Change, bioenergy and biofuels	Renewable energy projects (i.e. wind, solar)socio-economic impacts in vulnerability contexts	1, 10, 7 and 8	Gorayeb et al., (2017)
Global Syndemic and food insecurity	The application of systems science to The Global Syndemic and contextual status in Brazil	2, 6, 12 and 13	Swinburn et al., (2019)
	Search for sociocultural factors that explain the variance in obesity and thus the sociocultural barriers and enablers of societal action	2, 11, 3 and 12	Swinburn et al., (2019)
	Investigate the policy inertia regarding the emerging syndemic externalities	2, 16 and 17	Swinburn et al., (2019)
	Role of food and water insecurity in health outcomes and noncommunicable diseases	3, 6 and 14	Miller et al. (2021). Workman et al. (2021)
Family farming and public policy	Economic trade-offs involving agroforestry practices for food production	2, 15, 11	Bezerra et al., (2019)
	Agroforestry in family farming: the peri-urban and rural Brazilian context	2, 11, 8	Lacerda et al., (2020)
	Food security impacts of wealth distribution implementation in a post-covid scenario	1, 10, 8, 16, 2, 12 and 3	Dyngeland, Oldekop, & Evans (2020). Piperata, McSweeney & Murrieta, (2016).
	Food waste behaviour under pandemic sanitary restrictions	2, 3, 12 and 4	Henz & Porpino, (2017).
Specific Biomes and deforestation	Food security and contextual SDGs approach for specific Brazilian most threatened biomes: Cerrado, Caatinga, Wetlands and mangrove areas	All	United Nations - Food Systems Summit Dialogues (2021)
	Bushmeat consumption in the pandemic Brazil: trade-offs in a biodiversity hotspot	15,1, 2, 11, 12 and 3	Barboza et al., (2016) Nunes et al., (2019)
	Food sovereignty and international supply chains: the case of traditional Brazilian communities	11, 17, 2, 12 and 3	do Canto et al., (2020)

This research has limitations related to the methodological choice of a scoping review, considering that it does not comprise a biased risk assessment. Further reviews can dive deeper into the thematic under the systematic review parameters, and specialists validate the SDGs linkages.

4.3. Public Policy Agenda

A shared guideline from all the papers addressed in the study is the call for action toward policy design. Thus, the practical implications are linked to the final frameworks built, and the scoped research trends are also material for toolkits in public policy decision-making toward food security. In Table 3, we suggest some beacons for policy making.

Table 3

Policy Design
Domain	Policy toolkit recommendations
Climate Change, bioenergy and biofuels	- coordinated multilateral interventions to ensure primary attention to food security needs, focusing on the nexus of climate change, food security, and human health, also considering the entire food system of the most vulnerable - sectoral policies aimed at the integration of bioenergy and resource management, investing in technology and innovations to build productive capacity and consistent infrastructure - promote and engage stakeholders to identify specific potential opportunities for biofuels to improving food security at all levels (local-global)
Global Syndemic and food insecurity	- identification of the main common drivers of the global syndemic, demonstrating their interactions with different environments, societies, and their circles and neighbourhoods - systematic mapping of syndemic models at meso and macro level and in specific contexts of developing countries - promotion of sustainable production and consumption to reduce food insecurity and the global syndemic, prioritising local and community food supply chains - fostering the creation of local municipal Food Security plans, including indicators and accountability
Family farming and public policy	- direct incentives for food production by rural producers, providing resources for the production and maintenance of the essential workforce - promotion of culturally contextual sustainable dietary patterns based on Planetary Diets
Specific Biomes and deforestation	- systematic and continuous management of biomes and their hydroclimatic conditions, observing ecosystems and their environmental services - monitoring of illegal human encroachment on wildlife areas, decreasing deforest and the negative impact on the economically poor - preventive actions to ensure sustainable management in forest areas - design of decolonised supply chains for specific biotrade goods

Ethics approval and consent to participate

Not applicable.

Consent for publication

All the authors consented to this publication

Author Contributions

Flávio Pinheiro Martins: study conception, material preparation, conceptualization, synthesis and characterization of the material, project administration, writing, reviewing and editing of the manuscript. Carlos Eduardo Lourenço: designed and performed literature review process, formal analysis and validation of the data and writing of the manuscript. Mayline Menezes da Mata, André Bento Chaves Santana, and Maria Angélica Tavares de Medeiros: material preparation, conceptualization, assisted in the characterization of the sections, formal analysis and validation of the data. Mayline Menezes da Mata, André Bento Chaves Santana, and Maria Angélica Tavares de Medeiros equally contributed. André C.S. Batalhão: conceptualization, methodology, project administration, formal analysis and validation of the data, writing, reviewing and editing of the manuscript.

Funding

The authors declare that no funds, grants, or other support were received during the preparation of this manuscript.

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Availability of data and materials

Not applicable.

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Food Security in Emerging Economies: Trends From Scoping Review Under the Sustainability Lens

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1. Food Security Agenda Interlinkages

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