Introduction

Abstract

Abstract Political economy dynamics often derail reforms needed for achieving a food system that delivers for human and planetary health. This chapter first highlights several key reasons why a political lens is essential to advance food system transformation. These include the need for coordination across multiple actors and objectives, the rise of political polarization and populism, the density of (mis)information and advocacy networks, and growing stress on the norms and institutions of multilateralism. Subsequently, the chapter discusses how this contemporary political backdrop shapes the prospects for food system reforms and presents a framework for orienting the rest of the volume’s chapters. The framework encompasses four different spaces—referring to both a domain of focus and degree of maneuver—that help inform the prospects for policy reform. These spaces include incentive structures, modalities of mobilization, options for improving policy design, and prospects for policy adaptation given changing circumstances. Key findings of the volume’s other chapters are then introduced vis-à-vis their insights on these different spaces.