Vol. 78 No. 3 (2023)
Food policy in transition - Research Articles

Food Policy Coherence and Integration: a review of adopted methodologies

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  • Francesca Monticone,
  • Antonella Samoggia
Francesca Monticone
Department of Agricultural and Food Sciences, University of Bologna
Antonella Samoggia
Department of Agricultural and Food Sciences, University of Bologna
DOI: https://doi.org/10.36253/rea-14439

Published 2024-04-03

Keywords

  • food policy,
  • policy coherence,
  • policy integration,
  • governance,
  • literature review

How to Cite

Monticone, F., & Samoggia, A. (2024). Food Policy Coherence and Integration: a review of adopted methodologies. Italian Review of Agricultural Economics (REA), 78(3), 35–49. https://doi.org/10.36253/rea-14439

Copyright (c) 2023 Francesca Monticone, Antonella Samoggia

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Abstract

Multiple scholars in the last two decades have called for a coherent and integrated approach to food policy to address the challenges of the current food systems. Food Policy Coherence and Integration (PCI) are both challenging, as food matters are addressed at more than one level of governance and across several policy domains. Moreover, the analysis of food PCI has been carried out with different methodologies, but no reviews of such methodologies exist in the literature. Thus, the objective of the present study is to fill this gap, by reviewing which research methods were used to assess food PCI. The research adopts a bibliometric methodological approach to develop a quantitative network analysis of the identified studies and content analysis. Data collection was performed on Web of Science and Scopus including exclusively scientific articles from peer-reviewed journals. A total of 35 articles published since 2006 were included in the analysis. The main topics addressed were health and nutrition policies, followed by food security and agriculture. A variety of methods were used to assess Coherence and Integration. The first methodological phase often aimed at creating a policy inventory, followed by a second methodological phase to assess PCI. Some studies used interviews to identify the relevant policies and to comment on them. Other studies carried out PCI assessment relying on researchers’ expertise. To conclude, food PCI studies choose from a variety of methodologies the one that better fits their aims.

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