Since 1995, the term ‘foodscape’, a contraction of food and landscape, has been used in various research addressing social and spatial disparities in public health and food systems. This article presents a scoping review of the literature examining how this term is employed and framed. We searched publications using the term foodscape in the Web of Science Core Collection, MEDLINE, and Scopus databases. Analyzing 140 publications, we highlight four approaches to the foodscape: (i) Spatial approaches use statistics and spatial analysis to characterize the diversity of urban foodscapes and their impacts on diet and health, at city or neighborhood scales. (ii) Social and cultural approaches at the same scales show that foodscapes are socially shaped and highlight structural inequalities by combining qualitative case studies and quantitative surveys of food procurement practices. (iii) Behavioral approaches generally focus on indoor micro-scales, showing how consumer perceptions of foodscapes explain and determine food behaviors and food education. (iv) Systemic approaches contest the global corporate food regime and promote local, ethical, and sustainable food networks. Thus, although spatial analysis was the first approach to foodscapes, sociocultural, behavioral and systemic approaches are becoming more common. In the spatial approach, the term ‘foodscape’ is synonymous with ‘food environment’. In the three other approaches, ‘foodscape’ and ‘food environment’ are not synonymous. Scholars consider that the foodscape is not an environment external to individuals but a landscape including, perceived, and socially shaped by individuals and policies. They share a systemic way of thinking, considering culture and experience of food as key to improving our understanding of how food systems affect people. Foodscape studies principally address three issues: public health, social justice, and sustainability. The review concludes with a research agenda, arguing that people-based and place-based approaches need to be combined to tackle the complexity of the food-people-territory nexus.

Cet article vise à comprendre la relative absence de politiques alimentaires à l’échelle des régions urbaines en France. Après avoir situé la problématique française par rapport aux travaux anglo-saxons sur la gouvernance alimentaire urbaine, l’article explore le cas de Perpignan, une ville moyenne où sont menées de nombreuses actions dans les domaines agricole et alimentaire. A partir d’un travail d’analyse documentaire et d’entretiens, l’étude caractérise la diversité des initiatives locales. Elle offre une lecture systémique de la question alimentaire urbaine en géographie, fondée sur l’analyse des politiques, des acteurs et des lieux qui assurent des fonctions d’intermédiation ou de régulation à l’échelle du système urbain et qui pourraient créer du lien entre la ville, l’agriculture locale et l’alimentation des citadins.

This paper reviews the recent literature dealing with farmland protection (FP) policies in developed countries from a planning perspective, with a specific focus on the Mediterranean region. It provides coverage of French language papers that may have been omitted in previous reviews. While the Mediterranean is often pointed out as a region with acute challenges related to food security and a lack of effective planning policies, the literature underlines that issues related to FP policies are similar across the world. Hence, this review may bring valuable insights for more sustainable management of farmland on the urban fringe. It maps several interesting areas of research concerning the often implicit and disparate rationales of FP policies as well as the barriers and potential avenues for improvement for FP. It highlights that FP cannot rely merely on transferring policy tools that have proven successful elsewhere. It also reveals that land policies do not always take into account the specific needs of farming systems, as they often focus on land rather than on agriculture. Further research is thus needed to reveal the interaction over time between the use of certain FP tools and the unique local features of urban fringe agriculture. This review may be of interest to students and scholars, but also to practitioners, policy makers and local groups looking for innovative, more flexible or locally suited farmland protection programs.

L’agriculture a pratiquement disparu à l’intérieur des villes et fait pourtant l’objet d’un intérêt renouvelé de la part des citadins, ce qui amène à s’interroger sur sa place dans la ville durable. Nous avons étudié les différentes formes d’agriculture dans la ville de Montpellier en combinant analyse des politiques urbaines, analyse spatiale et analyse des pratiques et des représentations d’acteurs agricoles citadins. Nous montrons la diversité des formes d’agriculture et un décalage entre la façon dont l’agriculture est perçue par les politiques urbaines et sa réalité spatiale. Une dynamique contrastée est mise en évidence. L’agriculture marchande régresse même si elle reste la plus importante en surface, tandis que de nouvelles formes d’agriculture se développent : des jardins et des agriparcs mettant en interaction acteurs publics et citadins. Ces résultats sont discutés en lien avec les concepts d’urbanité et de ville durable.