Leveraging Bottom-up Food Markets to Build Resilience and Decarbonisation in Food Systems: Lessons from London
About the project
Building on the Institute for Global Prosperity’s (IGP) work on ‘Food as a Human Right for All’, this project examines how London's bottom-up food markets can serve as "living laboratories" for developing innovative strategies, policies, and practices that enhance food system resilience and decarbonisation. The research is grounded in the premise that food markets—where production, distribution, and consumption intersect—are critical sites for understanding and addressing food insecurity within the context of climate change.
The research team is led by IGP’s Professor Maurizio Marinelli and Dr Estella Carpi from the UCL Department of Risk and Disaster Reduction and includes Dr. Liza Griffin from the UCL Department of Urban Planning, Dr. Selçuk Çıdık from The Bartlett School for Sustainable Construction), and selected food market stakeholders. The project is funded through the UCL Grand Challenges for Climate Change scheme.
Positioned at the intersection of social resilience and decarbonisation, the project investigates how bottom-up food markets can test and implement solutions for a more sustainable and equitable food system.
It is deeply rooted in the principles of food justice, which asserts that access to healthy, sustainable food is a fundamental human right. By addressing food insecurity and the systemic inequalities that underpin it, the research emphasizes community participation and empowerment. The team will collaborate with selected food markets and organisations pioneering innovative food security and decarbonisation strategies. Their work will explore links between sustainable farming practices, low-carbon food systems, alternative solutions, and social equity in market access.
Methodology
Using a participatory methods approach, the researchers will engage market actors and policymakers, map existing policies that support resilience and decarbonisation, and identify opportunities for policy and practice improvements that promote sustainable food options.
The research will unfold in two key phases:
Identifying barriers to adopting low-carbon practices and co-designing adaptive solutions to address equity concerns in market access.
Developing policy recommendations to overcome these barriers, forecasting the impacts of climate change on food systems, identifying vulnerabilities, and proposing alternative strategies.
This work will leverage advanced data analysis incorporating population growth, climate disruptions, and land-use changes.
Ultimately, the project aims to extend insights gained from London to other parts of the UK and selected global regions, supporting the development of a larger research grant to enhance resilience and decarbonisation in food markets worldwide.
Project Leads
Prof Maurizio Marinelli
Professor of China and Global Prosperity
The UCL Institute for Global Prosperity
Dr Estella Carpi
Associate Professor
UCL Department of Risk and Disaster Reduction, Faculty of Mathematics and Physical Sciences