№ 2023/3

The article, referring to the newest methodology of global agri-food systems’ transformation, substantiates that the determining direction of changes in the Ukrainian agri-food system towards nationally rooted development should be the need for free access to highquality, fresh and safe food and domestically produced agricultural outputs, obtained in a way that is safe for the environment and rural communities, based on stimulating national food markets and outputs that are produced, processed, sold (distributed) and consumed in a certain territory based on stimulating supply and demand. It is shown that the mechanisms of food supply, in such circumstances, are not inflationary, since supply and demand are linked to and balanced by the state indirect financing of the basic human right to domestically produced food and stimulation of solidarity responsibility for food production and consumption. The author proposes various effective and feasible basic approaches to enhancing the role of local markets in food systems oriented towards people's interests rather than traditional economic growth, including linked food subsidies to promote healthy diets; public procurement from small producers for special needs of school meals; and promotion of solidarity food security at the community level. The article shows that such food programmes, along with other social protection initiatives, are one of the most reasonable directions for long-term public investment, especially if they are focused on linked multiplier effects. A nationally rooted approach to stimulating local markets has been shown to not only provide the most vulnerable groups with quality food and promote the consumption of fresh and healthy food, but also build the sustainability of nutrition programmes, and open up new markets and opportunities to increase family farm incomes, while stimulating local development. Purchasing food from local sources makes markets more predictable, helps create jobs and creates opportunities for people to develop a lifelong preference for fresh local produce.

Keywords:nationally rooted development, agri-food system, family farms, food subsidies, school meals, solidarity agriculture