Food Systems

María Laura Lheritier 5to
1. What are the problems with food systems?

2. Can you think for a possible situation to world hunger?
3. How changing our dietary can be helpful?
4. In which way do you think we should develop agriculture?
5. How can we take better care of our land?
FOOD SYSTEMS
Food systems are the sum of actors and interactions along the food value chain –
from input supply and production of crops, livestock, fish, and other agricultural
commodities to transportation, processing, retailing, wholesaling, and preparation of foods
to consumption and disposal. They also include the enabling policy environments and
cultural norms around food.
THEORY AND CRITERIA

A practical definition of food systems should meet two essential criteria:
► It should be suitable for the purpose at hand, which is to support the global and national
collective efforts to bring about positive change in food systems, by accelerating progress
on meeting the 2030 Agenda and the SDGs;
► It should be sufficiently precise to define the domains for policy and programmatic
priorities, and it should be sufficiently general to not exclude any aspects of the economic,
social, and environmental dimensions of sustainability.
WHY DO FOOD SYSTEMS NEED TO CHANGE?

Food systems, however, are not abstract concepts and face several challenges. The
fact that up to 828 million people are chronically hungry across the world suggests that
food systems – the networks that are needed to produce and transform food, and ensure it
reaches consumers – are not meeting the needs of large sections of society. Likewise,
healthy diets are unaffordable for at least 3 billion.
Flawed or broken food systems can drive prices up, making it difficult for the
poorest to afford nutritious food, or prevent smallholder farmers from making good profits
from their crops. Food system disruptions can be linked to shocks related to climate change
and globalisation (i.e. greenhouse gas emissions, sojization), as well as dissension and
conflict. Even in stable contexts, poor communication, transportation and storage facilities,
dysfunctional commercial markets and inequalities can limit people’s ability to access the
food they need.
According to the UN World Food Programme (WFP), the three main problems
facing food systems are:
The ‘last mile’ problem. hard to reach. Even The ‘bad year’ problem.
The vast majority of the when nutritious food is When crops fail, or
hungry poor are isolated available, it is often too during the lean months
– geographically, expensive. between harvests, poor
economically, socially families in both urban
and politically – and and rural areas lack the
resources to meet their The ‘good year’ unable to put their
food needs and are problem. Inadequate produce for sale at a
forced to adopt capacity to store, market premium when demand
detrimental strategies to and transport food is highest, food is wasted
cope, including eating surpluses causes food and spoiled, and market
less, and less nutritious, prices and quality to volatility is sharpened.
food. drop. Farmers are
Since the COVID-19 pandemic, the role of food systems in the emergence of new
infectious diseases – as a result of both the loss of biodiversity due to unsustainable
practices and the damage to ecosystems that it caused – had already been acknowledged.
Furthermore, only 10 years remain until 2030 – the deadline for achieving the seventeen
Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) – and many of the goals remain far out of reach.
In many cases, unsafe or unsustainable food systems are part of the problem. For this
reason, we need a transformation of our food systems.
BIODIVERSITY AND FOOD SYSTEMS

Biodiversity loss is accelerating around the world and the global food system is
partly to blame. Over the last 50 years it has been shaped by the ‘cheaper food’ paradigm.
Policies and economic structures have aimed to produce ever more food at ever lower cost.
Intensified agricultural production degrades soils and ecosystems, driving down the
productive capacity of land and necessitating even more intensive food production to keep
pace with demand. Growing global consumption of cheaper calories and resource-intensive
foods aggravates these pressures.
Current food production depends heavily on the use of inputs such as fertilisers,
pesticides, energy, land and water, and on unsustainable practices such as monocropping
and heavy tilling. This has reduced the variety of landscapes and habitats, threatening or
destroying the breeding, feeding and/or nesting of birds, mammals, insects and microbial
organisms, and crowding out many native plant species.
Without reform of our food system, biodiversity loss will continue to accelerate.
Further destruction of ecosystems will threaten our ability to sustain human populations.
WHAT NEEDS TO HAPPEN TO CHANGE OUR FOOD SYSTEMS?

Transforming our food systems would encompass fundamental changes and
enhancements in the institutions, infrastructure, regulations and markets that shape them,
and the resources invested into them, in a way that makes them more equitable and
sustainable – from the perspectives of both the workers who derive their livelihoods from
these systems and the consumers who purchase the food. This would allow food producers
(and other workers within food systems) to sustainably provide nutritious food for all and
to be adequately rewarded for their work, so that they do not themselves become vulnerable
to hunger.
A reform of food systems is a matter of urgency and should focus on three
interdependent actions:
► Firstly, global dietary patterns need to converge around diets based more on
plants, owing to the disproportionate impact of animal farming on biodiversity, land use
and the environment. Such a shift would also benefit the dietary health of populations
around the world, and help reduce the risk of pandemics. Global food waste must be
reduced significantly. Together, these measures would reduce pressure on resources
including land, through reducing demand.
► Secondly, more land needs to be protected and set aside for nature. The protection
of land from conversion or exploitation is the most effective way of preserving biodiversity,
so we need to avoid converting land for agriculture. Restoring native ecosystems on spared
agricultural land offers the opportunity to increase biodiversity.
►Thirdly, we need to farm in a more nature-friendly, biodiversity-supporting way,

limiting the use of inputs and replacing monoculture with polyculture farming practices.

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María Laura Lheritier 5to

1. What are the problems with food systems?

THEORY AND CRITERIA

WHY DO FOOD SYSTEMS NEED TO CHANGE?

BIODIVERSITY AND FOOD SYSTEMS

WHAT NEEDS TO HAPPEN TO CHANGE OUR FOOD SYSTEMS?

►Thirdly, we need to farm in a more nature-friendly, biodiversity-supporting way,

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