Food systems for resilient futures

Area of Science:

• Food systems analysis
• Resilience science
• Sustainable agriculture

Background:

• The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted vulnerabilities in existing food systems.
• There is a need for new strategies to build resilience against future shocks and diverse futures.
• Current food systems require transformation to ensure sustainability and pandemic preparedness.

Purpose of the Study:

• To explore strategies for enhancing the adaptive and transformative capacity of food systems.
• To investigate the role of co-designed future narratives and capacity-building tools.
• To identify critical diversity elements for managing resilience in food value chains.

Main Methods:

• Co-designing contrasting future narratives.
• Identifying means for developing adaptive capacity.
• Developing tools to enhance food system resilience.
• Assessing critical diversity in response to shocks and volatility.

Main Results:

• Food system resilience is enhanced by dialogue, transparency, collective learning, resource sovereignty, and built-in diversity.
• Different types of diversity (supplier-buyer vs. farm/crop) are crucial depending on market or public-led systems.
• Diverse food sourcing strategies can secure food availability during crises.

Conclusions:

• Resilient food systems require proactive preparation for shocks and building a foundation to reduce shock probability.
• Tailoring diversity to manage resilience is essential, avoiding trade-offs with resource-use efficiency.
• The interdependence of actors means food system resilience is limited by its weakest link.