Journal Article

Modeling Sustainable Food Systems

Allen, Thomas, Prosperi, Paolo

2016

Overview

The processes underlying environmental, economic, and social unsustainability derive in part from the food system. Building sustainable food systems has become a predominating endeavor aiming to redirect our food systems and policies towards better-adjusted goals and improved societal welfare. Food systems are complex social-ecological systems involving multiple interactions between human and natural components. Policy needs to encourage public perception of humanity and nature as interdependent and interacting. The systemic nature of these interdependencies and interactions calls for systems approaches and integrated assessment tools. Identifying and modeling the intrinsic properties of the food system that will ensure its essential outcomes are maintained or enhanced over time and across generations, will help organizations and governmental institutions to track progress towards sustainability, and set policies that encourage positive transformations. This paper proposes a conceptual model that articulates crucial vulnerability and resilience factors to global environmental and socio-economic changes, postulating specific food and nutrition security issues as priority outcomes of food systems. By acknowledging the systemic nature of sustainability, this approach allows consideration of causal factor dynamics. In a stepwise approach, a logical application is schematized for three Mediterranean countries, namely Spain, France, and Italy.

• Publisher: Springer US,Springer Nature B.V,Springer Verlag (Germany)
• Subject: Agricultural production / Agricultural sciences / Agriculture / Agriculture, economy and politics / Aquatic Pollution / Atmospheric Protection/Air Quality Control/Air Pollution / Biodiversity / Climate change / Conservation of Natural Resources / Consumers / Earth and Environmental Science / Ecology / Economics / Ecosystem / Ecosystems / Environment / Environmental Management / Food / Food processing / food quality / Food security / Food Supply / Forestry Management / France / Health care / Humanities and Social Sciences / Humans / issues and policy / Italy / Life Sciences / Mediterranean region / Models, Theoretical / Nature Conservation / Nutrition / Perceptions / Public opinion / Social-ecological systems / socioeconomics / Spain / Sustainability / Sustainable agriculture / Sustainable food systems / System theory / Temporal perception / Waste Water Technology / Water Management / Water Pollution Control / Water Supply