A systems approach to navigating food security during COVID-19: Gaps, opportunities, and policy supports

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted a series of concatenating problems in the global production and distribution of food. Trade barriers, seasonal labor shortages, food loss and waste, and food safety concerns combine to engender vulnerabili­ties in food systems. A variety of actors—from academics to policy-makers, community organizers, farmers, and homesteaders—are considering the undertaking of creating more resilient food sys­tems. Conventional approaches include fine-tuning existing value chains, consolidating national food distribution systems and bolstering inventory and storage. This paper highlights three alternative strategies for securing a more resilient food system, namely: (i.) leveraging underutilized, often urban, spaces for food production; (ii.) rethinking food waste as a resource; and (iii.) constructing produc­tion-distribution-waste networks, as opposed to chains. Various food systems actors have pursued these strategies for decades. Yet, we argue that the COVID-19 pandemic forces us to urgently con­sider such novel assemblages of actors, institutions, and technologies as key levers in achieving longer term food system resilience. These strategies are often centered around princi­ples of redistribution and reciprocity, and focus on smaller scales, from individual households to com­munities. We high­light examples that have emerged in the spring-summer of 2020 of household and community efforts to reconstruct a more resilient food system. We also undertake a policy analysis to sketch how government supports can facilitate the emergence of these efforts and mobilization beyond the immediate confines of the pandemic.

Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Food Security and Agriculture in Iran: A Survey

“…COVID-19 cut these relationships and limited people's access to nutritious foods through lockdown restrictions [87]. Numerous evidence indicated that general consequences of the pandemic in the agricultural sector, including labor shortages, reduction of planting and harvesting, and reduction of agricultural trade, created an imbalance in the food system of many countries [88][89][90]. Although ecological constraints, such as climate change, water crisis, and land degradation, could significantly damage the prospects for economic growth and lead to food insecurity [91].…”

Information sources utilized by Vermont foodservice businesses during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic

“…Fardkhales and Lincoln (2021) describe the value of redundancy in diverse systems when responding to a crisis such as the COVID-19 pandemic. Glaros et al (2021) further explain how supply networks, as opposed to chains, work toward community resilience. This network perspective can be applied to the various sources of information utilized by businesses during immediate and prolonged crises.…”

Food Security Challenges and Options in the Caribbean: Insights from a Scoping Review

“…In addition, due to the specific characteristics of food systems in SIS, the governance regimes should have resilience and adaptive capacity. COVID-19 pandemic has even further highlighted the importance of policies that address greater levels of food resilience (Glaros et al 2021 ). The direction of decisional and institutional changes should be towards more flexible regulations and institutions that allow for context-specific implementations in different islands.…”