An agenda for integrated system-wide interdisciplinary agri-food research

Abstract

This paper outlines the development of an integrated interdisciplinary approach to agri-food research, designed to address the 'grand challenge' of global food security. Rather than meeting this challenge by working in separate domains or via single-disciplinary perspectives, we chart the development of a system-wide approach to the food supply chain. In this approach, social and environmental questions are simultaneously addressed. Firstly, we provide a holistic model of the agri-food system, which depicts the processes involved, the principal inputs and outputs, the actors and the external influences, emphasising the system's interactions, feedbacks and complexities. Secondly, we show how this model necessitates a research programme that includes the study of land-use, crop production and protection, food processing, storage and distribution, retailing and consumption, nutrition and public health. Acknowledging the methodological and epistemological challenges involved in developing this approach, we propose two specific ways forward. Firstly, we propose a method for analysing and modelling agri-food systems in their totality, which enables the complexity to be reduced to essential components of the whole system to allow tractable quantitative analysis using LCA and related methods. This initial analysis allows for more detailed quantification of total system resource efficiency, environmental impact and waste. Secondly, we propose a method to analyse the ethical, legal and political tensions that characterise such systems via the use of deliberative fora. We conclude by proposing an agenda for agri-food research which combines these two approaches into a rational programme for identifying, testing and implementing the new agri-technologies and agri-food policies, advocating the critical application of nexus thinking to meet the global food security challenge.

Nutritional and greenhouse gas impacts of removing animals from US agriculture

“…Indeed, it is also assumed in the present study that the current LCA of food products would be valid in a dramatically shifted system in which humans no longer consume livestock products, an assumption that may be unlikely. Horton et al ( 42 ) advocated for a system-wide approach to evaluating the food supply chain that integrates separate domains and multiple disciplines, importantly suggesting that food systems must be evaluated in their totality, which will allow tractable quantitative analysis by using LCA and related methods. Although we have taken steps toward a more inclusive analysis by accounting for fertilizer and coproduct changes in this exercise, a more complete LCA of the US food production system accounting for the diversity of foods and nutrients presented herein would be a logical next step toward evaluating opportunities to leverage the benefits of livestock production for human society.…”

Peri-Urban Organic Agriculture and Short Food Supply Chains as Drivers for Strengthening City/Region Food Systems—Two Case Studies in Andalucía, Spain

“…In order to face the great challenge which the cities and the metropolitan regions face in the improvement of food security [61], together with associated issues such as urban sprawl, demographic concentration in urban areas, loss of biodiversity, climate change and reduction in traditional small-scale farms and their identifying features requires the application of a system-based approach. This requires engaging urban planning to ensure spaces for peri-urban arable lands along with food planning policies.…”

Improving Policy Evidence Base for Agricultural Sustainability and Food Security: A Content Analysis of Life Cycle Assessment Research

“…In the last decade, life cycle assessment (LCA; ISO 14040:2006; ISO 14044:2006) (ISO, Geneva, Switzerland) has gained increasing attention in the academic literature and policy [9,10] for comparing and communicating the environmental impacts and for supporting impact mitigating interventions in agricultural and food systems [4,11], as well as for monitoring sectoral progress towards SDGs [12]. The outputs of research studies that apply the LCA tool target stakeholders, ranging from policy makers to consumers [13], by characterizing production processes in terms of resource use, polluting emissions, and threats to human and ecosystem health, and identifying the necessary interventions to mitigate the environmental impacts [14]. In pursuit of agricultural sustainability and food security goals, policy makers and agribusiness stakeholders should agree on the analytical tool and metrics to support decision-making [15].…”

“…In pursuit of agricultural sustainability and food security goals, policy makers and agribusiness stakeholders should agree on the analytical tool and metrics to support decision-making [15]. Advancing research studies that apply the LCA tool and integrated economic-social-environmental research can help with consensus creation [14,16].…”