Post-farmgate food value chains make up most of consumer food expenditures globally

Toward resilient food systems after COVID-19

“…At one end of the spectrum, modern food systems often rely on complex supply chains, organized by large international agribusinesses and retailing companies, and the application of industrial production methods, in-time production, high diversity of products, strong price competition, and in some cases unequal or market power along the supply chain (UNEP 2016, Yi et al, 2021 ). At the other end of the spectrum, we find traditional food systems, which are labor intensive, relying on smallholder and subsistence farmers, local markets, and supply chains, and partly or fully disconnected from international markets and products, as well as investments opportunities and farm inputs and technologies (UNEP 2016).…”

“…FOLU, 2019 ). This entails also considering the interlinkages across various components of the food systems, such as examining how producers and consumers are linked through value chains and considering current power imbalances, which are embedded in many food systems today ( Yi et al, 2021 ). Helping farm systems manage and adapt to multiple environmental and socioeconomic risks will require targeted innovations in technologies and practices (as further discussed in section 5.3).…”

Potential impact of dietary changes on the triple challenge facing food systems

“… The prevalence of undernourishment: Undernourishment is defined as "the condition of an individual whose habitual food consumption 11 is insufficient to provide, on average, the amount of dietary energy required to maintain a normal, active, healthy life" (FAO, 2019 [20]). The prevalence of undernourishment (PoU) is an indicator determined, among other factors, by the distribution of Daily Energy Consumed (DEC) in a country (Cafiero, 2014[21]).…”

“…This report provides an initial quantitative assessment of the potential impact of such dietary shifts on several indicators of the triple challengenamely food security and nutrition, livelihoods, and environmental sustainability. It draws on a set of three stylised medium-term scenarios that explore the potential impacts of aligning global diets with the World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines, which recommend that in a balanced diet free sugars should consist of no more than 10% of total calorie intake, while fats should consist of no more than 30% of calorie intake (World Health Organization, 2015 [11]; World Health Organization, 2018 [12]). The results of this stylized exercise should be regarded as indicative; they demonstrate how each dimension of the triple challenge could be affected by this dietary shift, as well as the possible synergies and trade-offs between those dimensions.…”

Building a Global Food Systems Typology: A New Tool for Reducing Complexity in Food Systems Analysis

“…While at the time the concept of a food system was not fully formed, a systems lens was being applied to agriculture and typologies were deemed appropriate for synthesizing the multi-dimensional, interconnected qualities of a system. Given growing interest in broader systems framings, and evidence that most of the revenue and many of the environmental and social impacts of consumer food purchases accrue downstream from farms, the time is ripe to develop food systems typologies (Yi et al, 2021).…”