A new analysis argues for the need to address food insecurity by recognizing the interconnected nature of worldwide food systems.
In a commentary for the journal One Earth, Franziska Gaupp, Ph.D., a research scholar at the International Institute of Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), argues that international food insecurity is increasingly prone to shocks since of the interdependence of the parts that make up the worldwide food system.
For Gaupp, shocks to the supply of food– for instance, severe weather events that might damage or destroy crops– are challenging.
However, in our progressively interconnected, globalized world, these shocks can come from events not directly associated to growing food and can have far reaching repercussions.
Gaupp– who is working collectively with IIASA’s Ecosystems Providers and Management and Threat and Resilience programs– points to the COVID-19 pandemic as one such shock that is not straight related to food but has had a considerable result on global food systems.
In spite of the world producing more than enough food for everyone on the planet, around one-quarter of the world’s population does not have access to food that is nutritious and enough.
Gaupp argues that this extreme inequality will get worse as there is increased demand for food from growing, wealthy populations, placing more stresses on the environment that safe food systems rely on.
Environment change has actually also placed severe stress on worldwide food systems, ruining the quality of land, increasing desertification, interrupting traditional rains patterns, and causing sea levels to increase.
These stresses will worsen if temperatures significantly increase, as researchers anticipate
Nevertheless, while these are pushing concerns for the world’s capability to produce food, the interconnected nature of international food systems means that numerous other factors can affect food security.
According to Gaupp, the global supply chain of food is focused in the hands of less and fewer business.
Nevertheless, interconnected sectors that depend on many others to be able to work effectively significantly make up this international chain.
This means that while the system functions within conditions understood as “regular,” effectiveness might be increased for those populations who have access to these markets and the wealth to engage with th