INTRODUCTION TO

FOOD SYSTEMS
DEFINING
FOOD
SYSTEMS
Food Systems
• A food system consists of various elements -environment, people, inputs, processes,
infrastructures, institutions.

• Food systems consist of activities that relate to the production, processing, distribution,
preparation, consumption and disposal of food.

• The outcomes of these activities, include nutritional, food security but also socio-
economic and environmental outcomes.
Types of Food Systems

Global Food Industrial Local Food

Systems Food Systems Systems

Sustainable
Conventional Alternative
Community
Food Systems Food Systems
Food Systems
 • LOCAL FOOD SYSTEMS are ones where this
process takes place over a smaller geographic
area. For example, if you have a local farmers'
market where neighboring farms and gardens sell
their produce in town and it is bought by members
of the community, this is a local food system.
• A LOCAL FOOD SYSTEM is not so much about how far a

LOCAL particular piece of food travels from producer to consumer. It is

more about a community having control over who pays for the
hidden costs of our food.
FOOD • These costs can include the environmental impact of the
production and distribution of the food as well as the health care
SYSTEM costs associated with eating low quality food. It also includes
recognizing that workers from one end of the food chain to the
other are the poorest paid employees in society and the
corporations that benefit from these low wages often pass along
the gap between actual wages and living wages to the
government in the form of ‘welfare.’
• A LOCAL food system creates the platform for a community to
collectively and transparently decide what their ‘food priorities’
are and who should bear the burden of any inequity.”
GLOBAL FOOD SYSTEMS

• In contrast, global food systems describe a much larger scale. For

example, your fruit may be grown on a different continent and shipped
to your local grocery store. The products many people put in their
grocery cart come from multiple places across the globe.

•China is the leading producer of the world's rice and cereal, India is
the top producer of lentils, Cote d'Ivoire produces 30% of the world’s
cocoa (used to make chocolate), and the US produces the most corn.

• Global food systems produce a massive amount of food, but there is

arguably substantial room for improvement, as many practices are
not sustainable and many people are still left hungry.
COMMUNITY FOOD SYSTEM
• The concept of a community food system integrates food production,
processing, distribution, marketing, and consumption in the context of a
particular place. The geographic boundaries of a community food system
“can be as small as a neighborhood or as large as a town or city, including
its nearby growing region” as determined by the residents themselves.

• The concept typically encompasses goals of food security and equitable

access to healthy foods, improving the well-being of farmers and
farmworkers, and optimizing environmental and economic benefits.
 • At a regional level, an integrated food
system creates shorter, place-based
linkages between producers and
consumers across all aspects of the
food supply chain from agricultural
REGIONAL production systems through
processing, distribution, retail,
FOOD consumption, and waste management.
SYSTEMS • Goals for regional food systems might
include environmental benefits,
economic development, human health
and well-being, and social equity.
TRADITIONAL FOOD SYSTEMS
• In traditional food systems, people generally live in rural areas.
• People rely mainly on locally grown, fished, herded, hunted or gathered foods and often
lack appropriate infrastructure to access distant markets.
• People tend to grow much of their own food and buy food from local daily and weekly
wet markets, and from kiosks. These markets primarily sell fresh foods, but may also sell
some packaged foods. The kiosks sell staples, such as cooking oil and sugar, as well as
packaged foods and convenience foods, such as instant noodles and snack foods.
• The food that is accessible tends to be affordable, but ASF are often less affordable than
staples. Foods are often not monitored for quality and safety. There is also very little
food promotion or information. Many people’s diets primarily consist of staple grains
such as maize, rice and wheat, and do not contain sufficient amounts of protein and
micronutrients.
• Stunting rates may therefore be high, along with the incidence of micronutrient
deficiencies.
• These nutritional outcomes impact people’s immune systems and make them more
susceptible to infectious diseases, including diarrhoea and upper respiratory infections.
Morbidity and mortality are much too high, especially in children under five years of age.
In traditional food systems, consumers rely on minimally processed
seasonal foods, collected or produced for self-consumption or sold
mainly through informal markets.

Food supply chains are often short and local, thus access to perishable
foods such as animal source foods (ASF) or certain fruits and vegetables
can be limited or seasonal. Food environments are usually limited to
one’s own production and informal markets that are daily or weekly
and may be far from communities.
ALTERNATIVE FOOD SYSTEMS
ORGANIC FOOD SYSTEMS

• Food, either meat or vegetables, can be designated organic if it is grown

or raised without chemical pesticides or other chemicals, or without
growth hormones. These traits show the main motives for people
choosing organic foods: a desire to avoid these things and to feel that
their food remains closer to its natural origins.
• In terms of sustainability, an organic food system can contribute by
maintaining the sustainability of the soil, since the non-chemical
methods do not contribute to soil erosion or degradation. This, in turn,
can have some positive impacts on climate change: to put it briefly, soil
erosion and decomposition ultimately produce CO2. By recycling
organic matter and maintaining soil quality, organic farm systems can
contribute positively in this manner.
 CONVENTIONAL FOOD SYSTEMS
• Conventional food systems are based on the low cost of fossil fuels, the
manufacturing of chemical fertilizers (also dependent on low-cost petroleum),
the processing of food, and the packaging of food.
• Although conventional food systems often produce more food than alternative
systems, they often do so by compromising the ecosystem and the health of
the consumer.
• Environmental damage is caused by fertilizer runoff, nonpoint source pollution,
and greenhouse gas emission, among other factors.
• Negative human health consequences are often due to the high sugar and fat
content of processed foods, as well as the carcinogenic effects of pesticides.
• The globalization of food production associated with the conventional food
system also results in the loss of traditional food systems.
Industrial Food System
• This method of producing food consumes finite resources without
replenishing them, including the very resources on which food
production depends: healthy soil, clean water and fresh air.
• The industrial food system is built for scale and efficiency, and while it
often results in food that is less expensive for the consumer, it also
creates “externalized” costs — paying for environmental cleanup or
public health fallout— that must be absorbed by governments and
taxpayers.
• Farms under this system have become larger and larger, and food
processing facilities have become increasingly more consolidated, with
many industries controlled by just a few large companies.
INDUSTRIALIZED AND CONSOLIDATED FOOD SYSTEMS

• In industrialized and consolidated food systems, farming is a small

proportion of the economy.
• There are a small number of large-scale, input intensive farms that serve
specialized domestic and international markets (e.g., horticulture, animal
feed, processed food ingredients, biofuels).
• Market consolidation is common — large-sized food retailers procure
directly from processors and urban wholesalers procure directly from
farmers, which reduces the number of intermediaries along the supply
chain.
• Supply chains are long, with national and international sourcing of nearly
all types of foods.
INDUSTRIAL FOOD SYSTEM

• Industrial food system is dominated by huge agri-businesses.

• Today’s factory farms usually grow or raise only one thing, and lots of
it – called a monocrop. Many experts agree that we cannot provide
enough food calories for billions of people without industrial farms.
Yet this type of farming has detrimental effects on natural resources
such a water and soil.
SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITY FOOD SYSTEM
• A “sustainable community food system” is defined as one in which
producers, retailers, community members and governmental and non-
governmental organizations partner to create a vibrant and resilient local
food economy that enhances and sustains the environmental, economic,
and social health of a community.
• A sustainable food system (SFS) is a food system that delivers food security
and nutrition for all in such a way that the economic, social and
environmental bases to generate food security and nutrition for future
generations are not compromised. This means that:
• – It is profitable throughout (economic sustainability);
• – It has broad-based benefits for society (social sustainability); and
• – It has a positive or neutral impact on the natural environment
(environmental sustainability)