Articulating the effect of food systems innovation on the Sustainable Development Goals

Abstract

Food system innovations will be instrumental to achieving multiple Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). However, major innovation breakthroughs can trigger profound and disruptive changes, leading to simultaneous and interlinked reconfigurations of multiple parts of the global food system. The emergence of new technologies or social solutions, therefore, have very different impact profiles, with favourable consequences for some SDGs and unintended adverse side-effects for others. Stand-alone innovations seldom achieve positive outcomes over multiple sustainability dimensions. Instead, they should be embedded as part of systemic changes that facilitate the implementation of the SDGs. Emerging trade-offs need to be intentionally addressed to achieve true sustainability, particularly those involving social aspects like inequality in its many forms, social justice, and strong institutions, which remain challenging. Trade-offs with undesirable consequences are manageable through the development of well planned transition pathways, careful monitoring of key indicators, and through the implementation of transparent science targets at the local level.

Digitalization for Sustainable Agri-Food Systems: Potential, Status, and Risks for the MENA Region

“…Employment: Digital technologies-notably automation and robotics-have a wide range of applications in the agri-food sector, ranging from surveying to planting to livestock monitoring to food delivery. These applications could deliver a dizzying array of social impacts including safer working conditions but could also reduce labor requirements with corresponding impacts on employment [10]. Indeed, the application of digital technologies is often assumed to displace labor within the agriculture sector.…”

“…Resource Use and Waste: While digital technologies may offer important environmental benefits, including through the optimization of scarce inputs including water and energy, they may also generate new streams of resource use and waste, including GHGE related to increased energy use [10], energy-intensive data storage or the waste of electronic or digital materials. The environmental impacts of digital technologies adopted by the agriculture sector in MENA are as-yet unknown.…”

“…Such visions and strategies should highlight the potential contribution of digital agriculture to outcomes like food security but also acknowledge that technology-based, production-focused solutions are only partial and will not resolve parallel concerns such as problematic food access and distribution [3,5,18]. Moreover, responsible policymaking should acknowledge and articulate the trade-offs associated with innovative technologies such as digital agriculture [10]. These visions and strategies should reflect stakeholders' and the wider society's ethical perspectives on the application of digital agriculture [17,82].…”

“…Moreover, the COVID-19 pandemic has increased attention to both the need for and utility of digital technologies including within the agrifood sector [8] and has catalyzed the introduction and adoption of digital technologies [9]. Despite the myriad benefits promised, digital agriculture-like other, major innovation breakthroughs-is not without its challenges or risks [6,10].…”

One CGIAR and the Integrated Agri-food Systems Initiative: From short-termism to transformation of the world’s food systems

“…However, the SDGs will not be achieved simply by promoting individual technologies, practices, or policies targeted to a single objective, nor can they be achieved primarily through digitization or financial inclusion [20]. Agri-food system solutions will require integrated systems approaches that go beyond introducing innovation through unilateral action and, to be inclusive, must embrace collaborative, research-based action by diverse stakeholders through a lens of system thinking [21][22][23]. To meet human needs under climate change and within resource limits, interventions will be needed across all components of food production and distribution value chains.…”