Consumer-driven strategies towards a resilient and sustainable food system following the COVID-19 pandemic in Australia

Abstract

Background The COVID-19 pandemic and associated public health restrictions temporarily disrupted food supply chains around the world and changed the way people shopped for food, highlighting issues with food systems resilience and sustainability. The aim of this study was to explore consumer-driven strategies towards a more resilient and sustainable food system in Australia, learning from experiences during the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods During May–June 2020, a cross-sectional, online survey was conducted in Tasmania, Australia in a non-random sample of adults aged 18 years and over. The survey collected demographic data and posted the open-ended question: “How could Tasmania’s food system be better prepared for a disaster in the future?” Descriptive statistics were used to analyse the demographic data and thematic analysis was employed to analyse the qualitative data. Results Survey respondents (n = 698) were predominantly female (79%), over 55 years of age (48%), university educated (70%) and living with dependents (45%). Seven key themes were identified: (i) balance food exports with local needs; (ii) strengthen local food systems; (iii) increase consumer awareness of food supply chains; (iv) build collaboration and connection in the food system; (v) embed clear contingency arrangements; (vi) support community capacity building and individual self-sufficiency; and (vii) the food system coped well. Conclusions The consumer-driven strategies identified indicate multiple opportunities to increase resilience and sustainability in the food system to avoid future supply disruptions. Our findings indicate that considerable popular support for more resilient, local and sustainable food systems may be emerging from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Emerging themes in food tourism: a systematic literature review and research agenda

“…, 2021). The hotel and culinary tourism sectors have a significant problem: how to win over food sceptics (Kent et al. , 2022).…”

“…The closure of tourist sites, restaurants and other indoor dining venues due to COVID-19 has increased the number of customers questioned about their favourite restaurants (Brizek et al, 2021). The hotel and culinary tourism sectors have a significant problem: how to win over food sceptics (Kent et al, 2022). Individual behaviour is expected to change in the postpandemic times towards food (Szolnoki et al, 2021;Yu et al, 2021).…”

The role of traditional aspects, health consciousness and environmental concerns in Italian agri-food consumption during Covid-19

“…Consumers, to make sustainable choices, need greater transparency in the food production process. Greater sharing of information between producers and agri-food system actors would be a strategy to build resilience and sustainability (Savary et al ., 2020; Kent et al ., 2022). However, to make the food industry resilient, governments need to provide incentives/aid packages to food companies to support them in implementing innovative projects.…”

Rural nutrition and dietetics research—Future directions

“…Consequently, the prevalence of food insecurity is higher in rural areas, 13,18–20 with this disparity exacerbated through ‘shocks’ to food supply systems caused by crises like pandemics or disasters impacting environmental sustainability 21 . As such, there is growing support from rural dwelling Australians for initiatives to address local food supply systems and nutrition‐related interventions in rural areas 22 …”

“…21 As such, there is growing support from rural dwelling Australians for initiatives to address local food supply systems and nutrition-related interventions in rural areas. 22 The lack of involvement of place-based nutrition and dietetics experts in rural research, 6,11,12 along with significant gaps in our knowledge around rural-specific solutions, has been identified as a major factor that limits progress in addressing the rural health gaps attributable to poor dietary intake in Australia. 9,11,12,15 For example, substantial opportunities have been lost, where dietary intake data have been collected from rural populations but has not been presented separately from metropolitan data.…”