Resilience and reactivity of global food security

Suweis, Samir; Carr, J. A.; Maritan, Amos; Rinaldo, Andrea; D’Odorico, Paolo

doi:10.1073/pnas.1507366112

Cited by 202 publications

(161 citation statements)

References 36 publications

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“…Relatively brief shocks that might disrupt the food system for just a few months can be catastrophic as people's nutritional reserves cannot extend beyond several weeks without replenishment. For example, Suweis et al (46) report that over the past two decades the resilience and stability of food systems have diminished as they have become increasingly susceptible to perturbations in demographic growth and the intensification of international food trade as more countries increase their reliance on food imports.…”

Section: Environment Productionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Formulating policy activities to promote healthy and sustainable diets

Lawrence

Friel

Wingrove

et al. 2015

Public Health Nutr.

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Objective: To develop a policy formulation tool for strategically informing food and nutrition policy activities to promote healthy and sustainable diets (HSD). Design: A policy formulation tool consisting of two complementary components was developed. First, a conceptual framework of the environment-public health nutrition relationship was constructed to characterise and conceptualise the food system problem. Second, an 'Orders of Food Systems Change' schema drawing on systems dynamics thinking was developed to identify, assess and propose policy options to redesign food systems. Setting: Food and nutrition policy activities to promote HSD have been politicised, fragmented and lacking a coherent conceptual and strategic focus to tackle complex food system challenges. Results: The tool's conceptual framework component comprises three integrated dimensions: (i) a structure built around the environment and public health nutrition relationship that is mediated via the food system; (ii) internal mechanisms that operate through system dynamics; and (iii) external interactions that frame its nature and a scope within ecological parameters. The accompanying schema is structured around three orders of change distinguished by contrasting ideological perspectives on the type and extent of change needed to 'solve' the HSD problem. Conclusions: The conceptual framework's systems analysis of the environmentpublic health nutrition relationship sets out the food system challenges for HSD. The schema helps account for political realities in policy making and is a key link to operationalise the framework's concepts to actions aimed at redesigning food systems. In combination they provide a policy formulation tool to strategically inform policy activities to redesign food systems and promote HSD.

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Section: Environment Productionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Formulating policy activities to promote healthy and sustainable diets

Lawrence

Friel

Wingrove

et al. 2015

Public Health Nutr.

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“…Agricultural trade has become increasingly important to food supplies and has contributed to global economic growth and poverty reduction (Anderson 2014). However, the rapid development of trade of agricultural products has contributed to deforestation and soil phosphorus (P) mining, as well as to increased emissions of greenhouse gases and reactive nitrogen (N) from agriculture to the environment, and social instability (Bouwman et al 2017;DeFries et al 2010;Schipanski and Bennett 2012;Lassaletta et al 2014a;Suweis et al 2015).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

International trade of animal feed: its relationships with livestock density and N and P balances at country level

Wang

Liu

Hou

et al. 2017

Nutr Cycl Agroecosyst

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International trade of food and feed has facilitated the specialization and agglomeration of agricultural production systems in many countries. Confined animals in specialized production systems are increasingly supplied with soybean and maize, imported from other countries. This has increased animal productivity but has also contributed to spatially decoupled crop and animal production systems. We analyzed the changes in the trade of soybean and maize at the global level in the period 1961-2011, and related these to the changes in livestock density and nutrient balances in the whole food system for 11 selected countries. Export of soybean and maize remained dominated by few countries (mainly USA, Argentina and Brazil) during the period 1961-2011, while the number of importing countries increased. Increases in the import of maize and soybean are positively related with changes in livestock density and N and P balances of national food systems. Imported soybean accounted for 12-36% of the calculated N balance at country level, and imported maize for 0-26%. There were large differences between importing countries; increases in the N surplus ranged from 75 to 306 kg N/ha and in the P surplus from 2 to 49 kg P/ha when the mean livestock density increased 1 LU/ha. This variation is related to differences in nutrient management regulations and to spatial variations in livestock density within countries. Our study contributes to the understanding of the complex relationships between the international trade of animal feed, livestock density and environmental impacts associated with N and P balances.

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“…Both smallholder and local scale are the underlying structures of grain production and both are influenced by upper-hierarchical system structures such as national grain production policies [59], fluctuations on international grain markets [60], and global climate change [61,62]. Similarly, upper-hierarchical structural changes are also affected by changes within the grass-roots scale.…”

Section: Cross-scale Hierarchical Structure Of the Gpsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In addition, globalization and global environmental changes have also had an important impact on the spatial resilience of the GPS at different scales. Higher dependency on foreign grain products leads to the lower resilience of the domestic GPS [60]. Moreover, grain production is affected by climate change, and one-third of all fluctuations of global grain production can be attributed to climatic factors [61].…”

Section: External Disturbance Factors Of Spatial Resiliencementioning

confidence: 99%

Analysis Framework of China’s Grain Production System: A Spatial Resilience Perspective

Long

et al. 2017

Sustainability

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China's grain production has transformed from absolute shortage to a current structural oversupply. High-intensity production introduced further challenges for the eco-environment, smallholder livelihood, and the man-land interrelationship. Driven by urban-rural transformation, research on food security patterns and grain production has expanded into a new field. To analyze the challenges and required countermeasures for China's grain production system (GPS), this study constructed a theoretical GPS framework based on space resilience. Firstly, a new GPS concept was proposed and a functional system was established for protecting the regional food security, thus guaranteeing smallholder livelihood, stabilizing urban-rural transformation, and sustaining the eco-environment in terms of economic, social, and ecological attributes of the GPS. Secondly, based on a cross-scale interaction analysis that varied from a smallholder scale to a global scale, the systematic crisis of the GPS was analyzed. Thirdly, a cross-scale analytic framework of the GPS was formed from the perspective of spatial resilience, integrating both inner and external disturbance factors of the GPS. Both spatial heterogeneity and connectivity of internal and external disturbance factors are important contents of system space resilience. Finally, the hierarchy of spatial resilience of GPS became clear. The transformation of labor force and the land use transition form key thresholds of the GPS. In summary: based on protecting the basic functions of the GPS, the cross-scale effect of systematic disturbance factors and relevant countermeasures for spatial resilience are effectively influenced by the coordination of the interests of multiple stakeholders; spatial resilience is an effective analytical tool for GPS regulation, providing a reference for revealing the inherent mechanism and functional evolution of the GPS in the process of urban-rural transformation.

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Resilience and reactivity of global food security

Cited by 202 publications

References 36 publications

Formulating policy activities to promote healthy and sustainable diets

Formulating policy activities to promote healthy and sustainable diets

International trade of animal feed: its relationships with livestock density and N and P balances at country level

Analysis Framework of China’s Grain Production System: A Spatial Resilience Perspective

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