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What is a Food System?
What is a Food System?
Food systems connect the food on our plates, the people who produce that food, and the ecosystems and resources that make agriculture possible.
The ways we produce and access food, and all the health and environmental impacts our decisions generate, are shaped by culture, policy, and economics.
Food systems operate at global, national, regional, and local scales. We can look at food systems as having several interconnected components: ecosystems, supply chains, human influences, and economic, cultural, health, and environmental outcomes.
Food systems are part of ecosystems
Food systems are part of ecosystems
Ecosystems are communities of living beings interacting with their physical environment.
Ecosystems are communities of living beings interacting with their physical environment.
Food systems are the supply chains embedded within diverse ecosystems
We depend on air, water, land, and soil to produce food. Our food systems decisions influence the health of the ecosystems we rely on and must prioritize the wellbeing of both people and the environment.
Food passes through many hands to reach us
Food passes through many hands to reach us
Most of our food moves through a process to get from the field to our plates. There is also a process for food recovery, disposal, and composting.
It takes many people to plant, harvest, process, pack, transport, prepare, serve, and sell food, and each step in the chain adds value.
The price of food does not always reflect the true cost of production - both the labor and environmental impacts.
People shape food systems
People shape food systems
"The people who shape our food systems must acknowledge and address these structural problems and work together across sectors..."
"The people who shape our food systems must acknowledge and address these structural problems and work together across sectors..."
Policymakers, government agencies, funding and investment partners, local/regional community-based initiatives, and food, farm, health, and education networks all have a role in shaping food systems - for better or for worse. Unfortunately, many current food system policies, practices, and economic structures reinforce inequities that stand in the way of us reaching our vision.
The people who shape our food systems must acknowledge and address these structural problems and work together across sectors to create practices and policies that make our food systems healthy, sustainable, equitable, and economically sound.
Our decisions have many outcomes
Our decisions have many outcomes
Our decisions influence how food and agriculture systems function and can lead to a number of positive or detrimental impacts ranging from the individual or community level to national or global.
- Health and wellness
- Land, ecosystems, and energy impacts
- Climate change, and its effects on food production
- Social, economic, and cultural practices
- Education, research, and innovation opportunities
- Infrastructure and technology resources
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