The browser you are using is not supported by this website. All versions of Internet Explorer are no longer supported, either by us or Microsoft (read more here: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/windows/end-of-ie-support).

Please use a modern browser to fully experience our website, such as the newest versions of Edge, Chrome, Firefox or Safari etc.

Kimberly Nicholas

Kimberly Nicholas

Senior Lecturer, Docent

Kimberly Nicholas

Transformation archetypes in global food systems

Author

  • André Zuanazzi Dornelles
  • Wiebren J. Boonstra
  • Izabela Delabre
  • J. Michael Denney
  • Richard J. Nunes
  • Anke Jentsch
  • Kimberly A. Nicholas
  • Matthias Schröter
  • Ralf Seppelt
  • Josef Settele
  • Nancy Shackelford
  • Rachel J. Standish
  • Tom H. Oliver

Summary, in English

Food systems are primary drivers of human and environmental health, but the understanding of their diverse and dynamic co-transformation remains limited. We use a data-driven approach to disentangle different development pathways of national food systems (i.e. ‘transformation archetypes’) based on historical, intertwined trends of food system structure (agricultural inputs and outputs and food trade), and social and environmental outcomes (malnutrition, biosphere integrity, and greenhouse gases emissions) for 161 countries, from 1995 to 2015. We found that whilst agricultural total factor productivity has consistently increased globally, a closer analysis suggests a typology of three transformation archetypes across countries: rapidly expansionist, expansionist, and consolidative. Expansionist and rapidly expansionist archetypes increased in agricultural area, synthetic fertilizer use, and gross agricultural output, which was accompanied by malnutrition, environmental pressures, and lasting socioeconomic disadvantages. The lowest rates of change in key structure metrics were found in the consolidative archetype. Across all transformation archetypes, agricultural greenhouse gases emissions, synthetic fertilizer use, and ecological footprint of consumption increased faster than the expansion of agricultural area, and obesity levels increased more rapidly than undernourishment decreased. The persistence of these unsustainable trajectories occurred independently of improvements in productivity. Our results underscore the importance of quantifying the multiple human and environmental dimensions of food systems transformations and can serve as a starting point to identify potential leverage points for sustainability transformations. More attention is thus warranted to alternative development pathways able of delivering equitable benefits to both productivity and to human and environmental health.

Department/s

  • LUCSUS (Lund University Centre for Sustainability Studies)
  • BECC: Biodiversity and Ecosystem services in a Changing Climate

Publishing year

2022

Language

English

Pages

1827-1840

Publication/Series

Sustainability Science

Volume

17

Issue

5

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

Springer

Topic

  • Environmental Sciences related to Agriculture and Land-use

Keywords

  • Agricultural productivity
  • Food systems
  • Sustainable development
  • Systemic efficiency
  • Transformations

Status

Published

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 1862-4065