What is a Food System (Web – Feb 2024)
The food system figure shows the individual components of the food system that include production, processing, distribution, marketing, and consumption. The components are connected by a circle that indicates that they impact each other. Within each component, transport is involved, and food loss or waste occurs. Consumption is driven by consumer demand, which impacts the rest of the food system.
The food system components sit within a shaded circle labelled components. This indicates that each food system comprises activities, environments, people, inputs, infrastructure, institutions, and other factors, and these are listed.
In the centre of the diagram, health, environment, economy, and society are listed to show the breath of outcomes that the food system influences. These outcomes are shown at the centre of the food system to indicate that they are interrelated with the individual food system components and impact each other.
Socio-economic and biophysical drivers are shown in outer concentric circles to indicate that they influence the whole food system. Socio-economic drivers that are listed include policy, demographics, culture, technology, science, geopolitics, and others. Biophysical drivers that are listed include land use change, land degradation, pollution, biodiversity loss, climate change, and others.