Abstract:
The COVID-19 pandemic provides both a warning
about agri-food systems’ (AFS) functioning and an
accelerator for AFS innovation. It revealed both the
increasing frequency of extreme events and structural
shortcomings with respect to access to healthy diets,
equitable livelihoods, resilience, and climate and
environmental sustainability challenges that pervade
AFS worldwide (Barrett et al 2020). Return to prior
state is both unlikely and undesirable. The central
question is how will AFSs transform in response to the
pandemic and the conditions it revealed? The pandemic
has shifted awareness and incentives in ways
that have the capacity—but are not guaranteed—to
prompt necessary, transformational AFS adaptation
(Kates et al 2012, Bassett and Fogelman 2013). Will
AFS transformation occur and, if so, who will benefit
and who will bear the costs and risks? Drawing on
a year-long global expert panel review (Barrett et al
2020) we summarize the evidence on AFS impacts
of the pandemic and offer seven key lessons to guide
adjustments to policies and practices.
