Abstract:
This opinion article results from a collective analysis by the Editorial Board of Food Security. It is motivated by the ongoing
covid-19 global epidemic, but expands to a broader viewon the crises that disrupt food systems and threaten food security, locally
to globally. Beyond the public health crisis it is causing, the current global pandemic is impacting food systems, locally and
globally. Crises such as the present one can, and do, affect the stability of food production. One of the worst fears is the impacts
that crises could have on the potential to produce food, that is, on the primary production of food itself, for example, if material
and non-material infrastructure on which agriculture depends were to be damaged, weakened, or fall in disarray. Looking beyond
the present, and not minimising its importance, the covid-19 crisis may turn out to be the trigger for overdue fundamental
transformations of agriculture and the global food system. This is because the global food system does not work well today:
the number of hungry people in the world has increased substantially, with the World Food Programme warning of the possibility
of a “hunger pandemic”. Food also must be nutritious, yet unhealthy diets are a leading cause of death. Deepening crises
impoverish the poorest, disrupt food systems, and expand “food deserts”. A focus on healthy diets for all is all the more relevant
when everyone’s immune system must react to infection during a global pandemic. There is also accumulating and compelling
evidence that the global food systemis pushing the Earth system beyond the boundaries of sustainability. In the past twenty years,
the growing demand for food has increasingly been met through the destruction of Earth’s natural environment, and much less
through progress in agricultural productivity generated by scientific research, as was the case during the two previous decades.
There is an urgent need to reduce the environmental footprint of the global food system: if its performances are not improved
rapidly, the food system could itself be one main cause for food crises in the near future. The article concludes with a series of
recommendations intended for policy makers and science leaders to improve the resilience of the food system, global to local, and
in the short, medium and long term.