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Identifying attributes of food system sustainability: emerging themes and consensus

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Abstract

Achieving food system sustainability is one of the more pressing challenges of this century. Over the last decades, experts from diverse disciplines and intellectual traditions have worked to document the critical threats to food system sustainability and to define an appropriate agenda for action. Nevertheless, these efforts have tended to focus selectively on only a few components of the food system or have tended to be framed in particular discourses. Depending on the point of departure, what aspects of the food system are considered threatened, and what must be sustained, can differ greatly between perspectives. In this article, we draw from systems-thinking and social-ecological systems concepts to focus on the underlying process-related attributes that could support a more sustainable food system. We then examine the support for specific system attributes in six different knowledge domains addressing sustainable agriculture and food. From this review, we identify five system attributes—diversity, modularity, transparency, innovation and congruence—that are repeatedly featured in the different knowledge domains as critical aspects of food system sustainability. We argue that in the face of considerable complexity and high uncertainty, these attributes can serve as a guide to conceptualizing food system choices adaptively and iteratively.

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Notes

  1. There is empirical evidence of forest recovery in some regions where agricultural intensification and economic development have occurred simultaneously (Rudel et al. 2002; Mather 1992, 2001); nevertheless, the viability of land-sparing remains controversial (Perfecto and Vandermeer 2010).

Abbreviations

FSS:

Food system sustainability

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Acknowledgements

This article is the product of insightful exploration of the food system sustainability literature through the vehicle of a graduate seminar in food system sustainability at Arizona State University. The interdisciplinary comparative focus we take in this article emerged from working with the students to evaluate critically and constructively the diversity of perspectives on food system sustainability.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Sustainability, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, 85287, USA

    Hallie Eakin

  2. Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of Longer-Range Future, Boston University, Boston, MA, 02215, USA

    John Patrick Connors

  3. School of Nutrition and Health Promotion, Arizona State University, Phoenix, AZ, 85004, USA

    Christopher Wharton

  4. Department of Nutrition and Food Sciences, University of Vermont, Burlington, VT, 05405, USA

    Farryl Bertmann

  5. Ascent Environmental, 455 Capitol Mall #300, Sacramento, CA, 95814, USA

    Angela Xiong

  6. Department of Integrated Science and Technology, James Madison University, Harrisonburg, VA, 22807, USA

    Jared Stoltzfus

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Eakin, H., Connors, J.P., Wharton, C. et al. Identifying attributes of food system sustainability: emerging themes and consensus. Agric Hum Values 34, 757–773 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10460-016-9754-8

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