This week, Oleksandr Mialyk explores how globalisation shapes our food systems and the risks associated with these systems. Transitioning to more resilient and sustainable food systems requires a coordinated effort among all sectors from government and industry to communities and individuals.
In this series by the Resilience@UT and 4TU Resilience programmes, UT researchers share their personal reflections on current events and trends that impact our daily lives, exploring their implications for resilience. The series is just one of many UT initiatives responding to the urgent need to respond to rapid societal and environmental change. As an academic institution, we have a role to play in strengthening the resilience of the social, technological and environmental systems that support us. The opinions expressed in this article are the author’s own.
Resilience of our food systems
Global production of crops, such as wheat, soy, and apples, has been steadily increasing over the last few decades thanks to increasing crop yields, expanding croplands, and globalisation. While the first two drivers are relatively straightforward to understand, the process and influence of globalisation are much more complex.
Globalisation in this context refers to the increasing interconnectedness and interdependence of our food systems. This process determines what crops we grow, where we grow them, and how we process them into what ends up on our plates. It also comes with many environmental, economic, and societal implications, including concerns regarding the resilience of the food systems.
Globalisation shapes crop production
Let’s look at my personal favourite—corn (or maize). Its production has doubled since 2000, making it the second most produced crop in the world by weight. This rapid increase, however, has nothing to do with me or you eating corn for dinner. It is grown to meet increasing demands for livestock feed and bioethanol fuel. In fact, these are the main drivers behind the overall increase in global crop production as people shift to westernised diets (with more animal products) and the energy security and green agendas of many governments accelerate the production of crop-based biofuels as alternatives to fossil fuels [1].
Such trends, combined with the “miracles” of capitalism, favour the production of crops that can provide nutrients and energy in the most efficient way, while also being easily transported and processed. These crops are called flex crops as they can be turned into dozens of different products (food, feed, fuel, biochemicals, etc.) which reduces the financial risks for farmers, investors, and insurers. Meanwhile, agricultural lobbyists can create flexible narratives in order to gain governmental support [2]. Flex crops attract large capital investments which drive increasing production and the development of new food and non-food products. This enables diverse end-user markets and, in turn, facilitates further capital investments—a self-reinforcing loop.
As a result, just a few flex crops dominate the market. The most striking examples are soybeans and oil palm which account for nearly 75% of all oil crops nowadays. Just pick any random product in the supermarket and you will probably find soy or palm oil in it. At the same time, the production of export-oriented flex crops gravitates towards a few regions with suitable geographical conditions and favourable agricultural policies and regulations. For example, Indonesia currently provides around 60% of global oil palm fruits while Brazil provides 40% of sugar cane and 35% of soybeans—both countries are hotspots of deforestation and biodiversity loss … not by coincidence.
Multifaceted risks
There is a wide range of risks associated with global food systems. Many of them are familiar to us: geopolitical instability, market manipulations, health crises, and climate change impacts such as floods and droughts. For example, crop prices can be very sensitive to climate-related disruptions in the supply chains. We all saw how olive oil prices increased sharply in the aftermath of two years of drought in Spain (BBC News 2023). And the future is not looking promising either. Just last week, the two major publications came out exposing serious threats of global water scarcity to crop production (see reports by the Global Commission on the Economics of Water and World Resources Institute [4], [5]). Seems like the resilience of our food systems will be increasingly tested in the years to come.
Moving towards resilient food systems
We need to strike a balance between global interdependence and regional self-sufficiency while facilitating more sustainable food production and consumption. Such an endeavour is difficult and requires joint actions by producers, consumers, researchers, industries, and governments. If I had to recommend one single action anyone could do today, I would say: be mindful of your diet. Minimise the consumption of highly processed foods and animal products, buy more regional and seasonal fruits and vegetables, and reduce food waste in all its forms—three small steps for more resilient food systems.
References
[1] Mialyk, Oleksandr, Martijn J. Booij, Joep F. Schyns, Markus Berger. 2024. Evolution of global water footprints of crop production in 1990–2019. Environ. Res. Lett. 19 114015 https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ad78e9
[2] Borras, S. M., Franco, J. C., Isakson, S. R., Levidow, L., & Vervest, P. (2015). The rise of flex crops and commodities: implications for research. The Journal of Peasant Studies, 43(1), 93–115. https://doi.org/10.1080/03066150.2015.1036417
[3] Olive oil price skyrockets as Spanish drought bites. G. Hedgecoe, BBC News. 6 Dec. 2023. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-67565503
[4] Valuing the Hydrological Cycle as a Global Common Good. Global Commission on the Economics of Water. https://watercommission.org/
[5] Saccoccia, L. and S. Kuzma. One-quarter of World’s Crops Threatened by Water Risks. World Resources Institute. October 16, 2024 Data Reveals Crops Most Threatened by Water Shortages | World Resources Institute
About the author
Oleksandr Mialyk is a postdoc researcher at the Multidisciplinary Water Management group where he explores complex interactions between global water resources, agrifood systems, climate change, and society. He successfully defended his dissertation in September on the ‘Spatial and temporal patterns of global crop water footprints’.
More information
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