The Future of Food – Food Systems

I would like to use the opportunity of writing a compulsory blog and address one of the topics I am very passionate about. The future of food. In this blog I will explore the technologies and trends that surround food systems and are shaping our present and future such as:

• E-commerce
• Online marketplaces
• Food delivery
• Back to the roots – Grow your own
• (sustainable) food systems e.g. permaculture
• Circular economy
• Food waste in the sharing economy
• Food labels
• Food sustainability and UN-SDS
• Cultured, plant-based meat and alternatives
• Social media & #sustainability#food#healthy#bio#greenwash

I will not try to lecture anybody on moral or ethics, or if people should become vegan or not. I will try to be as objective as I can and write only about (probably biased) facts.

For a small and boring but nonetheless important introduction in what food systems are, these are defined by the FAO as “the entire range of actors and their interlinked value-adding activities involved in the production, aggregation, processing, distribution, consumption and disposal of food products that originate from agriculture, forestry or fisheries, and parts of the broader economic, societal and natural environments in which they are embedded”.

And for a slightly more fun way to understand what food systems are, and why they are broken and need fixing:

https://youtu.be/VcL3BQeteCc

As you might know by now, in 2015, the UN came up with 17 beautiful Sustainable Development Goals as a blueprint for peace and prosperity which are an urgent call for action by and for all countries as part of their agenda for 2030.

These goals seem to actually go pretty well in hand with the change food systems need to have. A different approach on food production and agriculture could help achieve some the SDG’s. If you take a simple look at goals number 6, 11, 12, 13, 14, and 15, there is probably something that can be done in the food production industry that can also impact these goals directly.

Here I wanted to highlight the wide-ranging problems our society is facing by the status quo of trying to feed our population as a tiny introduction to food systems.  This first post was intended merely to inform and raise awareness about the pickle we’re in. In my next post I will be discussing how sustainable food systems could turn things around. Stay tuned!

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). (2018). Sustainable food systems. Concept and framework.

United Nations. (2017). Communications materials – United Nations Sustainable Development.

United Nations. (2019). Sustainable Development Goals: Sustainable Development Knowledge Platform. Sustainabledevelopment.Un.Org.