Speaker
Description
1. INTRODUCTION
Food systems constitute a relevant part of the political, social, economic, ecological and cultural fabric of communities (Ruggeri Laderchi et al., 2024). They could be described as social-ecological complex systems (Allen & Prosperi, 2016; Folke, 2006) composed by a multiplicity of sub-systems where a galaxy of relationships between the social sphere and the biosphere take place (Allen et al., 2014; Nguyen, 2018). These systems are not static and have evolved in time, following a process where global capitalism (McMichael, 2009, 2023), as well as policy-responses to different food crises (Clapp & Moseley, 2020), have played a relevant role.
These systems are also one of the main contributors to climate change and other and biophysical processes linked to anthropogenic activity. Current food systems are responsible for approximately 34% of the global greenhouse gas emissions (Crippa et al., 2021), also one of the main contributors to the loss of biodiversity (García-Vega et al., 2024), and, in the end, of exceeding planetary boundaries (Rockström et al., 2020). However, they are also severely affected by these processes, which are resulting in the inflammation of some of the most relevant challenges facing humanity, like persistent hunger, undernourishment and obesity (Ruggeri Laderchi et al., 2024). Although food insecurity has always been an issue, recent food crises are the living proof of the impacts of ecological processes on it. Those crises, strengthen by climate-induced factors, have also been a consequence of structural flaws in food systems which make them, as well as people nourished by them, highly vulnerable (Clapp, 2023; IPES-Food, 2022). In addition, crises have brought price spikes that have arisen the debate on food insecurity in regions of the global North, where pioneer studies have been carried out during last years, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic (Li et al., 2023; Loopstra, 2020; Moragues-Faus & Magaña-González, 2022; Rabbitt et al., 2023). Notwithstanding the efforts, these studies are still residual within the massive literature regarding food systems.
2. OBJECTIVES
The principal aim of the work is to make a literature review in a systematic way so that the state of art regarding the nexus between climate change, food prices and food security in the global North is addressed and analysed. The chosen region of analysis has been Europe because recent events have arisen the debate of food security in the global North (Brás et al., 2021; Büntgen et al., 2021; Naumann et al., 2021), and this region, despite its reach diversity, constitutes a relevant case-study for the aim of the work.
Apart from that main objective, the literature review carried out within this work aims to address other secondary aims: 1) to analyse, the foundations of the adaptation/mitigation proposals which are found within the consulted literature; 2) to study the presence, within the reviewed literature, of other relevant biophysical processes linked to anthropogenic activity apart from climate change; 3) to analyse the way vulnerability is addressed in this literature.
3. METHODS
To fulfil those objectives, the methodology of the work is divided in two parts. First of all, a systematic literature review is conducted to analyse the state of the art of the literature. This typology of literature review has been chosen as it is a consistent method for the analysis of the contributions, gaps, and plausible future research regarding certain topic (Grant & Booth, 2009). The different parts of the review are based on different systematic reviews (Birgani et al., 2022; Jia & Jiang, 2018; Mariano et al., 2015; Valls-Val & Bovea, 2021). Additionally, literature from Scopus and Web of Science is included and a bibliometric analysis is followed by a cluster analysis where each of the objectives constitutes a thematic cluster. Secondly, a review of the grey literature regarding these topics is conducted. For the selection of this literature, inputs from different national and international actors regarding food systems have been considered. The process, selection criteria and more specific elements are more detailed in the methodology section of the final work.
4. FINDINGS
Regarding the main objective of the work, addressing the climate change – food prices – food security nexus in the literature, preliminary results show that, unlike for the global South, where impacts of climate change in food security are more noticeable (Hasegawa et al., 2018) it could be described as an emerging research topic in Europe. Within the consulted literature little direct mention to the influence of climate change in food prices and, in turn, in food security, is made. The few times it is mentioned, it comes from recent works, most of them coming from the grey literature.
Concerning the secondary objectives, according to preliminary results, the majority of the papers found in the literature search addressing mitigation and/or adaptation proposals did it from a technological lens more than from alternative models such as agroecology or food sovereignty. Moreover, even if concepts like “planetary boundaries” or “ecological crisis” were added within the keywords for the literature search, most of it was linked only to climate change. Finally, the concept of vulnerability is hardly addressed, and, most of the times it is mentioned, it is in a generic way, far from analysing concrete situations and the overlapping of different forms of it.
5. CONCLUSION
Despite being a burning issue (which depends on structural factors of food systems), current academic literature does not seem to reflect the direct relationship between climate change, food prices and food security for global North countries yet. However, it could change during the following years, considering the recent climate extremes in Europe, and their effects on agriculture, health, economy and ecology. Moreover, studies like the ones reviewed should address other biophysical processes linked to anthropogenic activity apart from climate change and their effect on food security. The same happens with vulnerability approaches and the proposal of alternatives different to technological change. Those are some gaps in the literature which will need further research.
Keywords: food system, climate change, food prices, social-ecological systems, vulnerability
