Workshop on Food Systems Approach

We were back face-to-face this week at the IFIAD Food Systems Approach Workshop held at the UCD University Club. Herman Brouwer and Helena Posthumus from Wageningen University and Research shared some of the latest thinking on Food Systems.

Some of the questions coming up for us were:

•  What is NOT in a Food System?
•  Do we need a common definition of a Food System?
• 
 What is transformational change in the Food System and do we need it?
•  What values are we assuming in a Food Systems Approach?

For some people food is a commodity, for others it is a right, and this is part of the complexity of food systems. One interesting insight is that we tend to overestimate synergies and ‘win-win’ scenarios in food systems, but the reality is that trade-offs are more common. Another pointer was to put an ‘artificial boundary’ on whichever food systems you are looking at to make your analysis manageable!