A sustainable, resilient and desirable food system.

Abstract

Analyses of resilience and sustainability of the food system abound, especially in the field of ecological economics, but many of these works start from conceptions of resilience and sustainability as desirable characteristics of the food system, not paying enough attention to the inherently normative nature of these concepts particularly when applied to the analysis of socio-ecological systems. From the perspective of systems thinking, the present work starts from the idea that sustainability and resilience are desirable characteristics only if they are linked to processes and systems whose functioning is desirable, but they are not beneficial characteristics when they are associated with harmful processes. Therefore, it is essential to analyse which are the implications of the normative dimension of sustainability and resilience of the food system, and what kind of changes or transformations are necessary to achieve a food system that is not only sustainable and resilient but also desirable. The paradigm of food sovereignty has, in this sense, an important potential as a framework for the transformation towards a sustainable, resilient, and desirable food system, since it starts from the recognition of the complexity of the food system and its dynamic and multi-scalar functioning, incorporating ecological, economic, political, social and cultural dimensions, and opening the way to an inter- and transdisciplinary approach for the study and transformation of the global food system.