Food Systems and Society: A Conceptual and Methodological Challenge

This publication was part of UNRISD work on Food Systems and Society which stressed the need to adopt a more systemic and holistic approach to development issues. Problems of food security, for example, could not be addressed by focusing exclusively on production or marketing or consumption. Neither was it enough to promote food security through local-level interventions; rather, it was crucial to understand the ways in which processes, policies and institutions at the national and international levels impact the local level. This publication was part of a programme seeking to apply insights from systems theory and to understand situations of food insecurity by examining the way social, economic and environmental systems interact.
Also available in French as:
Garcia, Rolando. 1985. Systèmes alimentaires et société : un défi conceptuel et méthodologique. UNRISD, Geneva.