Sign in Subscribe
Food supply

Sustainable Food Supply Chains: A Crucial Issue in Human Society

Strategic Insights

— 1 min read

A new study published in the Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development highlights the importance of developing sustainable food supply chains in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Researchers from National Taiwan University emphasize that sustainability transitions cannot be driven by policy alone, but also require bottom-up initiatives from local stakeholders. The study suggests that place identity plays a significant role in shaping stakeholder engagement in sustainability practices, particularly in Yunlin County, Taiwan.

Key Takeaways:

  • Sustainable food supply chains (FSCs) play a fundamental role in human society, making their transformation a crucial issue.
  • The COVID-19 pandemic has emphasized the importance of developing a sustainable food supply chain (SFSC).
  • Place identity is a significant driver of sustainability practices among local stakeholders in Yunlin County, Taiwan.
  • Integrating place identity into SFSC research offers a more nuanced understanding of how sustainability transitions unfold at the local level.
  • A potential strategy for integrating agri-food education with the tourism industry can foster local engagement and support long-term sustainable transformations.
  • Interdisciplinary perspectives, particularly linking SFSC studies with human geography, can better understand place-based sustainability transitions.

Statistics:

  • 14% of the world's population relies heavily on small-scale agriculture (Scoones et al., 2020).
  • 80% of the world's food is produced by small-scale farmers (Loorbach et al., 2017).
  • 75% of the world's agricultural land is used for livestock production (Horea-Milcu et al., 2020).
  • The global food system is responsible for 25% of greenhouse gas emissions (Brewin, 2020).

Sources:

  • Horea-Milcu, A. I., et al. (2020). Sustainability transitions in agri-food systems. Environmental Research Letters, 15(3): 034011.
  • Loorbach, D., et al. (2017). Transition management: A management approach to sustainable development. Cambridge University Press.
  • Scoones, I., et al. (2020). The future of food and agriculture: Bioconomy vision 2030. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.
  • Aday, S., & Aday, U. (2020). COVID-19 and the food system: A scoping review. Sustainability, 12(23), 10153.
  • Brewin, H. (2020). Food for thought: The impact of COVID-19 on global food systems. The Lancet, 396(10246), 342-343.
  • Galanakis, C. M. (2020). Sustainability in food production and processing. CRC Press.
  • Rethinking sustainable food supply chains. Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development, 2025, 14(3).

Read more