45
• Traditional food systems describe the approach of indigenous people to produce
foods locally or gather them based on local environmental conditions, including
locally available animal power, surface water or rainwater, and natural fertilizer
inputs, and to consume them in accordance with local cultural customs and local
seasons. Subsistence and hunter-gatherer models are forms of traditional food
systems, alongside traditional “city-hinterland” agrarian models. Traditional systems do not require much capital intensive or specialized machinery, chemicals,
GMO (genetically modified organism) seeds, imported technology, or nonanimal energy inputs. Traditional food systems are highly local, yielding
extremely diverse system types. While traditional food systems are commonly
viewed as “sustainable” due to their modest ecological impacts, scaling up production to feed large urban populations can be challenging, and localized
droughts and disasters easily propagate to cause local famine due to a lack of
access to food from other regions. Note, however, that some ancient societies
used surprisingly modern food systems, with the massive irrigation projects of
ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, or China as examples.
• Modern food systems are a complex network of industrial-scale food production
occurring in diverse environments with significant chemical and engineering
inputs, processed in a variety of ways and transported over vast distances to consumers. Modern food systems are marked by “industrial” characteristics of high
levels of inputs, economies of scale, specialization of producers, branding of
products, both “just in time” production and large-scale storage, corporate ownership and management, separation of (mostly rural) producers from (mostly
urban) consumers, separation of the local growing season from the timing of
consumption, and increasing global homogeneity of crops, agricultural practices,
policies, and diets emphasizing the most commercially successful, profitable,
and efficient types. Efficiency is typically defined in terms of cost, volume, or
mass and (usually) not in terms of nutritional values and environmental costs.
• Intermediate food systems combine local production with a connection to larger
systems.
The simplistic application of these categories lends itself to ideological, rather
than practical, thinking. In the real world, food systems tend to fall into a grey area
blending these categories in ways that reflect subtle contextual trade-offs and constraints. Much of this book is oriented toward recognizing and engaging with the
complications of systems in a manner that promotes nuanced decision-making
about trade-offs and integrates food, energy, and water aspects in a balanced way
without idealizing one component or model over others.
Food systems change dynamically as a result of varying soil conditions, environments, climate and weather, crop decisions, agricultural practices and innovations,
availability of inputs, population, changes in diet and culture, political and economic
conditions, the market power of food corporations, and numerous other factors.
Climate variability, seasonality, and disturbances from extreme events are natural
sources of dynamics, but technological and policy change, market changes, consumption habits, and conflicts also drive dynamics.
2 Systems Science
• Traditional food systems describe the approach of indigenous people to produce
foods locally or gather them based on local environmental conditions, including
locally available animal power, surface water or rainwater, and natural fertilizer
inputs, and to consume them in accordance with local cultural customs and local
seasons. Subsistence and hunter-gatherer models are forms of traditional food
systems, alongside traditional “city-hinterland” agrarian models. Traditional systems do not require much capital intensive or specialized machinery, chemicals,
GMO (genetically modified organism) seeds, imported technology, or nonanimal energy inputs. Traditional food systems are highly local, yielding
extremely diverse system types. While traditional food systems are commonly
viewed as “sustainable” due to their modest ecological impacts, scaling up production to feed large urban populations can be challenging, and localized
droughts and disasters easily propagate to cause local famine due to a lack of
access to food from other regions. Note, however, that some ancient societies
used surprisingly modern food systems, with the massive irrigation projects of
ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, or China as examples.
• Modern food systems are a complex network of industrial-scale food production
occurring in diverse environments with significant chemical and engineering
inputs, processed in a variety of ways and transported over vast distances to consumers. Modern food systems are marked by “industrial” characteristics of high
levels of inputs, economies of scale, specialization of producers, branding of
products, both “just in time” production and large-scale storage, corporate ownership and management, separation of (mostly rural) producers from (mostly
urban) consumers, separation of the local growing season from the timing of
consumption, and increasing global homogeneity of crops, agricultural practices,
policies, and diets emphasizing the most commercially successful, profitable,
and efficient types. Efficiency is typically defined in terms of cost, volume, or
mass and (usually) not in terms of nutritional values and environmental costs.
• Intermediate food systems combine local production with a connection to larger
systems.
The simplistic application of these categories lends itself to ideological, rather
than practical, thinking. In the real world, food systems tend to fall into a grey area
blending these categories in ways that reflect subtle contextual trade-offs and constraints. Much of this book is oriented toward recognizing and engaging with the
complications of systems in a manner that promotes nuanced decision-making
about trade-offs and integrates food, energy, and water aspects in a balanced way
without idealizing one component or model over others.
Food systems change dynamically as a result of varying soil conditions, environments, climate and weather, crop decisions, agricultural practices and innovations,
availability of inputs, population, changes in diet and culture, political and economic
conditions, the market power of food corporations, and numerous other factors.
Climate variability, seasonality, and disturbances from extreme events are natural
sources of dynamics, but technological and policy change, market changes, consumption habits, and conflicts also drive dynamics.
2 Systems Science