The food system encompasses all the activities related to the production, processing, transportation, and consumption of food, from the farm to the consumer’s table. It also includes issues such as governance, the economy, food production along the value chain, and its overall sustainability. Additionally, the food system accounts for the extent to which food is wasted and how food production practices affect the natural environment and public health.
As a core part of the economic system, and a sector where scientific advancements and the intensification of knowledge and capital are now fully applied, the agri-food system exhibits trends and characteristics that have emerged for the first time in the past 20–30 years. It has transformed from a local–regional system into a global one. This transformation has been fueled by the influx of capital and knowledge integrated into the food system.
The constant consumer demand for food, along with the inelastic nature of food demand, has made the food sector highly profitable and attractive for investment by transnational funds. As a result, over the past 20–30 years, there has been a frenzy of acquisitions in the agri-food sector on a global scale. This ongoing trend of acquisitions has led to unprecedented concentration in the food industry, resulting in extreme centralization of the agri-food sector in the hands of a limited number of globalized corporations.
The way the food system has developed and evolved in the last 20–30 years has created a series of imbalances and paradoxes. One fundamental and visible paradox in the global community is the simultaneous abundance and shortage of food—a matter that directly relates to life itself, namely ensuring necessary and safe nutrition. Every year, 88 million tons of food waste are generated in the European Union (20% of total food production), at a cost of €143 billion. At the same time, approximately 112 million EU citizens are at risk of poverty, and more than 40 million cannot afford a quality meal. On a global scale, this imbalance is even more pronounced.
The root causes of this paradox lie in two distinct but complementary pillars. The first pillar includes political decisions and the economic framework of the market economy, which essentially promotes the hyper-concentration of the agri-food sector. This is essentially the nature of capitalism—capital centralization. As previously mentioned, the agri-food sector, through scientific advancement, has become an attractive field for investment by transnational funds, leading to vertically integrated food production units that abandon all elements of food locality.
The second pillar is the weak foundations upon which the modern industrial agri-food system rests. This system relies almost exclusively on industrialized production methods and globalized trade. Its core organizational principles include production intensification, monocultures, and the use of genetically modified organisms. Reckless use of chemicals (pesticides and fertilizers) is also a fundamental part of its production design, disregarding the destruction of biodiversity.
As it currently stands, the agri-food system decides what, how much, and when to produce and distribute agricultural products based on fluctuations in stock market prices—with profit as the sole criterion. As a result, local production is undermined, since most of the products we consume are produced thousands of kilometers away, using the technological and transportation capabilities leveraged by transnational food corporations. Thus, food is no longer a right for all—it has become a commodity.
Meanwhile, the intensifying global problems stemming from climate change and the uncontrolled worsening of social and economic inequalities, poverty, and hunger—both in the developing and developed world—strengthen the social demand for a (re)localization of food systems. This would enable regions (and, by extension, countries and the planet) to transition toward more resilient and sustainable local agri-food systems and to regain their autonomy in basic food production in the face of global market forces. The agri-food system urgently needs a radical transformation to meet the needs of modern societies.
To create balance and sustainability in the agri-food sector, a model change is required—a model where the agri-food system is more sustainable and fair. A model where a shift toward local products counterbalances the whirlwind of globalization that dominates today. A model where better compensation for farmers and livestock producers enables them to achieve real independence. A model where education in taste and cooking equips consumers with effective tools to liberate themselves from the dominance of the food industry. At the heart of this model’s restructuring will be the use of low-cost and environmentally safe practices.
The principles and measures of this new agri-food system model contradict the dominant economic, social, and political system on Earth. Thus, humanity faces a choice: either continue repeating the same patterns without achieving sustainability and balance, or apply/choose something fundamentally different and meaningful. The solution lies in sustainable agriculture that prioritizes people and biodiversity. This solution can only be implemented when the focus shifts from profit to people.
