1. Introduction
Food systems are high on the international agenda, as shown by the United Nations’ Food Systems Summit scheduled for September 2021. The Summit is part of the Decade of Action to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030 and aims to unleash the power of food systems in delivering progress on all SDGs. Indeed, it aims to deliver more sustainable, equitable, and healthier food systems [1] by working on five action tracks viz. ensuring access to safe and nutritious food for all; shifting to sustainable consumption patterns; boosting nature-positive production; advancing equitable livelihoods; and building resilience to vulnerabilities, shocks, and stress [2]. Actors from across the world’s food systems will explore how to mobilize key cross-cutting levers of change (e.g., gender, human rights, finance, innovation) to transform agri-food systems towards sustainability. Sustainable food systems (SFS) are also among the key elements of the European Green Deal [3,4,5] and, more specifically, the Farm to Fork Strategy of the European Union [6,7]. Indeed, the Farm to Fork strategy (F2F) aims at fostering transition towards sustainable, resilient, and inclusive food systems in the European Union [6].
According to the High Level Panel of Experts on Food Security and Nutrition (HLPE) of the Committee on World Food Security [8], “A food system gathers all the elements (environment, people, inputs, processes, infrastructures, institutions, etc.) and activities that relate to the production, processing, distribution, preparation and consumption of food and the outputs of these activities, including socio-economic and environmental outcomes”. This definition shows that the concept of food systems goes beyond activities (viz. production, processing, distribution, preparation, and consumption) and encompasses other constituent elements as well as the outputs and outcomes of food-related activities. Food systems encompass food supply chains, food environments, consumer behavior, as well as external drivers (e.g., population growth, urbanization, climate change, trade, globalization, politics) and outcomes (environmental, social, economic) [9]. Food systems overlap with agricultural systems in the area of food production, but they comprise the institutions, technologies, and practices that also govern the way food is marketed, processed, transported, accessed, and consumed [10].
Food systems are at the center of various global challenges such as climate change, resource scarcity, and ecosystem degradation [11,12,13,14]. Indeed, different socio-economic (e.g., poverty, inadequate diets, hunger and malnutrition, social inequalities) and environmental (e.g., climate change, water scarcity, land degradation, biodiversity loss) challenges are strongly affected by the way food is produced, handled, processed, distributed, prepared, and consumed [15,16]. On the one hand, current food systems generate adverse outcomes and, on the other hand, fail to eradicate hunger and malnutrition, especially in the Global South [16,17,18,19]. The failures and vulnerabilities of the current global agri-food system have been particularly manifest during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic [20,21], which affected food supply chains, food environments, and consumption patterns alike [22,23,24,25]. While more than enough food is produced [26], the problem of food insecurity persists [18,27,28]. Future food systems are called upon to achieve food and nutrition security for all while addressing various sustainability challenges, highlighting the urgency of fostering transition towards sustainable agri-food systems [29].
Conceiving food sustainability includes different aspects, such as sustainable agriculture, sustainable diets, and SFS. Although increased attention is devoted to the concept of SFS, only a few definitions exist [8,30,31,32]. In this context, the widely used definition of the HLPE [8] indicates that “A sustainable food system (SFS) is a food system that delivers food security and nutrition for all in such a way that the economic, social and environmental bases to generate food security and nutrition for future generations are not compromised” (p. 31). This definition clearly shows the strong link between SFS and food and nutrition security, viz. food insecurity and malnutrition are an outcome of the unsustainability of food systems. SFSs affect and are affected by policies and legal frameworks related to numerous sectors and fields (e.g., environment, agriculture, health and safety, trade, energy) [13].
There is a broad agreement among scholars and practitioners alike that transforming food systems is among the most powerful ways to make progress towards all 17 SDGs [33,34,35,36]. Rockström and Sukhdev [37] suggested that food connects all the SDGs and positions them in a hierarchy to be delivered on within a safe operating space for humanity. For instance, the interactions of SDG 2 “Zero hunger” (end hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture) stray into several other SDG areas [38,39,40]. Indeed, it moves in tandem with SDG 1 (No poverty), SDG 3 (Good health and well-being), and SDG 12 (Responsible consumption and production); but there might be trade-offs with SDG 6 (Clean water and sanitation), SDG 13 (Climate action), SDG 14 (Life below water), and SDG 15 (Life on land) [41]. In this context, Rockström et al. [34] argued that “Without a great Food system transformation, the world will fail to deliver both on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Climate Agreement” (p. 3).
Despite the growing interest in agri-food systems and their (un)sustainability, there has been, so far, no comprehensive analysis of the scholarly literature in this field. To fill this gap, the present systematic review delineated the contours of the research strand on food systems and analyzed how it relates to sustainability in its environmental, economic, social, and political dimensions. The paper also provides an analysis of the bibliographical metrics of the research field.
2. Methods
The paper drew upon a systematic review of all documents indexed in the Web of Science (WoS) viz. Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-Expanded), Arts and Humanities Citation Index (A&HCI), Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI), Conference Proceedings Citation Index—Science (CPCI-S), Conference Proceedings Citation Index—Social Sciences and Humanities (CPCI-SSH), and Emerging Sources Citation Index (ESCI). The systematic review followed the PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) guidelines [42]. A search was performed on 4 January 2021, using the search query “food system” AND (sustainable OR sustainability), selecting as timespan “all years”. The initial literature search on WoS yielded 1389 documents. The selection of the documents included in the systematic review was informed by the methodology suggested by El Bilali [43,44]. Table 1 provides details on the selection process steps. In particular, to be considered eligible, documents had to refer to both food systems and (un)sustainability. For the purpose of this article, documents dealing with sustainability in agriculture (viz. crop production, animal husbandry, and fisheries/aquaculture), food supply chains, food value chains, food processing, food distribution, food retail, food preparation, diets, food consumption, nutrition, and/or food waste were considered eligible.
The screening of titles allowed us to identify 17 ineligible documents that were excluded. An additional 51 documents were excluded following the scrutiny of abstracts. Moreover, 32 documents were discarded following the analysis of full texts. Therefore, 1289 documents were selected for the systematic review (Table A1); these included 1186 journal articles, 100 proceedings papers, and 3 book chapters.
The selected documents underwent both bibliometric and topical analyses. The topical analysis of the selected documents was informed by the SAFA (Sustainability Assessment of Food and Agriculture systems) approach of FAO [45,46]. The SAFA framework has four sustainability dimensions, 21 themes, 58 sub-themes, and 118 indicators. Interestingly, the SAFA framework considers good governance as one of the four dimensions of sustainability for agri-food systems. Themes consist of a set of core sustainability issues. They can be implemented at any level, national, supply chain, or operational unit and thus, provide a common understanding of what “sustainability” means in a practical context. Each sustainability theme is detailed into sub-themes or individual sustainability issues, with associated explicit sustainability objectives (Table 2).
Political aspects are included in the governance dimension (cf. policy and governance), while cultural aspects are addressed within the social dimension (cf. society and culture). A search string was developed for each sustainability dimension to perform searches within the selected documents (Table 3). For some differentiated terms we chose the broader non-specific term for full coverage (e.g., air instead of air quality).
This systematic review has some limitations. Firstly, as in any systematic review, the search process affects the results. In particular, the use of the WoS database means that only quality scholarly, peer-reviewed literature was considered (e.g., articles published in journals as well as book chapters and conference proceedings not indexed in WoS and grey literature—such as reports—were not considered in the present paper). Secondly, the search terms’ selection also affects the review results, and this systematic review is no exception in this regard. This applies to the terms used for the initial search, as well as for performing searches within the selected documents. However, different synonyms were utilized to address the different facets of the sustainability dimensions. Moreover, given the high number of documents analyzed, there was a propensity to synthesize and simplify, implying that some sustainability issues were overlooked or not adequately addressed.
3. Results and Discussion
3.1. Bibliographical Analysis
The analysis of the selected documents suggests that research on sustainable food systems is relatively young; the first document that explicitly refers to a “food system” and relates it to sustainability was from Dahlberg [47] and dated back to 1994. The review shows an increasing interest in sustainable food systems with an exponential increase in the number of publications. Indeed, the annual output of documents in the considered period (1994–2020) ranged from nil in 1996 to a maximum of 272 in 2020 (Figure 1). Meanwhile, the average annual output in the period 1994–2020 was about 47 documents. However, the average yearly output has changed markedly from one decade to another; it was just about two in 1995–2000, increased to about 11 in 2001–2010, then increased more than tenfold in the following decade, 2011–2020, to reach about 116 documents per year.
The bibliometrics of the selected documents (e.g., journals, research areas, authors, affiliation institutions, countries, funding agencies, citations) are presented in Table 4, Table 5, Table 6 and Table 7.
As for sources, the analysis of the results shows that Sustainability (144 documents, so 11.17% of the selected ones) is by far the most important outlet for publications on food systems sustainability. Other relevant publication outlets include Agriculture and Human Values (44 documents), Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems and Community Development (37 documents), and Journal of Cleaner Production (36 documents). Nonetheless, the scholarly literature on SFS was published in 468 other journals and sources (e.g., books, conference proceedings). Most of the selected articles can be linked to the research areas of environmental sciences—ecology (455 documents, so 35.3% of the selected documents), agriculture (320 documents, 24.8%), and science technology (310 documents, 24.05%). Further relevant research areas include food science technology (146 documents), nutrition dietetics (119 documents), business economics (105 documents), and geography (103 documents). Nevertheless, the selected documents can be categorized in 65 additional research areas (e.g., engineering, sociology, public administration, development studies, social sciences, urban studies, meteorology—atmospheric sciences, computer science, anthropology, plant sciences, chemistry), which shows that the field is multidisciplinary. Notwithstanding, it can be argued that while environmental and natural sciences are sufficiently addressed, social sciences and, especially, economics and political sciences are generally overlooked (Table 4).
The bibliometric analysis shows that the most prominent, productive authors are Roberta Sonnino (12 documents); Jessica Fanzo (9 documents); and Imke J. M. De Boer, Hamid El Bilali, Ana Moragues-Faus, and Stephan Rist (8 documents each). However, the 1289 selected documents have been authored by 4079 scholars (so on average more than 3 scholars per document), which shows the dynamism and intensity of collaboration within studies on food systems sustainability. The analysis of countries and affiliations suggests that the study field is north-biased and dominated by researchers and organizations from developed countries. Indeed, the most important affiliation countries are in North America (USA, Canada), Europe (England, Italy, Netherlands, France, Germany, Sweden, Spain, Switzerland, Scotland, Belgium, Finland, Austria, Wales, Norway, Denmark, and Portugal), and Oceania (Australia, New Zealand). Surprisingly, about a third of all selected documents (407 documents, so 31.57%) were authored by scholars based in the USA. Interestingly, the top 20 list features some emerging economies, viz. China and Brazil. The only developing countries present in the top 25 list are Kenya and Colombia, which may be due, inter alia, to the presence of some centers of the Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) in both countries. It comes as no surprise that the most prominent organizations in the research field are based in the Global North, namely Wageningen University Research (The Netherlands), University of California System (USA), and National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food, and the Environment-INRAE (France) (Table 5).
One reason for the north bias might be the funding of the research field. Indeed, the most important funding agencies are based in developed countries and regions (Table 6), namely the European Commission, UK Research Innovation—UKRI, National Science Foundation—NSF (USA), and Natural Environment Research Council—NERC (UK). However, it should be pointed out that the list of the top 20 funding agencies features some international organizations (CGIAR), funding organizations from emerging countries (National Natural Science Foundation of China—NSFC), as well as some philanthropic organizations (Wellcome Trust).
As per the number of citations, the most influential and widely used documents in the research field are Food Security: The Challenge of Feeding 9 Billion People [48], Comparing the yields of organic and conventional agriculture [49], and Embeddedness and local food systems: notes on two types of direct agricultural market [50] (Table 7).
3.2. Topical Analysis
3.2.1. Environment
Out of the 1289 selected documents, 984 (so 76.3%) addressed issues relating to the environmental sustainability of the agri-food systems. These ranged from the use of resources in agriculture and the food sector, to relations between the agri-food systems and biodiversity or climate change, as well as the pressure of agri-food systems on ecosystems (cf. footprints).
Many scholars highlighted that the operation of food systems should take place within planetary boundaries and safe operating space for humanity [58,59,60,61,62,63,64,65]. For instance, Galli et al. [58] argued that “The food system is increasingly acknowledged as the single largest reason for humans’ transgression of key planetary limits and it is gaining centrality in our societal run-up towards a sustainable future”. While some articles addressed the whole food system or agricultural sector, some focused on single sub-sectors, such as animal husbandry [62,66,67,68,69,70,71,72,73,74], which is widely blamed for environmental and ecosystem disturbance.
The way resources are used is central in determining the environmental sustainability of agri-food systems. These resources include water [75,76,77,78,79]; land [80,81,82,83,84]; nutrients e.g., phosphorus [59,85,86,87,88], nitrogen [60,89,90,91,92], and potassium [93]; and energy [75,76,94,95,96]. In this regard, particular attention has also been paid to circularity/circular economy [72,97,98,99,100] and managing food losses and waste [101,102,103,104,105]. Some articles have taken a broader perspective and addressed different types of nexuses, such as water—energy—food [75,76,106,107,108,109,110,111,112,113], water—energy—food—climate [114], water—energy—biodiversity [115], water—land—energy [116], or water—land—energy—nutrients [117]. One way to cope with the increasing scarcity, and even depletion, of resources is to increase their use efficiency [73,87,118,119,120]. However, such increases can lead to agricultural intensification, the concept of which is a matter of huge debate among supporters and opponents [121,122]. Indeed, while some scholars highlight the benefits of “sustainable intensification” [55,121,123,124,125], others are rather critical and point out that “intensification” and “sustainability” are rather two contradictory words, such that intensification can hardly be qualified as sustainable [121,122,123]. In this regard, Godfray [121] pointed out that “there are worries that it might be used to justify intensification per se and the accelerated adoption of particular forms of high-input and hi-tech agriculture” (p. 199).
Agri-food systems have different footprints on ecosystems (both natural and agro-ecosystems) and natural resources, such as ecological footprints [58,126,127,128,129,130,131], nitrogen footprints [60,126], carbon footprints [126,127,128,132,133,134,135,136,137,138,139], water footprints [108,126,127,128,140,141,142], and energy footprints [96,134]. The concept of a carbon footprint is linked to that of “food miles” [143,144,145,146,147,148] and is among the reasons put forward to highlight the benefits of localized, short food supply chains (SFSC) [128,148,149,150,151] and alternative food networks (AFN) [146,152,153,154,155]. Similarly, the concept of a water footprint is related to that of “virtual water” [142,156,157], and trade of agri-food products (thus also water embedded in them) [156] can help cope with water scarcity in some countries, especially those with an arid climate. As for water resource management, besides excessive water withdrawal and use [157,158,159], issues relating to water quality [158,159,160] are also addressed.
Climate change is a recurrent topic in the literature on agri-food system (un)sustainability [161,162,163,164,165,166,167]. The literature highlights the dual relationship between agri-food systems and climate change. In fact, agri-food systems are, on the one hand, among the main contributors to climate change through greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions [102,137,166,168,169] and, on the other hand, highly affected by climate change [162,164,166]. The existing literature has dealt with both climate change mitigation [162,166,168,170,171] and adaptation [164,172,173]. In this regard, some scholars have highlighted the benefits of climate-smart agriculture [172,174], which has been put forward to address concurrently three challenges: climate change mitigation, climate change adaptation, and global food security [172].
Biodiversity is another central theme in the literature on agri-food system sustainability. Indeed, agri-food systems contribute to biodiversity loss [175,176,177,178,179] through, among other factors, changes in land use (cf. deforestation) and habitat destruction, land degradation, and pollution caused by intensive agriculture that leads to some phenomena such as eutrophication in water bodies. Campbell [175] argued that “The food system is the biggest user and polluter of land and water, the biggest driver of habitat and biodiversity loss, and on track to be the biggest emitter of greenhouse gases” (p. 261). Agri-food systems have affected not only genetic diversity (of plant and animal species alike) [180,181] but also landscape diversity [182]. Moreover, there is also an ongoing reduction of the number of plants consumed with the erosion of dietary diversity [183,184,185,186] and local knowledge associated with these neglected orphan crops [187,188,189].
Some articles have addressed environmentally friendly agricultural systems such as organic farming [190,191,192,193,194] and agro-ecology [190,195,196], biodynamic agriculture [197,198], and conservation agriculture [199]. Migliorini and Wezel [190] suggested that “Both agroecology and organic agriculture offer promising contributions for the future development of sustainable agricultural production and food systems, especially if their principles and practices converge to a transformative approach and that impedes the conventionalisation of agro-food systems”. Indeed, agro-ecology is considered by many scholars not only as a system to make agriculture more sustainable but also to bring about the transition to sustainable agri-food systems [200,201,202]. Gliessman [201] stated that “Agroecology focuses on the entire food system, from the seed to the table”. The benefits of agro-ecology are not only environmental/ecological but also social and economic, especially for small-scale farmers [202].
Many scholars have called for adopting more sustainable, plant-based diets [60,203,204,205,206] to reduce the environmental impacts of the current food systems. These include examples such as the Mediterranean diet [206,207], vegetarian diets [60,208,209,210], and the vegan diet [211]. However, Forber et al. [86] warned that the adoption of plant-based diets (e.g., vegan, flexitarian) might add to the wastewater phosphorus burden in the UK. This example shows that the adoption of plant-based diets is not a panacea and can have some environmental trade-offs.
3.2.2. Economy
Out of the selected documents, 748 (so 58%) addressed economic issues in agriculture and food systems. The agriculture and food economy is vital in the livelihoods of millions of people, both in rural and urban areas [212,213,214]. Indeed, the agri-food sector is a lever for reducing poverty and vulnerability. This makes the case for increasing sustainable, green investments in the agri-food sector [164,215,216]. Nevertheless, food poverty is still widespread even in developed countries [217,218,219]. Therefore, referring to the lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic in poor areas, Bounie et al. [220] stated that “There needs to be a move beyond rehabilitating and increasing agricultural production to addressing the whole food system with a view to link humanitarian assistance and longer-term support to sustainable livelihoods and resilience” (p. 367). Moreover, rural livelihoods need to adapt and become more resilient to the changing climate [213].
Apart from their environmental benefits (cf. fewer food miles, lower carbon footprint), another reason for pushing forward local, short food supply chains is their contribution to regional, local economies [149,221,222,223,224,225,226,227]. This happens, inter alia, through the creation of jobs [223]. For instance, Derunova et al. [228] saw the inclusive development of the agri-food system as a driver for sustained growth in the Russian regional economy. However, Jongerden et al. [229] pointed out that “Even though local policymakers, the international community, and the international organisations emphasise the potential of agriculture for food production, job creation, and income generation, they also tend to consider the current food system problematic because of an alleged low productivity”, especially in developing countries. Referring to SFSCs in Quebec (Canada), Mundler and Laughrea [223] highlighted that “The most positive aspects of these systems are job creation, skills development for farmers, job satisfaction, and the adoption of sustainable agricultural practices” (p. 218). This clearly shows that the economic impacts of SFSCs in particular, and agriculture and food systems in general, are context-specific and vary among countries/territories. Other articles have dealt with the relations between agri-food systems and innovative economic models, such as circular economies [35,100,222,230,231,232], green economies [233], and bio-economies [234].
Markets are a central theme in addressing the economic sustainability of agri-food systems [235,236,237]. While some scholars have highlighted the positive roles of markets [236,238], especially concerning food access, others have seen markets as one of the main drivers of the unsustainability of agriculture and food systems [236,239,240] through processes such as commodification [241]. These different opinions about markets and their role in agri-food systems can be due, among other reasons, to the framing of food as “commons” or as “commodity” [242,243,244]. Some inappropriate market and trade practices have led to the promotion of alternative supply chains such as Fairtrade [245,246]. Moreover, it is essential to highlight that markets are not alike and range from “corporate” markets to more inclusive, democratic ones, such as farmers’ markets [50,150,247,248,249] and community markets [151]. However, Hinrichs [50] argues that “In providing an alternative market, farmers’ markets create a context for closer social ties between farmers and consumers, but remain fundamentally rooted in commodity relations” (p. 295).
The economic sustainability of the agri-food system is also addressed in relation to food accessibility and affordability [240,250,251], which are related to the level of prices of agri-food products as well as their volatility [251,252]. What is alarming is that the increase in food prices might induce many people to substitute nutritious, fresh food with carbohydrates and sugar, which has detrimental health impacts (cf. obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, cancer) [174], with a consequent increase in public health costs. In this respect, Drewnowski et al. [253] suggested that “Food systems may need to be restructured to ensure that the global food supply provides adequate calories and nutrients at an affordable cost” (p. 1). Elmes [240] argues that “Unequal access to nutritious foods in the United States is attributable in part to an industrial food system that is designed to produce short-term profits for industrial food producers, processors, and distributors that extract surplus labor value through market concentration and opportunistic behavior at the expense of the long-term benefits for consumers, food workers (including farmers), and ecosystems” (p. 1045).
While the concept of price is central in the literature on the economics of agri-food systems, more and more scholars have drawn attention to that of cost and, especially, “full cost” [252,254] or “real cost” [255]. This allows bridging the gap between economic reasoning and other dimensions of sustainability, such as the environment and health. For instance, the concept of “full cost” has been used in relation to “food miles” [254]. Other authors refer to “energy cost” [256,257], “environmental cost” [144,258,259,260], and “nitrogen cost” [89]. Coveney [258] underlined that “Many have argued that environmental costs of food production are hardly ever factored into the profitability equation” (p. 97), which highlights the need for internalizing these costs to get an accurate idea about the real, full cost of food.
3.2.3. Society and Culture
Social and cultural issues are generally overlooked in the literature on agri-food system (un)sustainability. In fact, 737 (so 57.2%) addressed issues relating to society and culture in agri-food systems out of the selected documents.
Many articles referred to “food justice” [261,262,263,264,265,266,267] or “food dignity” [268,269]. Food justice is an evolving concept that puts social justice at the center of the debate on achieving sustainable food systems [264]. The concept of justice is similar to fairness, which is associated with many alternative food networks and supply chains such as Fairtrade [245,246]. Other scholars addressed the concepts of “food democracy” [261,262,268,270,271,272,273,274,275,276] or “food sovereignty” [261,277,278,279,280,281,282,283], which are strongly linked to the way the food system is governed and managed and the inclusion of the different concerned stakeholders in the process of decision making about the future of agri-food systems, especially at the local level. Food democracy is a process that puts people at the center of and gives them a voice in and control over the transition towards more sustainable agri-food systems [270,271]. Baldy and Kruse [271] recognized eight central elements in the concept of food democracy: transparent ideas deliberation processes, mutual knowledge exchange, credibility and legitimacy of knowledge claims, shared language, raising awareness, experience with and expectations of efficacy, role model function of municipalities, and justification and motivation of the normative orientation. These justice-oriented concepts are strongly related to the concept of power; indeed, many scholars consider power imbalances one of the most critical issues in the current agri-food systems [262,264,284,285]. Democratizing the food system is, at the same time, an outcome of and a prerequisite for the empowerment of the different actors involved [274]. Despite the increasing interests in these social aspects of the agri-food systems, referring to urban food strategies (UFSs) in Europe, Smaal et al. [261] found that “UFSs make little explicit reference to social justice and justice-oriented food concepts, such as food security, food justice, food democracy and food sovereignty”.
The scholarly literature has also addressed human rights in relation to agri-food systems [286,287,288,289]. For instance, Anderson [286] argued that “Food security, health, decent livelihoods, gender equity, safe working conditions, cultural identity and participation in cultural life are basic human rights that can be achieved at least in part through the food system” (p. 593) and coined the new concept of “rights-based food systems”. Human rights also relate to labor as they imply decent working conditions and jobs [290]. In particular, the “right to food” is a prominent topic in the literature dealing with eradicating hunger and the achievement of food security [284,287,291,292].
The scholarship on the sustainability of agri-food systems has also addressed several ethical issues [293,294,295,296,297,298,299,300], such as animal welfare [55,294,301,302] or those relating to the use of biotechnologies [303]. Allievi et al. [293] went even farther and made a strong case for considering “ethics” as the fourth dimension of sustainability. Other scholars referred to moral issues [299,304,305,306]. In this respect, Reuter [304] argued that greater attention to the moral dimension of food systems will contribute to more successful food security and agricultural development programs. Likewise, Bui et al. [297] identified inclusive governance and “systemic ethics” (i.e., relating to a systemic understanding of sustainability, including social justice) as key features for initiatives contributing to sustainability transitions in agri-food systems.
The literature has also dealt with gender issues from different perspectives [174,307,308,309,310]. While women play an essential role in the agri-food system, they generally have less power and representation in decision-making processes [307]. Most articles focused on women, but some addressed specific gender categories such as lesbians [308]. Some scholars went a step farther and analyzed social classes and race issues in agri-food systems [267,311]. Nevertheless, the studies on racism and racial issues have mainly come from the US.
Some scholars have called for paying more attention to the relations between agri-food systems, especially diets, and health [253,312,313,314,315]. This is done, among other ways, by operationalizing the holistic and systemic concept of “One Health” [24,316,317], which relates the health of humans with that of animals and ecosystems/environment. Such a call, particularly timely and relevant in the current context of the COVID-19 pandemic, which affected different components of the agri-food system, such as agricultural production, food distribution, and food consumption and dietary patterns [20,24,98,318,319,320,321], carries implications in terms of food and nutrition security [24,320]. In this regard, referring to nutrition research in the US, Fleischhacker et al. [320] argued that “The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak has further laid bare these strains, including food insecurity, major diet-related comorbidities for poor outcomes from COVID-19 such as diabetes, hypertension, and obesity, and insufficient surveillance on and coordination of our food system” (p 721). The focus on health is also related to food safety, which is fairly addressed in the analyzed literature [322,323,324,325,326,327,328,329,330], especially concerning foodborne diseases [329].
Different components of culture have been addressed in the literature on food system sustainability. These include food culture [266,331,332] and culinary culture [333]. In this respect, many scholars have referred to indigenous, traditional knowledge [188,334,335] and highlighted that its erosion is jeopardizing the sustainability of local diets, as well as the traditions associated with them. Wahlqvist and Lee [331] warned that “There has been a recent awakening of interest and concern about the lack of documentation of traditional and indigenous food cultures which are important not only for their own sake, but for the legacy of food knowledge which they can confer on future generations, provided they are not lost” (p. 2).
Social and cultural issues also play a central role in the transition towards more sustainable diets and food systems. In fact, there have been many attempts to suggest alternative foods, which are more sustainable, but their success also depends on their social and cultural acceptance by consumers [336,337,338]. Many articles have addressed consumers’ attitudes towards alternative products—mainly as alternative sources of proteins—such as pulses [338,339] and insects [336].
3.2.4. Policy and Governance
Policy and governance are largely overlooked in the literature on agri-food system (un)sustainability. As a matter of fact, only 424 (so 32.9%) addressed political and governance issues out of the selected documents.
Articles dealing with policies in the agri-food systems either analyzed the current state of play or focused on policies needed to foster transitions towards sustainable agri-food systems at different levels e.g., regional (European Union), national (e.g., Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Sweden, Switzerland, USA), or local (e.g., city, city-region, etc.). In this context, more and more studies have dealt with urban food systems and their transition towards sustainability [261,340,341,342,343,344,345,346,347]. However, the empirical findings of Doernberg et al. [341] from German cities showed that “urban food policy activities are still very fragmented and often based on individual initiatives”, as well as the lack of “integrated urban food policies and their implementation through urban food strategies”. They also found that the capacities of municipal actors for policy implementation remain limited due to missing financial and staffing resources. Most studies on urban food systems have focused on developed and industrialized countries. Meanwhile, different types of policy documents have been analyzed e.g., strategies [261,341,348,349,350,351,352], action plans [349], agendas [353], guidelines [354,355,356], standards [357], etc. The analyzed policies and policy documents deal, inter alia, with food and nutrition security [235,349,350,358,359], sustainable and healthy diets [354,360,361], non-communicable diseases [354,362], biodiversity [349,363], organic farming [364], etc. Examples include the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) [365,366], The European Food and Nutrition Action Plan 2015–2020 [367], the Milan Urban Food Policy Pact [342], Nepal’s Multisectoral Nutrition Plan (MSNP) 2013–2017 [349], Healthy food and beverage policy of the City of Hamilton (Ontario, Canada) [360], the Good Food Purchasing Policy (GFPP) in Los Angeles (USA) [368], the Local Food Strategy of Ghent (Belgium) [351]. Particular attention has also been paid to the linkages between sustainability transitions in agri-food systems and the achievement of the SDGs, especially SDG 2 “Zero Hunger” [35,36,369,370,371,372,373,374]. Other articles have addressed synergies and/or trade-offs between policies and their instruments [312,375,376].
Papers addressing governance focused mainly on the local urban level. In fact, many multi-stakeholder mechanisms (that involved actors from the public, private, and civil society realms), aiming at improving the governance of local and city-region food systems, have been analyzed in the literature. These multi-stakeholder groups include food (policy) councils [274,368,377,378,379,380,381,382], networks [281,344,383], and partnerships [384,385]. The innovative governance mechanisms allow increasing the participation and inclusion of stakeholders in managing food systems, thus democratizing it [261,262,268,270,271,272,273,274,275,276]. In this regard, Béné et al. [386] suggested that “To operationalize the great food system transformation and ensure its sustainability, five areas of research and action require more attention: economic and structural costs; political economy; diversity of cultural norms; equity and social justice; and governance and decision support tools”. The active involvement of consumers in the governance of the food system means “moving from consumer to food citizen” [387]. Wilkins [387] put that “The term food citizenship is defined as the practice of engaging in food-related behaviors that support, rather than threaten, the development of a democratic, socially and economically just, and environmentally sustainable food system” (p. 269). The evolution of the framing of food issues and the adoption of more systemic approaches in dealing with food led to the emergence of innovative governance models such as “inclusive governance” [297] and “reflexive governance” [298,358]. The new governance arrangements also give rise to an increase in the control of local communities over their own food systems and the emergence of concepts such as food sovereignty [261,277,278,279,280,281,282,283]. Different models of agriculture and food systems emphasize the role of the community and the importance of its active participation, such as community-supported agriculture [263,388,389,390,391,392,393,394,395,396,397], community gardens [218,390,398,399,400], community seed banks [196], community kitchens [390], and community-based fisheries [401]. This focus on participation led to the emergence of different participatory approaches that do not only cover the whole food chain (from production to consumption), but also associated activities such as participatory research [290,402,403,404,405], participatory breeding [307,406], and participatory certification [407,408]. Besides participation and inclusiveness, accountability [409,410] and transparency [301,411,412] are central in the new governance arrangements for sustainable agri-food systems.
4. Conclusions
A growing body of evidence shows that the world today is not on track towards achieving SDG 2 i.e., ending hunger, food insecurity, and malnutrition in all its forms by 2030. Getting on track towards achieving SDG 2 will necessitate a move away from silo solutions towards holistic, integrated solutions that address the global food security and nutrition challenges. Agri-food systems are failing to ensure nutritious and affordable foods, and this is made more difficult in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, if food systems are transformed with improved sustainability and strengthened resilience, they can put humanity on track towards achieving SDG 2. This makes the case for paying more attention to agri-food systems and their (un)sustainability. In this context, the present paper is, to the best of our knowledge, the first that provides a comprehensive overview of the literature dealing with agri-food systems and their relation to sustainability in its environmental, economic, social, and political dimensions. It also provides an analysis of the bibliometrics of the study field.
The review shows an increasing interest in sustainable food systems with an exponential increase in the number of publications over the last decade. However, the study field is north-biased and dominated by researchers and organizations from developed, industrialized countries (e.g., USA, UK, Italy, Canada, The Netherlands, and Australia). Moreover, the analysis suggests that while environmental and natural sciences are sufficiently addressed, social sciences, economics, and political sciences are generally overlooked. However, sustainability dimensions are not mutually exclusive, and most studies addressed more than one dimension.
Accordingly, the paper highlights the need to pay more attention to social issues (e.g., equity, social justice, human rights, ethics, and power) and politics and governance in studies on agri-food systems sustainability. It also suggests the need to address the trade-offs between the different sustainability dimensions. This implies a closer integration between different disciplines, such as natural, social, economic, and political sciences, to better reflect the complexity of contemporary food systems and respond to demands for change from different societal groups and stakeholders. This, in turn, means a shift from linear approaches towards a more interlinked, nested analysis of agri-food system drivers, processes and dynamics, and outcomes. While the focus on understanding the flaws and shortcomings of the current agri-food systems is still needed, the scholarship must devote more attention to identifying instruments and tools to bring about the needed transition towards sustainable agri-food systems. Future systematic reviews on sustainability in agri-food systems could also benefit from a graphical analysis allowing for a network visualization map of the linkages among sustainability dimensions and themes.
Similarly, while the term “food system” is nowadays widely used (as shown by the high number of documents included in this review), the components of and activities within food systems are often analyzed separately, which highlights the need for more integration of “systems science” in studies on agri-food systems sustainability. It is also crucial to strengthen the science–policy interface for improved food system governance. In this context, the paper makes the case for adopting a holistic, 4-P (planet, people, profit, policy) approach in food system studies. Such an approach should combine retrospective studies that focused on causes, sources of pressure, and drivers; present-day studies that have addressed sustainability assessments in different realms of the food system; and prospective studies that envision the future of food systems and advise measures and strategies to foster transitions towards more sustainable agri-food systems. In this respect, the following research areas seem particularly relevant: conceptualization, design, and operationalization of SFS at different levels (global, regional, national, local); methods, approaches, and models for the assessment of agri-food sustainability; sustainability transitions in AFS; new generation of food policies and governance models for SFS; food systems in the context of the SDGs; effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the functioning, performance, and resilience of AFS.
Achieving agri-food system sustainability is one of the pressing challenges of this century. Addressing this challenge requires drawing upon knowledge and expertise from diverse disciplines and intellectual traditions to document the challenges and critical threats to food system sustainability and define an appropriate agenda for research, policy, and action. In fact, it is crucial to develop a common understanding, framing, and vision on aspects of the agri-food system that are threatened and the system features, attributes, and functions that must be relinquished, sustained, or restored. The present paper contributes to this undertaking by synthesizing scholarly literature on agri-food system (un)sustainability. Furthermore, the insights provided by the paper inform not only policy on sustainable food systems but also the upcoming UN Food Systems Summit to bring about the necessary transition to sustainable food systems and unlock the potential of food systems in the post-COVID-19 pandemic recovery and the achievement of the SDGs.
Author Contributions
Conceptualization, H.E.B.; methodology, H.E.B.; writing—original draft preparation, H.E.B., C.S., and T.B.H.; writing—review and editing, H.E.B., C.S., and T.B.H. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.
Funding
This research received no external funding.
Institutional Review Board Statement
Not applicable.
Informed Consent Statement
Not applicable.
Data Availability Statement
Not applicable.
Conflicts of Interest
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
Appendix A
Table A1
List of the selected documents.
| Publication Year | List of References |
|---|---|
| 2020 | Ajates [413]; Ajates [414]; Akinola et al. [415]; Al Sidawi et al. [416]; Alae-Carew et al. [417]; Albert et al. [418]; Al-Jawaldeh et al. [419]; Allaby et al. [388]; Amicarelli and Bux [420]; Amiri et al. [421]; Amiri et al. [422]; Andress et al. [423]; April-Lalonde et al. [424]; Aschemann-Witzel et al. [425]; Augstburger and Rist [426]; Augustin et al. [427]; Baiguzhinova et al. [428]; Bajželj et al. [429]; Baldos et al. [164]; Bartelmeß and Godemann [430]; Bas-Bellver et al. [431]; Basso and Antle [432]; Bazaluk et al. [433]; Becker et al. [132]; Beingessner and Fletcher [434]; Bellows [287]; Ben Hassen et al. [235]; Bencze et al. [435]; Béné et al. [386]; Béné et al. [436]; Benítez et al. [307]; Bentham et al. [437]; Berti [438]; Bisht et al. [198]; Bloom et al. [439]; Blumberg et al. [153]; Bocken et al. [440]; Borelli et al. [189]; Borsellino et al. [236]; Bounie et al. [220]; Boyer and Ramaswami [209]; Boylan et al. [441]; Brandão et al. [442]; Braun et al. [309]; Broekema et al. [313]; Bryceson and Ross [443]; Bumbac et al. [444]; Butler et al. [213]; Cadel et al. [445]; Cadillo-Benalcazar [365]; Campbell [175]; Carino et al. [446]; Carlsson et al. [447]; Cazcarro et al. [78]; Chable et al. [196]; Chapman and Perkins [448]; Chen et al. [76]; Chen et al. [75]; Clay et al. [449]; Coad and Pedley [450]; Colby [451]; Conner [452]; Covarrubias and Boas [106]; Cramer et al. [308]; Culliford and Bradbury [453]; Dai et al. [94]; Dalmoro et al. [454]; Davies et al. [455]; De Bernardi et al. [411]; de Olde et al. [456]; de Sousa and Solberg [457]; Derunova et al. [458]; Derunova et al. [459]; Di Vaio et al. [460]; Diehl [214]; Dijkshoorn-Dekker et al. [461]; Dillon et al. [462]; Dorninger et al. [463]; Downs et al. [464]; Drewnowski et al. [253]; Duro et al. [119]; Duru and Le Bras [317]; Ebel [465]; Echeverría et al. [207]; El Bilali [43]; Eriksson et al. [466]; Esposito et al. [99]; Evans and Johnson [294]; Fardet and Rock [467]; Fardet and Rock [468]; Farmery et al. [469]; Feijoo and Moreira [470]; Fernandez-Mena et al. [230]; Fesenfeld et al. [471]; Fischer and Miglietta [472]; Fleischhacker et al. [320]; Fogarassy et al. [473]; Forber et al. [86]; Formoso et al. [474]; Fortes et al. [475]; Freed et al. [476]; Frison and Clément [477]; Gaitán-Cremaschi et al. [478]; Galli et al. [58]; García-Oliveira et al. [479]; Gausa et al. [480]; Gerritsen et al. [481]; Gerten et al. [61]; Gésan-Guiziou et al. [482]; Ginani et al. [483]; Girard [484]; Giudice et al. [98]; Granheim et al. [485]; Guareschi et al. [486]; Guarnaccia et al. [370]; Gugerell and Penker [487]; Guillaumie et al. [488]; Hanigan and Daley [489]; Hatanaka [490]; Haydon et al. [339]; Hedberg [88]; Hedberg and Zimmerer [247]; Helenius et al. [491]; Hendrickson et al. [492]; Hennchen and Pregernig [390]; Herrero et al. [493]; Heslin et al. [494]; Hilborn et al. [495]; Huang et al. [89]; Huan-Niemi et al. [496]; Jablonski et al. [357]; Jacob et al. [497]; Jacobi et al. [292]; Jehlička et al. [498]; Kahiluoto [389]; Kaufmann et al. [407]; Kemper and Ballantine [165]; Kim et al. [208]; King et al. [499]; Klerkx and Rose [500]; Kopainsky et al. [312]; Ku and Kan [501]; Kuo et al. [502]; Kusch-Brandt [503]; Lajoie-O’Malley et al. [504]; Le Noë et al. [59]; Leclère et al. [176]; Lee et al. [505]; Leite et al. [60]; Leone et al. [319]; Leroy et al. [66]; Lewis et al. [363]; Liang et al. [127]; Lonnie and Johnstone [314]; Lopez et al. [506]; Lourival and Rose [348]; Lowitt et al. [401]; Lu and Halog [231]; Mapiye et al. [507]; Mardones et al. [24]; Martindale et al. [508]; Martindale et al. [509]; Martinelli et al. [510]; Matacena and Corvo [511]; Maughan et al. [264]; Mayton et al. [512]; Mazzocchi and Marino [340]; Mazzocchi et al. [152]; McClements [513]; Mehta et al. [514]; Melesse et al. [371]; Metelerkamp et al. [193]; Meyer [515]; Michell et al. [516]; Millet et al. [517]; Moberg et al. [518]; Mora et al. [80]; Morel et al. [519]; Morris et al. [68]; Mulesa and Westengen [181]; Mullender et al. [520]; Muscio and Sisto [100]; Naja et al. [521]; Negra et al. [215]; Nicol and Taherzadeh [263]; Niederle and Schubert [522]; Nosratabadi et al. [523]; Nowack and Hoffmann [524]; O’Kane and Pamphilon [525]; Omotayo [184]; Omotayo and Aremu [334]; Oo et al. [526]; Palmioli et al. [527]; Park et al. [528]; Pereira et al. [529]; Pham and Turner [322]; Pilipuk [530]; Przelomska et al. [531]; Queenan et al. [67]; Raheem [532]; Ray et al. [332]; Read et al. [101]; Reay et al. [533]; Reinhardt et al. [534]; Resnick [535]; Ricci and Banterle [163]; Ridoutt and Navarro Garcia [177]; Ringling and Marquart [203]; Rippin et al. [321]; Rockström et al. [34]; Rodak [301]; Roig Vila [536]; Rosol [537]; Rossi [538]; Sahal Alharbi et al. [539]; Sampedro et al. [540]; Savary et al. [20]; Schepelmann et al. [541]; Schiller et al. [542]; Schoof et al. [543]; Schramski et al. [95]; Seidel [544]; Sellberg et al. [545]; Sharma et al. [546]; Siegrist and Hartmann [547]; Sigurdsson et al. [548]; Sijtsema et al. [97]; Simón-Rojo et al. [549]; Smaal et al. [261]; Smetana et al. [550]; Soma et al. [551]; Sonnino and Coulson [552]; Stefanovic et al. [553]; Stentiford et al. [316]; Subedi et al. [115]; Sugimoto et al. [554]; Tapsoba et al. [555]; Tello et al. [81]; Temme et al. [375]; Thompson et al. [262]; Tittarelli [556]; Torres [557]; Tortorella et al. [162]; Tricarico et al. [558]; Triste et al. [559]; Ujuaje and Chang [560]; Unger [561]; Usubiaga-Liaño et al. [96]; Valley et al. [562]; van de Vlasakker and Veen [563]; van der Gaast et al. [564]; van Hulst et al. [195]; Vanham and Leip [77]; Vartanova [318]; Vermeulen et al. [372]; Villa et al. [565]; Warshawsky [566]; Weber et al. [567]; Weerasekara et al. [183]; Wegren and Trotsuk [161]; Weidner and Yang [568]; Weissman and Potteiger [377]; Wezel et al. [569]; Wigboldus et al. [570]; Withers et al. [85]; Wyngaarden et al. [71]; Wynne-Jones et al. [571]; Yang et al. [572]; Yang et al. [573]; Zafra-Aparici [574]; Zhang et al. [575]; Zhang et al. [576] |
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| 2015 | Aguilar et al. [180]; Alajmi and Somerset [1053]; Allaert [224]; Allen [1054]; Allievi et al. [293]; Barbeau et al. [1055]; Belletti [1056]; Black et al. [1057]; Borska and Kadlecova [1058]; Brinsden and Lang [1059]; Burke and Spiller [1060]; Cadieux and Slocum [1061]; Carolan [1062]; Carroll and Fahy [1063]; Casolani [1064]; Chaudhury and Albinsson [1065]; Christensen and O’Sullivan [1066]; Cisneros-Saguilan et al. [1067]; Clapp [1068]; Clausen et al. [1069]; Cleveland et al. [146]; CoDyreet al. [1070]; Cohen and Ilieva [1071]; Cohen and Reynolds [1072]; Cook et al. [1073]; Cordell and White [1074]; Dentoni and Bitzer [1075]; Escajedo San-Epifanio [291]; Farber [1076]; Farmery et al. [135]; Forssell and Lankoski [1077]; Frankova [1078]; Garnier et al. [158]; Göbel et al. [1079]; Godfray [121]; Godfray and Robinson [1080]; Grace [329]; Grivins and Tisenkopfs [1081]; Hallström et al. [1082]; Hawkes and Popkin [36]; Hayashi and Takemi [362]; Holben and Morrone [1083]; Horst and Gaolach [1084]; Hu et al. [1085]; Inman [225]; Jackson et al. [142]; James and Friel [1086]; Jenkins et al. [1087]; Johnson [1088]; Jones et al. [278]; Jonkman et al. [1089]; Kaput et al. [1090]; Kopainsky et al. [1091]; Krivasonoka and Silina [1092]; Krone [1093]; Kuhnlein [1094]; Langen et al. [1095]; Lawrence et al. [361]; Luckett et al. [186]; Marshall [1096]; Melece and Krievina [1097]; Metson and Bennett [1098]; Migliore et al. [1099]; Monroe et al. [1100]; Moragues-Faus and Morgan [1101]; Morgan [1102]; Motloch and Truex [1103]; Mukuve and Fenner [117]; Mukuve and Fenner [116]; Ng’endo et al. [185]; Nuutila [1104]; O’Kane and Wijaya [248]; Perryman and Schramski [130]; Pirog et al. [1105]; Pothukuchi and Molnar [1106]; Rémésy et al. [1107]; Rudel et al. [125]; Saracin and Vasile [1108]; Schader et al. [1109]; Shannon et al. [289]; Shimokawa [1110]; Springer et al. [1111]; Stanciu et al. [1112]; Straujuma [1113]; Sumner and Wever [1114]; Tanaka et al. [1115]; Tendall et al. [1116]; Tieman and Hassan [1117]; Tjärnemo and Södahl [1118]; Tsuchiya et al. [1119]; Vaarst et al. [1120]; van Grinsven et al. [260]; Vittersø and Tangeland [1121]; Wilkinson [295]; Winters et al. [1122]; Xu et al. [136]; Zampi [1123]; Zhao et al. [1124] |
| 2014 | Ackerman et al. [1125]; Al-Ansari et al. [113]; Becker et al. [1126]; Bernstein [279]; Blecha and Leitner [1127]; Caputo et al. [1128]; Challies et al. [1129]; Chico et al. [156]; Cleveland et al. [1130]; Climent-López et al. [1131]; Cordell and Neset [1132]; Cordell and White [1133]; Davis et al. [1134]; Desmarais and Wittman [280]; Duram and Mead [246]; Fanzo [1135]; Fielke and Bardsley [1136]; Francis et al. [1137]; Garnett [11]; Godfray [1138]; Godfray and Garnett [55]; Goonan et al. [1139]; Halloran et al. [1140]; Hoekstra [1141]; Isakson [1142]; Johnston et al. [1143]; Kjrgard et al. [1144]; Kuyper and Struik [122]; Lamppa et al. [1145]; Li et al. [406]; Marschke and Wilkings [1146]; Mintz and McManus [400]; Monardo and Palazzo [1147]; Moresi [1148]; Odegard and van der Voet [1149]; Olson et al. [1150]; Otiman et al. [352]; Peano et al. [1151]; Pearson et al. [1152]; Pereira et al. [1153]; Pinstrup-Andersen [252]; Ridoutt et al. [1154]; Sabaté and Soret [205]; Senanayake and Mukherji [1155]; Sneyd [1156]; Sonnino et al. [358]; Specht et al. [1157]; Thorsøe et al. [1158]; van Mil et al. [1159]; Voisin et al. [1160]; Walter et al. [1161]; Wegerif [1162]; Werkheiser and Noll [1163]; Werner et al. [137]; West et al. [1164]; Westhoek et al. [159]; Yach [1165]; Zanecchia [1166] |
| 2013 | Aoki and Akai [138]; Balazs [395]; Cassidy et al. [1167]; Cembalo et al. [1168]; Cordell et al. [1169]; Crivits and Paredis [1170]; Dicks et al. [1171]; Fernandez et al. [1172]; Fraser [1173]; Galt et al. [1174]; Garnett [1175]; Gerlach and Loring [1176]; Gliessman [202]; Glowacki-Dudka et al. [1177]; Gonzalez de Molina [1178]; Hamilton [1179]; Herrero et al. [54]; Hinrichs [1180]; Infante Amate and Gonzalez de Molina [257]; Ingram et al. [1181]; Johns et al. [1182]; Kissinger [131]; Kneafsey et al. [1183]; Lutz and Schachinger [281]; MacRae et al. [1184]; McLachlan and Landman [1185]; Miewald et al. [330]; Pereira [1186]; Rosin [1187]; Shey and Belis [1188]; Sodano and Hingley [1189]; Sonnino [1190]; Spiegelaar and Tsuji [1191]; Spiegelaar et al. [1192]; Vinceti et al. [1193]; White and Stirling [1194] |
| 2012 | Anthony [1195]; Blanc and Kledal [1196]; Brunori et al. [1197]; Elser [1198]; Erb et al. [1199]; Gliessman [201]; Guzmán et al. [405]; Kimmons et al. [356]; Kissinger [147]; Kremen et al. [1200]; Lang and Barling [1201]; Longo and Clark [241]; MacMillan and Dowler [1202]; MacRa et al. [1203]; Melece [1204]; Metson et al. [1205]; Morrison et al. [1206]; Mundler and Rumpus [1207]; O’Kane [255]; Post and Mikkola [1208]; Ridoutt et al. [157]; Seufert et al. [49]; Tai [1209]; Warbach et al. [1210]; Yu et al. [173]; Zhou et al. [1211]; Zhou et al. [1212] |
| 2011 | Aiking [1213]; Barlett [1214]; Bean and Sharp [1215]; Bloom and Hinrichs [1216]; Bush and Duijf [1217]; Challies and Murray [212]; DeLind [1218]; Dunne et al. [1219]; Ervin et al. [1220]; Garnett [53]; Kelly and Schulschenk [226]; Kniuksta and Caplikas [227]; Kremer [1221]; McCune et al. [1222]; McMichael [1223]; Medina [1224]; Melece [1225]; Metcalf and Widener [1226]; Phalan et al. [1227]; Reeve et al. [197]; Rojas [1228]; Sonnino and McWilliam [1229]; Tansey [1230]; Thibert and Badami [1231]; Virtanen et al. [139]; White et al. [1232] |
| 2010 | Adams and Salois [1233]; Allen [1234]; Boyer [282]; Click and Ridberg [1235]; Condon et al. [1236]; Cuellar and Webber [1237]; Gillespie [1238]; Godfray et al. [48]; Godfray et al. [1239]; Howard and Allen [1240]; Kirschenmann [1241]; Mikkola et al. [1242]; Milestad et al. [1243]; Milestad et al. [249]; Moore [1244]; Morgan [1245]; Morgan and Sonnino [1246]; Reilly and Willenbockel [1247]; Woeste et al. [1248]; Young [1249] |
| 2009 | Alkon and Norgaard [1250]; Alpas and Kiymaz [1251]; Chiu and Lin [296]; Coley et al. [148]; Ferreira et al. [1252]; Fiscus [1253]; Fresco [1254]; Huang et al. [1255]; Komisar et al. [1256]; Kurita et al. [1257]; Li and Hu [1258]; Loring and Gerlach [1259]; Mikkola [1260]; Peters et al. [1261]; Porcher [396]; Schönhart et al. [1262]; Stroink and Nelson [1263]; Thompson and Scoones [1264]; Trauger [1265]; Wallgren and Hojer [1266]; Wezel and Soldat [1267]; Wezel et al. [57]; Yang and Hanson [1268] |
| 2008 | Allen [1269]; Anderson [286]; Brown and Getz [410]; Ferreira [302]; Fonte [1270]; Friel et al. [1271]; Fritz and Schiefer [1272]; Getz et al. [192]; Guthman [1273]; Islam [1274]; Lowe et al. [1275]; Mariola [1276]; Wahlqvist [1277]; Yach [238] |
| 2007 | Åsebø et al. [1278]; Friedmann [1279]; Harmon and Gerald [1280]; Ilbery and Maye [1281]; McKay [1282]; Parr et al. [1283]; Rojas et al. [1284]; Schmid et al. [1285]; Wahlqvist and Lee [331] |
| 2006 | Allen and Guthman [1286]; Fraser [1287]; Harmon and Maretzki [1288]; Jaffe and Gertler [310]; Kriflik [1289]; Morris and Kirwan [1290]; Slocum [311]; Wright [1291] |
| 2005 | Barton et al. [1292]; Buttel [1293]; DuPuis and Goodman [51]; Johnston and Baker [1294]; Kriflik and Yeatman [1295]; Lozier et al. [1296]; Natarajan et al. [1297]; Ostrom and Jackson [1298]; Pingali et al. [1299]; Pretty et al. [254]; Sundkvist et al. [1300]; Wilkins [387]; Winne [1301]; Wivstad et al. [93] |
| 2004 | Caraher and Coveney [239]; Clancy [1302]; Kratochvil et al. [1303]; Pothukuchi [1304]; Stonehouse [1305]; Vallianatos et al. [1306] |
| 2003 | Allen et al. [56]; Francis et al. [200]; Hassanein [1307]; Heller and Keoleian [1308]; Hollander [1309]; Krupnik et al. [191]; Pelletier et al. [1310]; Peters et al. [1311]; Pimentel and Pimentel [52] |
| 2002 | Barling et al. [382]; Hendrickson and Heffernan [1312]; Stuthman [1313]; Wilkins et al. [1314] |
| 2001 | Francis and Carter [1315]; Shanklin and Hackes [1316] |
| 2000 | Berge [1317]; Combs [1318]; Coveney [258]; DeLind [364]; Hinrichs [50]; Kloppenburg et al. [1319]; La Trobe and Acott [1320] |
| 1999 | Lyson and Green [1321]; Sumberg [1322]; Welch and Graham [1323] |
| 1998 | Hill [1324] |
| 1997 | Kendall [303]; Kolodinsky and Pelch [397] |
| 1995 | Hollander [1325] |
| 1994 | Bender [1326]; Dahlberg [47] |
Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Figure and Tables
Table 1
Systematic review of food systems in conjunction with sustainability in Web of Science, January 2021: document selection process.
| Selection Steps | Number of Selected Documents | Number of Excluded Documents and Exclusion Reasons |
|---|---|---|
| Initial search and documents identification on WoS | 1389 | -- |
| Screening of records based on titles | 1389 | 17 documents excluded because they did not address food systems |
| Screening of records based on abstracts | 1372 | 51 documents excluded: |
| Scrutiny of full texts | 1321 | 32 documents excluded because they did not address SFS |
| Inclusion in the systematic review | 1289 | -- |
SAFA (Sustainability Assessment of Food and Agriculture systems): dimensions, themes, and sub-themes.
| Sustainability Dimension | Themes | Sub-Themes |
|---|---|---|
| Environmental Integrity (E) | E1 Atmosphere | E1.1 Greenhouse gases; E1.2 Air quality |
| E2 Water | E2.1 Water withdrawal; E2.2 Water quality | |
| E3 Land | E3.1 Soil quality; E 3.2 Land degradation | |
| E4 Biodiversity | E4.1 Ecosystem diversity; E4.2 Species diversity; E4.3 Genetic diversity | |
| E5 Materials and |
E5.1 Material use; E 5.2 Energy use; E5.3 Waste reduction and disposal | |
| E6 Animal welfare | E6.1 Animal health; E6.2 Freedom from stress | |
| Economic Resilience (C) | C1 Investment | C1.1 Internal investment; C1.2 Community investment; C1.3 Long ranging investment; C1.4 Profitability |
| C2 Vulnerability | C2.1 Stability of production; C2.2 Stability of supply; C2.3 Stability of market; C2.4 Liquidity; C2.5 Risk management | |
| C3 Product quality and information | C3.1 Food safety; C3.2 Food quality; C3.3 Product Information | |
| C4 Local economy | C4.1 Value creation; C4.2 Local procurement | |
| Social Well-Being (S) | S1 Decent livelihood | S1.1 Quality of life; S1.2 Capacity development; S1.3 Fair access to means of production |
| S2 Fair trading practices | S2.1 Responsible buyers; S2.2 Rights of suppliers | |
| S3 Labor rights | S3.1 Employment relations; S3.2 Forced labor; S3.3 Child labor; S3.4 Freedom of association and right to bargaining | |
| S4 Equity | S4.1 Non-discrimination; S4.2 Gender equality; S4.3 Support to vulnerable people | |
| S5 Human safety and health | S 5.1 Workplace safety and health provisions; S 5.2 Public health | |
| S6 Cultural diversity | S6.1 Indigenous knowledge; S6.2 Food sovereignty | |
| Good Governance (G) | G1 Corporate ethics | G1.1 Mission statement; G1.2 Due diligence |
| G2 Accountability | G2.1 Holistic audits; G2.2 Responsibility; G2.3 Transparency | |
| G3 Participation | G3.1 Stakeholder dialogue; G3.2 Grievance procedures; G3.3 Conflict resolution | |
| G4 Rule of Law | G4.1 Legitimacy; G4.2 Remedy, restoration, and prevention; G4.3 Civic responsibility; G4.4 Resource appropriation | |
| G5 Holistic |
G5.1 Sustainability management plan; G5.2 Full-cost accounting |
Source: Prepared by the authors based on data from FAO [45,46].
Table 3Strings used in searches per sustainability dimension within the selected documents.
| Dimension | Search String |
|---|---|
| Environment | air OR biodiversity OR “climate change” OR ecological OR ecology OR ecosystem OR energy OR environment OR footprint OR “greenhouse gas” OR land OR material OR pollution OR soil OR waste OR water |
| Economy | business OR competitive OR corporate OR economic OR economy OR employment OR “food access” OR income OR investment OR livelihood OR market OR poverty OR price OR profit OR “risk management” OR “value chain” OR “value addition” OR “value creation” |
| Society and culture | civic OR cultural OR culture OR conflict OR discrimination OR equality OR equity OR ethic OR fairness OR “food safety” OR food sovereignty OR freedom OR gender OR health OR “human safety” OR “indigenous knowledge” OR justice OR labor OR “life quality” OR lifestyle OR livelihood OR power OR “quality of life” OR resilience OR resilient OR responsibility OR right OR social OR societal OR society OR “traditional knowledge” OR vulnerability |
| Policy and governance | agenda OR accountability OR coalition OR collaboration OR cooperation OR governance OR inclusion OR inclusive OR legitimacy OR “multi-actor” OR “multi-stakeholder” OR participation OR participatory OR plan OR policy OR politic OR roadmap OR strategy OR transparency OR transparent OR vision |
Bibliographical metrics: top twenty journals and research areas.
| Journals (a *) | Research Areas (b *) |
|---|---|
| Sustainability (144) | Environmental sciences—Ecology (455) |
| Agriculture and Human Values (44) | Agriculture (320) |
| Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development (37) | Science technology (310) |
| Journal of Cleaner Production (36) | Food science technology (146) |
| Journal of Rural Studies (29) | Nutrition dietetics (119) |
| Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems (23) | Business economics (105) |
| Food Policy (23) | Geography (103) |
| Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems (22) | Engineering (82) |
| Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems (20) | Sociology (67) |
| Food Security (18) | Public environmental occupational health (64) |
| International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (17) | Public administration (63) |
| Environmental Research Letters (15) | History philosophy of science (57) |
| Public Health Nutrition 15 | Development studies (32) |
| British Food Journal (14) | Social sciences (30) |
| Global Food Security—Agriculture, Policy, Economics, and Environment (14) | Urban studies (30) |
| Ecology and Society (13) | Meteorology–Atmospheric sciences (23) |
| Journal of Agricultural Environmental Ethics (13) | Government law (18) |
| Agriculture Basel (12) | Education-Educational research (15) |
| Global Environmental Change–Human and Policy Dimensions (12) | Computer science (14) |
| Agronomy for Sustainable Development; Asia Pacific Journal of Clinical Nutrition; PLOS One; Science of the Total Environment (11) | Anthropology (13) |
* Figures in brackets refer to the number of documents by (a) journal and (b) research area.
Table 5Bibliographical metrics: top twenty authors, countries, and affiliations.
| Authors (a *) | Affiliation Countries/Territories (b *) | Affiliation Organizations (c *) |
|---|---|---|
| Sonnino R. (12) | USA (407) | Wageningen University Research (62) |
| Fanzo J. (9) | England (171) | University of California System (50) |
| De Boer I. J. M. (8) | Italy (135) | INRAE (43) |
| El Bilali H. (8) | Canada (117) | CGIAR (33) |
| Moragues-Faus A. (8) | Netherlands (104) | University of Oxford (33) |
| Rist S. (8) | Australia (102) | Cardiff University (24) |
| Béné C. (7) | France (81) | Commonwealth Scientific Industrial Research Organisation - CSIRO (24) |
| Cordell D. (7) | Germany (68) | University of North Carolina (23) |
| Eakin H. (7) | Sweden (62) | Michigan State University (20) |
| Garnett T. (7) | Spain (50) | Stockholm University (20) |
| Godfray H. C. J. (7) | Switzerland (50) | Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (20) |
| Ahmed S. (6) | China (40) | University of Minnesota System (20) |
| Allen P. (6) | Scotland (35) | University of Minnesota Twin Cities (20) |
| Brunori G. (6) | Belgium (34) | ETH Zurich (18) |
| Galli F. (6) | Finland (34) | Agroparistech (17) |
| Ingram J. (6) | Austria (31) | Cornell University (17) |
| Klerkx L. (6) | Wales (30) | University of California Davis (17) |
| Lang T. (6) | Norway (26) | University of London (17) |
| Milestad R. (6) | South Africa (26) | City University London (16) |
| Pereira L. M., Peters C. J., Roos E., Smith P. (6) | Brazil, Denmark (25) | University of Bodenkultur Wien (BOKU); University of Edinburgh (16) |
* Figures in brackets refer to the number of documents by (a) author, (b) country/territory, or (c) organization.
Table 6Bibliographical metrics: top twenty funding agencies.
| Funding Agencies | Number of Funded Studies |
|---|---|
| European Commission | 74 |
| UK Research Innovation—UKRI | 47 |
| National Science Foundation—NSF (USA) | 39 |
| Natural Environment Research Council—NERC (UK) | 22 |
| CGIAR | 21 |
| National Natural Science Foundation of China—NSFC | 18 |
| Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada—SSHRC | 17 |
| United States Department of Agriculture—USDA | 16 |
| Economic Social Research Council—ESRC (UK) | 15 |
| French National Research Agency—ANR | 10 |
| Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada—NSERC | 10 |
| Swiss National Science Foundation—SNSF | 10 |
| Australian Research Council | 9 |
| Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council—BBSRC (UK) | 9 |
| Engineering Physical Sciences Research Council—EPSRC (UK) | 9 |
| Federal Ministry of Education Research—BMBF (Germany) | 9 |
| European Research Council—ERC | 8 |
| Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Japan—MEXT | 8 |
| Spanish Government | 8 |
| Swedish Research Council FORMAS, Wellcome Trust | 8 |
Citation report: top ten publications.
| Document Title | Publication Year | Reference | Total Citations | Average per Year |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Food Security: The Challenge of Feeding 9 Billion People | 2010 | Godfray et al. [48] | 4853 | 404.42 |
| Comparing the yields of organic and conventional agriculture | 2012 | Seufert et al. [49] | 782 | 78.2 |
| Embeddedness and local food systems: notes on two types of direct agricultural market | 2000 | Hinrichs [50] | 677 | 30.77 |
| Should we go home to eat?: toward a reflexive politics of localism | 2005 | DuPuis and Goodman [51] | 567 | 33.35 |
| Sustainability of meat-based and plant-based diets and the environment | 2003 | Pimentel and Pimentel [52] | 465 | 24.47 |
| Where are the best opportunities for reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the food system (including the food chain)? | 2011 | Garnett [53] | 449 | 40.82 |
| Biomass use, production, feed efficiencies, and greenhouse gas emissions from global livestock systems | 2013 | Herrero et al. [54] | 439 | 48.78 |
| Food security and sustainable intensification | 2014 | Godfray and Garnett [55] | 384 | 48 |
| Shifting plates in the agrifood landscape: the tectonics of alternative agrifood initiatives in California | 2003 | Allen et al. [56] | 383 | 20.16 |
| Agroecology as a science, a movement and a practice. A review | 2009 | Wezel et al. [57] | 353 | 27.15 |
© 2021 by the authors.
Details
; Strassner, Carola 2
; Tarek Ben Hassen 3
1 International Centre for Advanced Mediterranean Agronomic Studies (CIHEAM-Bari), Valenzano, 70010 Bari, Italy
2 Department of Food, Nutrition & Facilities, FH Münster—University of Applied Sciences, 48149 Munich, Germany;
3 Department of International Affairs, College of Arts and Sciences, Qatar University, Doha 2713, Qatar;