What does it mean to look at food and agriculture through a systems lens? How can this approach help us to create healthier diets, more resilient food systems, and fairer outcomes for people and the planet? A systems approach is about making decisions in food and agriculture that consider connections with other parts of the system and the interrelated system. When we think about agri-food systems that have all of these different components involved in bringing food from farm to fork, the processing components, the farm components, the retailing components, it involves people and technologies
Looking at Food and Agriculture Through a Systems Lens with Dr. Corinna Hawkes, Director of FAO, Division of Agri- Food Systems and Food Safety
A systems approach is a decision-making framework that shifts focus from individual components—such as farming, processing, or retailing—to the relationships and interconnections between them. Rather than viewing food as a static product, it is seen as a "detective story" with a complex history involving labor, geography, and interrelated systems.
To move beyond a siloed mindset, practitioners must adopt four foundational principles:
Embrace Complexity: Accept that food systems are inherently complex. Working with this reality, rather than against it, leads to more effective and efficient outcomes.
Focus on Relationships: Identify key leverage points within the relationships between people, places, and timeframes (short-term vs. long-term).
See Beyond Your Mandate: Success in one sector (e.g., nutrition) often depends on engagement with another (e.g., trade or energy).
Act Strategically: Target specific subsystems that can catalyze broader, lasting change across the entire landscape.
According to the FAO’s practical guide, moving toward a systems approach requires six fundamental transitions.
Rwanda (Strategic Planning): The PSTA 5 strategy utilized "Systems Governance" by bringing together health, trade, infrastructure, and private sector stakeholders to co-own a single agricultural vision.
Afghanistan (Humanitarian Resilience): In a fragile context, the focus shifted from simple seed distribution to "Systems Doing"—building a private-sector seed system, rehabilitating irrigation, and integrating organic fertilizer and gender-inclusive production.
Efficiency under Constraint: In an era of financial instability and permanent shifts in donor funding, a systems approach reduces duplication and prevents policies from undermining one another.
Global Interconnectedness: Modern crises, such as energy price fluctuations or regional conflicts, prove that the energy system and the food system are profoundly linked.
Future-Proofing: Adopting this lens allows for "foresight," ensuring that decisions made today protect the nutrition and economic outcomes for future generations.
The transition does not require a complete overhaul of existing work. Instead, Dr. Hawkes suggests:
Start where you are: Apply a systems lens to your current projects.
Ask deeper questions: Investigate what might be causing a problem beyond the obvious surface-level factors.
Find Allies: Collaborative problem-solving is the only way to navigate a landscape where no single entity holds all the answers.
7. Resources
https://www.fao.org/food-systems/news/news-detail/transforming-food-and-agriculture-through-a-systems-approach/en