Module 10: Food Systems

Goals

• Describe ways that food systems impact the Earth system.
• Explain the characteristics and scale of the three major food systems coexisting in the world today, and their overlap.
• Demonstrate the complexity and interconnectedness of food system types that connecting society to the environment in different ways within a globalized world.
• Construct an assessment that measures the impacts of food systems on the Earth system and local environments.

Learning Objectives

After completing this module, students will be able to:

• Define food systems and name the component systems, the roles played by each, and the three dominant and overlapping types of food systems in the world today.
• Name different types of impacts of the food system on Earth's natural systems.
• Define the basic elements of a coupled human-natural system.
• Describe a life cycle assessment (LCA) and state what it is used for.
• Explain examples of food systems to illustrate and compare their combined social and environmental inputs and impacts.
• Apply the concept of natural human systems to food systems and distinguish different ways that food systems develop and change because of human and natural factors.
• Apply a coupled natural system framework to describe how human systems affect Earth's natural systems within food systems.
• Construct life-cycle assessments using data on food production activities that compare the impacts of different types of food systems on the Earth systems.
• Synthesize outputs of LCAs you have constructed to compare impacts of different food production systems.

• Online reading of the course pages in the two modules. The first part of the module develops basic definitions and different typologies of food systems, as well as major challenges for social sustainability that are created for producers within currently dominant food systems in the world today. The second part of the module focuses on integrated impacts of food production and distribution on the environment, and describing the life-cycle assessment method that students will practice in the summative assessment.
• An introductory Activate Your Learning exercise that engages students in thinking about how food products move through the global (or local) food system to reach them, illustrating how ubiquitous and important food systems are.
• Knowledge check activities that verify students' understanding of basic concepts: in Module 10.1, regarding the typology of food systems proposed in the module: global corporate, smallholder, and variants of alternative, new options in food systems; in Module 10.2, asking students to identify types of impacts on natural systems created by integrated food system activities.
• An outside reading on Life-Cycle Analyses written in an engaging manner by expert practitioners.
• A summative assessment that asks students to perform a life-cycle assessment using realistic data on energy use for potato production in globalized and smallholder variants of food systems, and analyze how this assessment reflects sustainability challenges related to the two food productions systems.

The module can be completed by students in a variety of online and classroom options. Students can complete the readings and knowledge checks before class, and then prepare for and begin the summative assessment in-class after addressing questions about the module material. A completely online format is also possible, especially if instructors are available on discussion boards, chats, or other formats to address questions and introduce students to the summative assessment. Some modifications for online group work may be necessary if an all online option is chosen. In an all-classroom format, each of the two module sections would be used to structure a class, with class time in the first session used to address the opening exercise on food's journey in the food system, concepts related to the food systems typologies and/or a discussion of challenges faced by food producers in different systems. The second classroom session would focus on the life-cycle assessment tool, with ample time left to begin the summative assessment an ensure that student teams in the assessment understand what they are asked to do and the overall analysis of the system being requested.

• Student Materials - Module 10: Food Systems

What works best for the module

What students found difficult

• This is a content-heavy module, and at this point in the course it may be good for the instructor to adapt to students' ability to handle the workload or demands coming from the capstone project. The last sections of module 10.1 (challenges to producers, development and change in food systems through a coupled human-natural systems lens), for example, can be made optional if the overall workload of the module is too heavy, since these latter sections do not lead directly into aspects of Module 10.2. Capstone project teams may then be instructed or suggested to look at these sections as ways to understand sustainability challenges in their capstone regions.
• Students may need careful explanations and close supervision and assistance in beginning to fill in the tables for the life-cycle assessment (LCA). Handling relatively large amounts of information to carry out accounting is part of LCA, and we have tried to make the assessment exercise easier after the pilot, but questions and confusion can still arise.

Reflections

This module further develops the concepts and models of food systems introduced earlier in the course. It may be helpful for the instructor to point out the way that this module "brings it all together" and gives the students skills and concepts they may want to refer to in their capstone projects. At the same time, it is important to steer clear of an overly challenging workload from the module that will obstruct students in their efforts to assemble their own systems thinking approaches using the concepts in the module. In addition, it is important to stress that a fair amount of contentious discussion often ensues from discussions of food systems, challenges to producers, and assessments of food system sustainability. Instructors should think about how they plan to address these discussions and debates, maintaining a "neutral middle" that respects different viewpoints, while exploring the arguments of opposing sides if these become apparent.

In the summative assessment 10.2 students carry out a life-cycle assessment to compare energy use as one measure of environmental impact and compare two potato production systems: smallholder versus industrialized. Although there is only one major formal assessment with a rubric listed in this module, it may be helpful for instructors to evaluate students' understanding by checking in class whether the concepts associated with the introductory activity or the knowledge check are being understood. For example, the nature of the overlapping food systems types being presented, and any debates or questions that these raise. In the summative assessment, it is important for students to both successfully carry out the mechanics of the analysis, and also recognize the importance as well as shortcomings of the particular analysis strategy chosen. Some of these issues have been flagged in the discussion and final questions for the summative assessment.

This list is relatively long because we anticipate that instructors and some students may want a large resource base to draw from, compared to the more discipline-specific information in earlier modules.

Altieri, M. A., Funes-Monzote, F. R., & Petersen, P. (2012). Agroecologically efficient agricultural systems for smallholder farmers: contributions to food sovereignty. Agronomy for Sustainable Development, 32(1), 1-13.

Cooper, J. M., Butler, G., & Leifert, C. (2011). Life cycle analysis of greenhouse gas emissions from organic and conventional food production systems, with and without bio-energy options. Njas-Wageningen Journal of Life Sciences, 58(3), 185-192.

Ericksen, P. J. (2008). Conceptualizing food systems for global environmental change research. Global Environmental Change, 18(1), 234-245

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). 1997. "Chapter 3: The food system and household food security" in Agriculture food and nutrition for Africa - A resource book for teachers of agriculture. Available at the document website of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization . (http://www.fao.org/docrep/w0078e/w0078e04.htm).

Hinrichs, C. C. (2003). The practice and politics of food system localization. Journal of rural studies, 19(1), 33-45.

IFAD (International Fund for Agricultural Development): Investing in smallholder family agriculture for global food security and nutrition. IFAD -2015 Policy Brief 3, 2013.

Liu, J., Dietz, T., Carpenter, S. R., Folke, C., Alberti, M., Redman, C. L.,& Provencher, W. (2007). Coupled human and natural systems. AMBIO: A Journal of the Human Environment, 36(8), 639-649.

NCAT/ATTRA: Life Cycle Assessment of Agricultural Systems. Available at: https://attra.ncat.org/attra-pub/summaries/summary.php?pub=457

Netting, R. M. (1993). Smallholders, householders: farm families and the ecology of intensive, sustainable agriculture. Stanford University Press.

P. Pinstrup Andersen and D. D. Watson. 2011. Toward a dynamic global food system". In: Food Policy for Developing Countries: The Role of Government in Global, National and Local Food Systems, 1-25

Sage, Colin. 2011. "Final foods and their consequences" Ch. 5 in Environment & Food. Routledge, 2011.