Transformation Towards Sustainable Agri-Food Systems
Current agri-food systems are not sustainable. Chronic hunger and undernutrition remain stubbornly high and have increased recently due to several overlapping crises. Paradoxically, many of those unable to afford healthy diets are smallholder farmers. At the same time, overweight, obesity, and related chronic diseases are rising. Malnutrition in its various shapes accounts for more than one-third of the global burden of disease. Beyond human health issues, agri-food systems are major contributors to serious environmental problems, such as climate change, biodiversity loss, and natural resource degradation. Profound system transformations are required everywhere – in low-, middle-, and high-income countries – such that agri-food systems can contribute more effectively to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). While the urgent need for transformation is widely acknowledged, many open questions remain about the desired shape and size of sustainable agri-food systems and what concrete innovations, policies, and behavioral changes are needed globally and locally in different contexts.
ICAE 2024 will address urgent questions on how to make agri-food food systems more sustainable with a particular focus on the important role of agricultural economists in facing these interdisciplinary challenges. The conference will feature invited and contributed papers and sessions on topics such as healthy and sustainable diets, technological and institutional innovations, agroecology, gender roles and social equity in agri-food systems, environmental and social externalities of value chains, the true cost of food, and bioeconomy, among others.