IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/zbw/espost/329641.html

Sustainable and Resilient Agrifood Systems (SARAS). A Leibniz Position

Author

Listed:
  • Hunecke, Claudia
  • Thom, Ferike
  • Vogt, Julia Helen‐Maria
  • Bellingrath‐Kimura, Sonoko Dorothea
  • Brück, Tilman
  • Gaupp, Franziska
  • Geppert, Frauke
  • Grune, Tilman
  • Herzfeld, Thomas
  • Kulling, Sabine E.
  • Ojha, Shikha
  • Piorr, Annette
  • Regierer, Babette
  • Renner, Britta
  • Schlüter, Oliver
  • Schreiner, Monika
  • Springmann, Marco
  • Weith, Thomas
  • Wiedmer, Petra

Abstract

Current agrifood systems fail to provide healthy, affordable food for all while also damaging the environment, contributing to climate change, reducing biodiversity, and increasing inequality. Given these compounding crises, it is crucial to transition towards sustainable and resilient agrifood systems (SARAS). This paper synthesizes perspectives from multiple disciplines on SARAS, incorporating consensus statements, current research positions, and actionable measures comprising ecological, economic, social, and political dimensions. Achieving a balance between global and local solutions is paramount to address the complexities inherent in agrifood systems. Moving forward, diversifying consumption patterns, production systems, and value chains depending on local conditions can support the realization of SARAS. Adopting a holistic system approach that covers both global and local dimensions of agrifood systems minimizes trade‐offs, leverages synergies, integrates international agreements, and mitigates unintended impacts on other countries and vulnerable groups. Nevertheless, several unsolved issues persist, including matters of scaling, applicability of effective policy instruments, and securing funding for this transformation.

Suggested Citation

  • Hunecke, Claudia & Thom, Ferike & Vogt, Julia Helen‐Maria & Bellingrath‐Kimura, Sonoko Dorothea & Brück, Tilman & Gaupp, Franziska & Geppert, Frauke & Grune, Tilman & Herzfeld, Thomas & Kulling, Sabin, 2025. "Sustainable and Resilient Agrifood Systems (SARAS). A Leibniz Position," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 33(5), pages 6871-6884.
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:espost:329641
    DOI: 10.1002/sd.3468
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/329641/1/SD_SD3468.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1002/sd.3468?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ozgul Calicioglu & Alessandro Flammini & Stefania Bracco & Lorenzo Bellù & Ralph Sims, 2019. "The Future Challenges of Food and Agriculture: An Integrated Analysis of Trends and Solutions," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(1), pages 1-21, January.
    2. Agnieszka Kurdyś-Kujawska & Agnieszka Strzelecka & Danuta Zawadzka, 2021. "The Impact of Crop Diversification on the Economic Efficiency of Small Farms in Poland," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 11(3), pages 1-21, March.
    3. Kelly Parsons & David Barling, 2022. "Identifying the Policy Instrument Interactions to Enable the Public Procurement of Sustainable Food," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 12(4), pages 1-21, April.
    4. Marchand, Philippe & Carr, Joel A & Dell’Angelo, Jampel & Fader, Marianela & Gephart, Jessica A & Kummu, Matti & Magliocca, Nicholas R & Porkka, Miina & Puma, Michael J & Ratajczak, Zak & Rulli, Maria, 2016. "Reserves and trade jointly determine exposure to food supply shocks," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 67783, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    5. Jörg Rieger & Florian Freund & Frank Offermann & Inna Geibel & Alexander Gocht, 2023. "From fork to farm: Impacts of more sustainable diets in the EU‐27 on the agricultural sector," Journal of Agricultural Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 74(3), pages 764-784, September.
    6. repec:osf:socarx:ab8ts_v1 is not listed on IDEAS
    7. Myriam Preiss & Julia H.-M. Vogt & Carsten Dreher & Monika Schreiner, 2022. "Trends Shaping Western European Agrifood Systems of the Future," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(21), pages 1-18, October.
    8. David R. Kanter & Olivia Chodos & Olivia Nordland & Mallory Rutigliano & Wilfried Winiwarter, 2020. "Gaps and opportunities in nitrogen pollution policies around the world," Nature Sustainability, Nature, vol. 3(11), pages 956-963, November.
    9. Bjoern Soergel & Elmar Kriegler & Isabelle Weindl & Sebastian Rauner & Alois Dirnaichner & Constantin Ruhe & Matthias Hofmann & Nico Bauer & Christoph Bertram & Benjamin Leon Bodirsky & Marian Leimbac, 2021. "A sustainable development pathway for climate action within the UN 2030 Agenda," Nature Climate Change, Nature, vol. 11(8), pages 656-664, August.
    10. Jayson L. Lusk & Christiane Schroeter, 2012. "When Do Fat Taxes Increase Consumer Welfare?," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 21(11), pages 1367-1374, November.
    11. Gouel, Christophe & Laborde, David, 2021. "The crucial role of domestic and international market-mediated adaptation to climate change," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 106(C).
    12. Ferike Thom & Alexander Gocht & Harald Grethe, 2024. "EU agriculture under an import stop for food and feed," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47(5), pages 2094-2121, May.
    13. Doernberg, Alexandra & Horn, Paula & Zasada, Ingo & Piorr, Annette, 2019. "Urban food policies in German city regions: An overview of key players and policy instruments," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    14. T. S. Amjath-Babu & Pramod K. Aggarwal & Sonja Vermeulen, 2019. "Climate action for food security in South Asia? Analyzing the role of agriculture in nationally determined contributions to the Paris agreement," Climate Policy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 19(3), pages 283-298, March.
    15. Christophe Béné & Stephen Devereux, 2023. "Resilience, Food Security and Food Systems: Setting the Scene," Palgrave Studies in Agricultural Economics and Food Policy, in: Christophe Béné & Stephen Devereux (ed.), Resilience and Food Security in a Food Systems Context, chapter 0, pages 1-29, Palgrave Macmillan.
    16. Wustenhagen, Rolf & Wolsink, Maarten & Burer, Mary Jean, 2007. "Social acceptance of renewable energy innovation: An introduction to the concept," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(5), pages 2683-2691, May.
    17. Brück, Tilman & d'Errico, Marco, 2019. "Food security and violent conflict: Introduction to the special issue," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 117(C), pages 167-171.
    18. Huber, Robert & Kreft, Cordelia & Späti, Karin & Finger, Robert, 2024. "Quantifying the importance of farmers' behavioral factors in ex-ante assessments of policies supporting sustainable farming practices," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 224(C).
    19. Beatrice I. Crona & Emmy Wassénius & Malin Jonell & J. Zachary Koehn & Rebecca Short & Michelle Tigchelaar & Tim M. Daw & Christopher D. Golden & Jessica A. Gephart & Edward H. Allison & Simon R. Bush, 2023. "Four ways blue foods can help achieve food system ambitions across nations," Nature, Nature, vol. 616(7955), pages 104-112, April.
    20. W. Bruce Traill, 2012. "Economic Perspectives on Nutrition Policy Evaluation," Journal of Agricultural Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 63(3), pages 505-527, September.
    21. Katrin Martens & Sebastian Rogga & Jana Zscheischler & Bernd Pölling & Andreas Obersteg & Annette Piorr, 2022. "Classifying New Hybrid Cooperation Models for Short Food-Supply Chains—Providing a Concept for Assessing Sustainability Transformation in the Urban-Rural Nexus," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(4), pages 1-24, April.
    22. M. Springmann & F. Freund, 2022. "Options for reforming agricultural subsidies from health, climate, and economic perspectives," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-7, December.
    23. Cattaneo, Andrea & Federighi, Giovanni & Vaz, Sara, 2021. "The environmental impact of reducing food loss and waste: A critical assessment," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 98(C).
    24. Christophe Béné & Stephen Devereux, 2023. "Correction to: Resilience and Food Security in a Food Systems Context," Palgrave Studies in Agricultural Economics and Food Policy, in: Christophe Béné & Stephen Devereux (ed.), Resilience and Food Security in a Food Systems Context, chapter 13, pages C1-C1, Palgrave Macmillan.
    25. Härkänen, Tommi & Kotakorpi, Kaisa & Pietinen, Pirjo & Pirttilä, Jukka & Reinivuo, Heli & Suoniemi, Ilpo, 2014. "The welfare effects of health-based food tax policy," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 49(P1), pages 196-206.
    26. Ashkan Afshin & José L Peñalvo & Liana Del Gobbo & Jose Silva & Melody Michaelson & Martin O'Flaherty & Simon Capewell & Donna Spiegelman & Goodarz Danaei & Dariush Mozaffarian, 2017. "The prospective impact of food pricing on improving dietary consumption: A systematic review and meta-analysis," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 12(3), pages 1-18, March.
    27. Dieter Gerten & Vera Heck & Jonas Jägermeyr & Benjamin Leon Bodirsky & Ingo Fetzer & Mika Jalava & Matti Kummu & Wolfgang Lucht & Johan Rockström & Sibyll Schaphoff & Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, 2020. "Feeding ten billion people is possible within four terrestrial planetary boundaries," Nature Sustainability, Nature, vol. 3(3), pages 200-208, March.
    28. David Blandford, 2021. "We Should Focus on Food Consumption to Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions in Agriculture," EuroChoices, The Agricultural Economics Society, vol. 20(2), pages 18-22, August.
    29. Marco Springmann & Michael Clark & Daniel Mason-D’Croz & Keith Wiebe & Benjamin Leon Bodirsky & Luis Lassaletta & Wim Vries & Sonja J. Vermeulen & Mario Herrero & Kimberly M. Carlson & Malin Jonell & , 2018. "Options for keeping the food system within environmental limits," Nature, Nature, vol. 562(7728), pages 519-525, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Fanzo, Jessica & Haddad, Lawrence & Schneider, Kate R. & Béné, Christophe & Covic, Namukolo M. & Guarin, Alejandro & Herforth, Anna W. & Herrero, Mario & Sumaila, U. Rashid & Aburto, Nancy J. & Amuyun, 2021. "Viewpoint: Rigorous monitoring is necessary to guide food system transformation in the countdown to the 2030 global goals," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 104(C).
    2. Birgit Kopainsky & Anita Frehner & Adrian Müller, 2020. "Sustainable and healthy diets: Synergies and trade‐offs in Switzerland," Systems Research and Behavioral Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 37(6), pages 908-927, November.
    3. Georgieva, Vanya & Guerov, Gueorgui & Blagoeva, Nadezhda, . "Impact of economic and environmental factors on agricultural product pricing in the EU," Agricultural and Resource Economics: International Scientific E-Journal, Agricultural and Resource Economics: International Scientific E-Journal, vol. 10(4).
    4. Ethan Gordon & Federico Davila & Chris Riedy, 2022. "Transforming landscapes and mindscapes through regenerative agriculture," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 39(2), pages 809-826, June.
    5. Marco Springmann & Rita Dingenen & Toon Vandyck & Catharina Latka & Peter Witzke & Adrian Leip, 2023. "The global and regional air quality impacts of dietary change," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-8, December.
    6. Andrea Lulovicova & Stephane Bouissou, 2023. "Environmental Assessment of Local Food Policies through a Territorial Life Cycle Approach," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(6), pages 1-20, March.
    7. Alberto Pench, 2020. "Time Allocation and Snacks and Sugar Sweetened Beverages Taxation," Italian Economic Journal: A Continuation of Rivista Italiana degli Economisti and Giornale degli Economisti, Springer;Società Italiana degli Economisti (Italian Economic Association), vol. 6(3), pages 469-492, November.
    8. Marcos E. Dominguez-Viera & Zuzana Smeets-Kristkova & Anali Castellanos-Gutierrez & Carolina Batis & Marrit van den Berg & Joana C. Chapa Cantu, 2026. "Fiscal policies alone may be insufficient to reach healthy, sustainable and culturally acceptable diets in Mexico," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 18(2), pages 311-327, April.
    9. Jim Woodhill & Avinash Kishore & Jemimah Njuki & Kristal Jones & Saher Hasnain, 2022. "Food systems and rural wellbeing: challenges and opportunities," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 14(5), pages 1099-1121, October.
    10. Jing Yang & Lei Gao & Qi Liu & Zhaoxia Guo, 2024. "Assessing environmental impacts of response strategies for sustainable food system transformation," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 32(3), pages 2435-2453, June.
    11. Michailidis, Vasilis & Lugato, Emanuele & Panagos, Panos & Grados, Diego & Freund, Florian & Jones, Arwyn & Abalos, Diego, 2025. "How do diet shifts affect the greenhouse gas balance of agricultural soils? Denmark as a case study," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 224(C).
    12. Víctor Martínez-Cano & Iker Etxano & Chiara De Tomassi & María José Sanz & Inmaculada Batalla, 2026. "Vulnerability and food insecurity in the light of climate change: a comprehensive framework for the household context," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 179(2), pages 1-23, February.
    13. Juan Carlos Caro & Pourya Valizadeh & Alejandrina Correa & Andres Silva & Shu Wen Ng, 2020. "Combined fiscal policies to promote healthier diets: Effects on purchases and consumer welfare," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(1), pages 1-23, January.
    14. Nawab Khan & Ram L. Ray & Hazem S. Kassem & Sajjad Hussain & Shemei Zhang & Muhammad Khayyam & Muhammad Ihtisham & Simplice A. Asongu, 2021. "Potential Role of Technology Innovation in Transformation of Sustainable Food Systems: A Review," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 11(10), pages 1-20, October.
    15. Irz, Xavier & Leroy, Pascal & Réquillart, Vincent & Soler, Louis-Georges, 2015. "Economic assessment of nutritional recommendations," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 188-210.
    16. Wallner-Hahn, Sieglind & Dahlgren, Malin & de la Torre-Castro, Maricela, 2022. "Linking seagrass ecosystem services to food security: The example of southwestern Madagascar’s small-scale fisheries," Ecosystem Services, Elsevier, vol. 53(C).
    17. Thierry Brunelle & Raja Chakir & Alain Carpentier & Bruno Dorin & Daniel Goll & Nicolas Guilpart & Federico Maggi & David Makowski & Thomas Nesme & Jutta Roosen & Fiona Tang, 2024. "Reducing chemical inputs in agriculture requires a system change [La réduction des intrants chimiques dans l'agriculture nécessite un changement de système]," Post-Print hal-04644219, HAL.
    18. Mengxi He & Li He & Yugeng Luo & Tong Sun & Pengdong Yan & Jiajie Kang & Jingzhao Lu, 2025. "Agricultural insurance shows spatially heterogeneous effects on nitrogen surplus and its induced water shortage in China," Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 12(1), pages 1-12, December.
    19. Loretta Moramarco & Naomi di Santo & Daniele Di Sparti & Alessandro Petrontino & Giuseppe Moro & Francesco Santoro & Vincenzo Fucilli, 2025. "Assessing Food Policies for Sustainability Transitions: A Scoping Review of Evaluation Methods," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(18), pages 1-34, September.
    20. Marc C. A. Wegerif, 2024. "Street traders’ contribution to food security: lessons from fresh produce traders’ experiences in South Africa during Covid-19," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 16(1), pages 115-131, February.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:zbw:espost:329641. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/zbwkide.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.