The Dilemmas of Food Systems Transformation: From Concept to Impact

The profound impact of climate change has exposed the systemic vulnerabilities of food systems and ensuing impact on nutrition and health and well-being of the population. Food Systems (FS) are not just adversely impacted by climate change but are also a major contributor to it, yet in the pathways to build climate resilience, food systems feature last. This paper explores the multifaceted impact of climate change on all dimensions of food i.e. availability, accessibility, affordability and absorption and how it’s affects are passed down to the future generations. It further discusses the commonly used conceptual frameworks for food systems and highlights the similarities, differences, strengths and weaknesses of each of the frameworks from the view of climate-food-health nexus. In the absence of a conceptual framework that adopts a climate lens to examine the food system, we are ill-equipped to discern plausible causes of the food system failure and formulate solutions that carefully leverage synergies and manage the trade-offs.