New Food Systems a Key to Our Future

April 1, 2020

The public health crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has all of us within the academic community thinking, a lot, about what really matters and how we should respond. Here at InFACT, we are remembering how our Discovery Theme, Food Production and Security, has been a poignant response to the Great Recession and its effects on communities here in Ohio and elsewhere. Those concerns never went away and will surely intensify in the weeks and months ahead.

To be sure, food security is not the very first concern that comes to mind for most folks; reducing the spread of the virus and assuring that our healthcare system does not collapse are higher priorities. But resilience of our food system will surely follow as a growing concern. The food system is very reliant, not only on the hard work of farmers, but on readily available and, yes, imported labor, and an extensive list of inputs (seeds, fertilizers, pesticides, equipment, parts, fuel, electricity, water, etc.) that are normally available on demand, when and where they're needed. All of that is at risk.

We will soon be faced with the reality that has persisted and become more complicated over the past half-century, that our food system is, in fact, a system that must be recognized and improved by complex systemic solutions rather than silver-bullet approaches that align with cultural, political and technological whims.

More immediately, 1 in 7 Ohio households were already struggling with keeping a healthy diet on the table, and now a critically important foundation for health in the face of a virus pandemic is the need to maintain adequate nutrition. That percentage will grow very quickly as layoffs occur and paychecks disappear. Relief packages may not cover the shortfall – we'll likely need to adapt, and quickly, to ensure both the quantity and the nutritional quality of food that people need.

InFACT has been committed from the beginning to a transdisciplinary research agenda, engaging science and the humanities, along with the knowledge and wisdom that comes from deep experience, even handed down from ancient times. Diversity in food supply chains, from production to consumption, offers not only opportunities for experimentation, but capacity to adapt – that's why it's a key focus for us, and a critical factor for food system change in the future.

Another key focus has been exposing and resolving inequities in access to healthy food. We already know a fair amount about vulnerabilities that are associated with race, class, age and gender, all of which have a geographic footprint. Correspondingly, we have current programs with relevance to feeding people, both in crisis and otherwise, through enhanced connections between producers and innovative supply chains leading to conventional sales outlets. See a status report regarding some of those programs here.

Our research agenda will likely evolve as a result of COVID-19 experience and response. Here are some current priorities, research that we think could be most helpful if it can be completed soon:

  1. Identify and map growing inequities and vulnerabilities in access to healthy diets as social and economic conditions change;
  2. Identify and map existing and potential production, processing and distribution, i.e. the resources we have to contribute to food security;
  3. Match the two to avoid adding food shortages to the challenges we're all facing together.

Progress on these simply stated objectives will require extensive collaboration within and beyond the University, the kind of collaboration that the Discovery Themes were meant to promote. And while there are no more silver linings than bullets of the same hue in a crisis like this, we are confident that our work towards food systems change is precisely the spirit, tradition and future promise of how land grant institutions contribute to our society.

The current crisis will pass, but with needs and systemic flaws accentuated in ways that heighten the urgency for the work we have underway. We wish everyone well in meeting the challenges we face together now, and invite you to work with us toward a resilient food system that meets the needs of all despite the unpredictable challenges that we'll surely face together in the future.