The Food Systems Approach: Sustainable Solutions for a Sufficient Supply of Healthy Food

4.3 Environmental drivers of the food system

The environmental drivers indicate the biophysical context in which the food system operates. These consist of five interacting components (see Figure 4 on the next page): 

1. The availability of land for agriculture and livestock farming, and related to this, the quality of soils. Intensive agricultural methods can put pressure on soil quality. 
2. The use of fossil fuels in agricultural machinery and equipment, refrigeration, storage, processing, and transport of food. Fuels used for the production of fertilizers and pesticides are also included in this category. A side effect of burning these fuels is the emission of additional greenhouse gazes such as carbon dioxide (CO2), which contributes to climate change. 
3. The use of minerals/microminerals, such as NPK and lime, to enrich soils and various metals such as steel, tin, and bauxite for the manufacture of packaging, infrastructure, and cookware. The growing scarcity of some minerals poses a challenge for the agricultural system. 
4. Biodiversity (the variety of plant and animal life) provides different services to the food system activities, such as biomass and firewood, as well as animals for domestication, microbes that guarantee soil quality, and a diversity of plant and animal species that enable pollination. The expansion of the agricultural area and climate change pose a direct threat to biodiversity. 
5. Water, as an important source of life. This involves not only the availability of water for irrigation, but also high-quality drinking water for cooking, and water for washing. 

The interaction between environmental drivers and food system activities occurs mainly at the level of agricultural production (arable farming, horticulture, livestock farming, fishing), and to a lesser extent at the level of other activities in the value chain, such as processing, distribution, domestic and international trade and consumption. However, activities throughout the value chain can influence the use of natural resources in the primary part of the chain, and solutions aimed at the more efficient use of resources can arise from changes in all parts of the chain. 

There are also strong interrelationships between the environmental drivers: the quality of soils depends on the quantity of water and minerals; climate change has put pressure on water availability in many regions; and biodiversity is declining worldwide. However, pressures on water availability or biodiversity impacts of climate change will be different among regions, depending on the starting point regarding natural conditions and the impact of social interactions or behavior on natural resources. Indeed, the biophysical base of food systems can differ regionally, as soil quality, water availability, temperatures and other basic ecological components that are used in the food system are not the same everywhere in the world. This is illustrated by the nine agro-ecological zones around the world, as defined by FAO and International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA). These zones are geographical areas with similar climatic and soil features, determining the natural potential of agricultural production. To what extent these potentials are used relates to economic incentives to using them and governance of such incentives. This again emphasizes the connection between biophysical and socio-economic drivers that determine food system outcomes. 

Figure 4 Environmental drivers of the food system