Sustainable food systems science based on physics’ principles

Hugo de Vries (), Mechthild Donner () and Monique Axelos ()
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Hugo de Vries: UMR IATE - Ingénierie des Agro-polymères et Technologies Émergentes - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement - Institut Agro Montpellier - Institut Agro - Institut national d'enseignement supérieur pour l'agriculture, l'alimentation et l'environnement - UM - Université de Montpellier
Mechthild Donner: UMR MoISA - Montpellier Interdisciplinary center on Sustainable Agri-food systems (Social and nutritional sciences) - Cirad - Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement - IRD - Institut de Recherche pour le Développement - CIHEAM-IAMM - Centre International de Hautes Etudes Agronomiques Méditerranéennes - Institut Agronomique Méditerranéen de Montpellier - CIHEAM - Centre International de Hautes Études Agronomiques Méditerranéennes - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement - Institut Agro Montpellier - Institut Agro - Institut national d'enseignement supérieur pour l'agriculture, l'alimentation et l'environnement
Monique Axelos: TRANSFORM - Département Aliments, produits biosourcés et déchets - INRAE - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement

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Abstract: Background In Europe, the Farm to Fork Strategy provides ambitions for sustainable and circular food systems. However, what are the driving and uniting forces that keep systems sustainable? Scope and approach First, food systems are regarded as open thermodynamic systems, fuelled by solar energy, with seven building blocks: players, pieces, moves, playing fields, rules, wins, and time. Second, sustainable food systems are complex adaptive systems evolving in a melting zone, or safe and just operating space, between frozen states and chaos. Third, players (actors) and pieces (resources and products) are bound by 4 fundamental forces, as in physics, namely the strong, weak, electromagnetic energy, and gravitation forces. Key findings and conclusions A physics-based first-order approximation concept of sustainable food systems permits formulating relevant, future Food Science and Technology Developments. A network of food actors re-orient single food chains towards systems of diverse food products, resources, and diets. Their features are multi-functionality, resilience, adaptability, temporal and spatial flexibility regarding food handling. Their pathways are characterized by balancing patterns between frozen states and chaos, and not endless growth curves.

Keywords: Sustainability; food systems; conceptual framework; physics principle; food science and technology (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022-03
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-agr, nep-env and nep-hme
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Published in Trends in Food Science and Technology, 2022, 123, pp.382-392. ⟨10.1016/j.tifs.2022.03.027⟩

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:hal-03629092

DOI: 10.1016/j.tifs.2022.03.027

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