Rethinking the Food System: Looking Within, Looking Ahead

Harshita Bhasin ()
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Harshita Bhasin: Institute for Human Development

A chapter in Decarbonising and Decolonising Economics, 2026, pp 57-77 from Springer

Abstract: Abstract The widespread recognition of the large ecological footprint of agriculture as well as its vulnerability to climate change has led to the emergence of competing visions of a sustainable and resilient food system. This chapter provides an overview of the current landscape of the global food system as well as new tendencies in the food and climate politics reshaping it. In doing so, it argues that mainstream discourse on agri-food system fails to recognize ecological degradation as an inherent tendency of the capitalist logic which underlies the system and advances technological fixes to rebuild a more sustainable agri-food system. In contrast, an alternative approach based on food sovereignty and agroecology centralizes a systemic understanding of ecosystems as well as questions of power and justice in the agri-food system. It aims to overhaul the globalized and homogenized agri-food system dominated by agribusinesses to rebuild local, decentralized, and diversified agri-systems which prioritize the agency and autonomy of food producers as well as consumers. However, there are several political and economic challenges which this alternative agrarian imaginary must confront in order to operationalize its vision of a just and sustainable agri-food system.

Keywords: Agriculture; Food systems; Food sovereignty; Agroecology (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:sprchp:978-3-032-11972-8_4

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DOI: 10.1007/978-3-032-11972-8_4

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