Brief 2: Understanding the food system: Why it matters for food policy

There is more evidence than ever before that the food system is intimately connected to major contemporary global challenges, from malnutrition to climate change. This Brief looks at what the food system is, how it is defined and the implications of that definition for a fresh approach to food policy. The food system is the interconnected system of everything and everybody that influences, and is influenced by, the activities involved in bringing food from farm to fork and beyond. It includes: the chain of activities from producer to
consumer; the factors that influence the chain of activities and are influenced by it; these are drivers and outcomes of the food chain, which have economic, political, environmental, health and social dimensions; the many entities, institutions and people directly and indirectly involved; the connections between all these elements, meaning that action in one part of the system has repercussions across the system.