For centuries, food and agriculture were virtually synonymous. Most of the world population lived in rural areas and its main occupation was the gathering and production of food for its own consumption, without market participation. With growing specialization, the domestication of vegetable and animal species, the development of farming instruments and the growing settlement of the population in rural areas, excess food began to be produced, which created the need to preserve, process and sell it. First came bartering, but later money appeared on the scene and goods began to be sold and purchased. Later, with growing urbanization, the population gradually expanded in ever larger cities, increasingly far away from the rural territories where the food was produced. This population began to depend for food on those who remained in rural areas and whose main activity was agriculture.

This process began to establish a difference between producers and consumers, and thus, to differentiate between agriculture and food provision for the urban population. This geographical and functional difference also created logistical and transport needs and made the food market a powerful economic instrument. The logic of the markets themselves, both physical and economic, gradually changed and became more complex by acquiring new functions.

Later, technology, especially that relating to food processing, gradually introduced a growing differentiation between primary production, i.e., the products from agriculture, and the food that is actually consumed, which has very different qualities from those of their original components (raw materials). New products emerged with an increasing degree of differentiation, resulting from the conditioning, processing, fractionation, packaging, handling and transport of primary commodities.

These two interrelated processes, urbanization and technology, mutually strengthened each other, along with their effect on changes in cultural patterns and consumption habits. They also created complex food systems with many production processes and economic players which, on the one hand, separated and distanced agricultural primary producers from end consumers but, on the other hand, came to articulate them into complex regional and national food systems.

In turn, such national food systems became progressively interwoven, through international trade, into a global food system that came to be the main production complex worldwide. FAO estimates suggest that over 40% of the world population obtains its main livelihood from its activities as part of the food system, and that such system is responsible for almost 1,300 million jobs worldwide (see table 1).

Table 1. Jobs and livelihoods: COVID-19 risks for food systems (in millions)

Source: unpublished FAO/IFPRI estimates, based on ILO 2000 – Extrapolation scenario. Non-annualized. The jobs represent normal employment; livelihoods cover a wide range of self-employed, informal, migrant and seasonal workers.

These figures show the extraordinary importance of the global food system within the set of economic activities that are part of the global economy and the significant threat represented by the COVID-19 pandemic.

However, the development of this great worldwide food system has been inorganic, and countries have not developed joint global actions except for those relating to trade and health issues. As a result, and in view of the rapid growth of world population and the expansion of food demand resulting therefrom, as well as from the increased purchasing power of a significant percentage of the world population, there is a growing pressure on the scarce agricultural natural resources available on the planet.

This pressure has become exacerbated during the last five decades, bringing about a gradual global warming, water and soil deterioration, biodiversity loss and the increase of worldwide transmissible diseases, showing the food system’s potential negative impacts on the environment and human health. These potential negative effects call for renewed international awareness of the problem and the development of international agreements to govern both consumption patterns and the production processes leading to food production.

This new understanding of the importance of promoting an efficient and balanced development of domestic and global food systems is mobilizing humanity to take actions that will make it possible to address existing and future problems. An expression of such concerns was the UN Food Systems Summit in late 2021 and the set of related activities that this significant meeting has brought about.

This document seeks to contribute to this process of analysis and conceptual development of possible international agreements and the necessary technical and political actions.

The international discussion on this issue is largely taking place following a systems approach framework. Such approach allows to analyze and conceptualize the multiple interrelations existing among the various components of the food system, but overlooks the existence of the market, with its rules and institutions, making economic analysis — including the impact of public policies — difficult.

This book addresses the problem from a simpler, linear perspective, with institutional dimensions and the definition of public policies as the main analytic elements.

The book consists of five chapters, in addition to this introduction. Chapter I presents a characterization of the evolution and current state of the global food system. Such characterization includes both the identification of its constituent economic processes, economic players and production chains, and the economic and social trends that determine its on-going evolution.

Chapter II addresses the evolution of the most widespread diets in the world and argues that the decision on what to consume is an individual right that must be respected. On the basis of this conception, the chapter presents the main issues for discussion and analysis in connection with the adaptation of diets to the biological needs of human beings, as well as with the needs that arise from the dual goals of preserving nature and improving consumer’s health.

Chapter III has a normative perspective. It describes and assesses five dimensions/attributes that must be considered in the construction of an efficient and balanced food system. It also describes the key items of each attribute and their trade-offs when seeking to optimize each one of them independently. The chapter proposes as well various alternatives for actions that may lead to appropriate and balanced situations in each dimension.

Chapter IV focuses on a description of agriculture production in Latin America and its institutional framework. It begins by acknowledging the importance of agriculture in the region as a key component of the regional food system and an extremely relevant element for its economic growth and international trade. The chapter reviews the existing institutional organization in the countries of the region, assessing the participation of such structures in the operation of domestic food systems and their development. Taking such analysis as a starting point, four alternative proposals for institutional reform are described, aimed at improving the Latin American public sector’s capacity to produce harmonious domestic food systems.

Finally, Chapter V describes the current institutional mechanisms that govern the global food system and their ability to have an impact. This assessment leads to three suggestions for the construction of a new institutional framework that could improve governance and foster an efficient and balanced development of the global food system.