In the heart of Santiago, Chile, a groundbreaking framework is emerging to tackle one of the most pressing challenges of our time: climate change and its impact on our food systems. Led by Marco Billi from the Department of Rural Management and Innovation at the University of Chile, this innovative approach aims to integrate sustainability and resilience into agrifood systems, offering a beacon of hope for a more secure and sustainable future.
The urgency to adapt our agrifood systems to climate change is no longer a distant concern; it’s a present reality. As greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise, so does the need for innovative, ecologically sustainable, and resilient adaptation measures. This is where the concept of Sustainable Agrifood Transitions (SAT) comes into play. SATs represent a shift towards more sustainable and climate-resilient agrifood systems, but until now, there’s been a lack of an integrated, territorialized analytical framework to assess their potential.
Enter Marco Billi and his team, who have proposed a multidimensional framework that offers a robust, systemic, and context-sensitive observation of SATs. This framework, published in the Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems, articulates around four complementary analytical lenses: risk, resilience, sociotechnical transitions, and socio-technical imaginaries. Each lens provides a unique perspective on SATs, from the need for adaptation to the opportunities and barriers for their adoption.
The ‘risk’ lens, for instance, addresses the potential need for adaptation. As Billi puts it, “We need to understand why SATs are necessary. What are the risks that our current agrifood systems are facing due to climate change?” The ‘resilience’ lens, on the other hand, focuses on how SATs can reduce these risks and promote food security.
The sociotechnical transitions lens looks at the practical aspects of SATs. It explores the opportunities and barriers for the adoption and scaling up of these practices. This is where the energy sector comes into play. The transition to more sustainable agrifood systems will require significant energy inputs, from powering agricultural machinery to processing and transporting food. As such, the energy sector has a crucial role to play in supporting SATs.
Lastly, the socio-technical imaginaries lens sheds light on the perceptions, expectations, and visions behind SATs. It’s about understanding what people envision for the future of our agrifood systems and how these visions can drive change.
To illustrate this framework, Billi and his team have applied these observation lenses to the Metropolitan Region of Santiago de Chile. This exploratory approach has allowed them to generate initial hypotheses about the territory under study, favoring a more holistic and systemic view of food security.
So, what does this mean for the future of our agrifood systems? This research offers a promising path forward. By providing a comprehensive, multidimensional framework for assessing SATs, it can help stakeholders—from policymakers to energy providers—make informed decisions about how to adapt our agrifood systems to climate change. It’s a call to action, a roadmap for a more sustainable and resilient future.
As we stand on the precipice of a climate-changed world, this research offers a glimmer of hope. It’s a testament to the power of innovation and the importance of a systemic, multidimensional approach to tackling our most pressing challenges. And as the energy sector continues to evolve, its role in supporting SATs will be more important than ever. The future of our food systems depends on it.