Agrifood systems

Agrifood systems encompass the primary production of food and non-food agricultural products, as well as in food storage, aggregation, post-harvest handling, transportation, processing, distribution, marketing, disposal and consumption.^[1][2] Within agrifood systems, food systems comprise all food products that originate from crop and livestock production, forestry, fisheries and aquaculture, and from other sources such as synthetic biology, and that are intended for human consumption.^[1][2]

Agrifood systems have three main components:

1. primary production, which includes food from agricultural and non-agricultural origins, as well as non-food agricultural products that serve as inputs to other industries;^[1][2]
2. food distribution that links production to consumption through food supply chains and domestic food transport networks.^[1][2] Food supply chains include all actors and activities involved in post-harvest handling, storage, aggregation, transport, processing, distribution and marketing of food;^[2][1] and
3. household consumption, which is the downstream outcome of functioning agrifood systems, subject to varying degrees of demand shocks, such as loss of income, depending on the proportion of vulnerable groups in the population.^[1][2] The higher this proportion, the more difficult it is to protect food security and nutrition from shocks.^[1][2]

The world's agrifood systems comprise a gargantuan global enterprise that each year produces approximately 11 billion tonnes of food^[3] and a multitude of non-food products, including 32 million tonnes of natural fibres^[4] and 4 billion m³ of wood. The estimated gross value of agricultural output in 2018 was US$3.5 trillion.^[5] Primary production alone provides about one-quarter of all employment globally, more than half in sub-Saharan Africa and almost 60 percent in low-income countries.^[6] Including middle and downstream segments – from food storage and processing to transportation, retailing and consumption – agrifood systems are the backbone of many economies. Even in the European Union, the food and beverage industry employs more people than any other manufacturing sector.^[7]