COVID-19 and the crisis in food systems: Symptoms, causes, and potential solutions

How are food system actors responding to COVID-19? The outlines of a new system, and the stranglehold of the old one While the current circumstances are exceptional, the vulnerability of food systems to climate and disease-related disruptions was clear long before the COVID-19 crisis. [...] From widespread donation of food to the destitute in India and Pakistan, to the provision of mobile meals to disadvantaged populations in the US and Canada, communities have come together to plug gaps in the system and help those in need. [...] The way forward As the COVID-19 crisis unfolds, the challenge is to turn the existing seeds of change into the foundations of a new food system, and to call out the short-sightedness of business- as-usual solutions that seek to use the crisis to advance their own interests. [...] For now, the short-term priority remains to protect the key sales outlet of informal markets, and to support existing small and medium-sized food enterprises, in order to avoid the rapid concentration of processing and retail that has occurred in the wake of previous disease outbreaks. [...] Reforming international food systems governance The current crisis opens up an opportunity to complete the global governance reforms initiated in the wake of the 2007-2008 food price crisis, and to put in place the tools to accelerate food system transformation.