Agri-food systems as energy systems: An innovation for new insights on transformation to sustainability

Agri-food systems, indispensable but flawed institutions of the modern world, have partially accomplished their primary purpose, but in many cases, fail to reach all people. Moreover, associated environmental damages threaten future production. Climate change produces the most serious threats. Scientists have built different definitions and diagrams to guide research. Each emphasizes important points, but none have included everything. This paper offers a new diagram and definition based on displaying agri-food systems as an energy system. Agriculture is the source of biomass, one of the nine primary energy sources. With refining and processing, harvested products become food and feed, the sources of metabolic energy and nutrients. Together with other energy sources, especially fossil fuels, food and feed support the production of material wealth. Decision makers constantly direct streams of investments into perpetual production of agricultural biomass. The diagram shows that this agri-food system produces climate change, and the system is also a victim of climate change. This new perspective of agrifood systems as energy systems cannot show all components of the system, but it suggests new lines of innovation to mitigate the weaknesses of these systems.