IKnowFood working definition of food system resilience:

Food system resilience is the ability of the system over time to learn, adapt and transform to cope at multiple levels with external and internal stresses and shocks in order to provide supplies of food that are economically, environmentally and nutritionally sustainable.

IKnowFood 2017

IKnowFood is a brand new four year project led by Professor Bob Doherty (The York Management School and the York Environmental Sustainability Institute YESI) with collaborators from across the University of York and the Universities of Liverpool and Manchester. The project is funded by the Global Food Security Programme.

Systems of food production, trade and consumption are increasingly vulnerable to interconnected political, economic and ecological shocks and stresses associated with climate and environmental changes, shifts in farming practices, uneven power dynamics and consumer lifestyle changes.

IKnowFood will take an interdisciplinary multi-stakeholder approach to developing a unifying understanding of ‘food system resilience’ using tools and methods to integrate the knowledge and perspectives of hitherto disparate food system actors.

Through integrating knowledge from both sciences and social sciences the aim of the project is to remove the significant disconnects between various actors in the global food system and enhance overall food system resilience. Our aim is to produce new datasets, information resources, appropriate technology tools for farmers, decision making tools for business and consumer mobile technologies all working to minimise trade-offs and secure complementarities.

The UN expects global demand for food to increase by 60 % by 2050, driven largely by population growth and changing dietary patterns among the burgeoning middle class in China, India and other large developing countries. At the same time, food production is under severe pressure from a variety of different sources, including climate change, extreme weather, water depletion, soil degradation, resource conflict and political instability. These pressures are seen in the growing incidence of food insecurity in both developing and developed countries, which in many cases has gone hand in hand with escalating problems of obesity, nutritional deficiency and diet-related health problems.

Watch how fast the world became obese. Image: Metrocosm.com

Against this background, IKnowFood aims to deepen our understanding of how to build resilience in the food systems by creating positive social and environmental change. IKnowFood is funded by the Global Food Security programme and led by the University of York, in partnership with the Universities of Manchester and Liverpool. The research team will work collaboratively to understand the obstacles to food system resilience and to develop practical tools to enable farmers, processors, manufacturers, retailers and consumers to better respond to increasing stresses and risks. Food system resilience is the ability of the system over time to learn, adapt and transform to cope at multiple levels with external and internal stresses and shocks in order to provide supplies of food that are economically, environmentally and nutritionally sustainable. We aim to work in partnership with the UK food industry, policy makers and consumers to promote resilience for all.