Wool balls and strings

The term food value chain is largely obsolete now…for good reason! Why? 

 

First, because, in the circular economy paradigm that the World is sifting to, it’s not even a ‘chain’, its not linear, it does not have a beginning, nor an end.   

 

And second, because the ‘value’ added, and the costs incurred, are not only happening in the chain itself; they also take place in the context around the ‘chain’: The environmental, social, political dimensions matter immensely, and they can be easily missed if we see it as an ‘string’. In real life, it’s more like a wool ball of interactions, or, in fact, a complex system where what happens around (e.g policy making, ecosystems’ impacts...) matters as much as what happens in the ‘chain’ itself. In traditional value chain logic those aspects were considered ‘externalities. In the food systems paradigm, they are mot external...they are part of the system, so the risk of overseeing them is much lower. 

 

The global community has already swift to a food systems logic, and CARE has been a very proactive player in that process (UNFSS). 

 

So please, the next time you want to describe the interactions from supply to market in the agri-food sector, consider thinking in terms of food systems, and not in terms of mere value chains. 

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Graphic/Food systems map that shows how multiple subsystems interact (Source: adapted from the Nourish initiative)