[en] Food systems and food supply chains (FSCs) have undergone significant changes in their operations and structure over the last decade as globalization expands both food choice and availability. As FSCs lengthen, and food passes through extended trading relationships, transparency on food origins, methods of cultivation, harvest, processing as well as labor conditions and sustainability is reduced, along with food trust. Moreover, while the rapid pace of technology innovation benefits FSCs, we are witness to the usage of social media platforms by citizen-consumers to amplify the rhetoric related to recurring incidents and crises in food quality, food safety, food fraud, food security, sustainability, and other ethical lapses. Furthermore, we are witness to new evidence on the global burden of foodborne diseases, including non-communicable diseases that range from severe malnutrition to morbid obesity and from severe illnesses requiring hospitalization to mortality. The World Health Organization claims that thirty-one foodborne hazards cause six-hundred million illnesses and four-hundred and twenty thousand deaths annually. Overcoming these challenges requires a holistic reframing of our food systems and societal challenges. The emergence of the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) provides an overarching framework for collaboration and alignment. Japan has put forward a vision for a human-centric, technology-enabled future branded as "Society 5.0". Increasingly, the redesign of FSCs necessitates a concerted, multi-stakeholder effort and the development of digitization strategies in order to cope with the evolution toward the vision of Society 5.0 and to achieve the UN SDGs.
Researchers ; Professionals ; Students ; General public ; Others
[University of Reading]
