Concentration and Crises: Exploring the Deep Roots of Vulnerability in the Global Industrial Food Systems

The world is in the grips of a multi-dimensional food crisis. The effects of the war in Ukraine, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the climate emergency are wreaking havoc on global food supply chains and contributing to rising world hunger.

This talk outlines some of the key features of the global food system that makes it prone to crises in the face of shocks, identifying concentration as a common thread at multiple scales of the system. It draws lessons from the origins of this multi-level concentration to inform the current food systems transformation agenda.

Dr. Clapp is a renowned expert on the intersection of the global economy, food security and food systems, and the natural environment. She is Vice Chair of the Steering Committee of the High Level Panel of Experts on Food Security and Nutrition of the UN Committee on World Food Security, a member of the International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems (IPES-Food), a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Global Food Security and Sustainability and Professor at the University of Waterloo, a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, author of five books, and recipient of numerous awards for her thoughtful analysis of the global food system.