A research framework to investigate food systems at a national scale

Summary

This article aims to advance understandings of food systems functioning at a national level and explore ways for its transformation towards sustainability and social justice. Integrating food regime theory from political economy with social metabolism from ecological economics, and surplus/reproduction from feminist economics, we develop a novel research framework which combines six dimensions—food systems governance, monetary agrifood chain, socio-metabolic agrifood chain, surplus/reproduction, socioecological impacts, and conflicts & levers of change—encompassing 34 elements linked through six key connections. The research framework highlights the role of cheap food for the social reproduction of the labouring population in capitalism. Since national states play important roles in maintaining food regimes, we conducted a critical literature review through which we identified the main contributions and limitations of studies of food regimes at the national level aimed at foreseeing exit ways beyond the current corporate food regime. This regime is one of the main drives of the overcoming of planetary boundaries. An agroecological transition and food system change is needed to address this socio-ecological crisis, and this requires new food polices at a national level as well. This is why we consider it essential to integrate social metabolism with the approaches of food regimes and surplus/reproduction.