Food System Scenarios: Exploring Global / Local Linkages

This working paper by the Stockholm Environment Institute explores the development of an integrated scenario approach for food systems, aiming to link local livelihood dimensions with national and global stressors, particularly in the context of food security and climate change.

• The authors identify four primary challenges for improving the framing and use of scenarios: the need for global scenarios to include environmental sensitivity, socioeconomic vulnerability, and adaptive capacity; the requirement for a consistent multi-scale treatment of vulnerability from the household to the global level; the need to link global and local scales through livelihood systems at the intermediate scale; and the necessity of matching stakeholder participation methods to the level of analysis.
• The paper argues that many existing global food system scenarios are too specialized, such as those focused on market prices, and fail to capture the various dimensions of food insecurity. Specifically, the IPCC’s SRES scenarios are cited as inadequate for understanding climate vulnerability because they project per capita GDP in developing countries to reach current OECD levels by the time climate impacts become significant.

APA

T.E., D., & G., Z. (2009). Food System Scenarios: Exploring Global / Local Linkages. Stockholm Environment Institute. https://www.sei.org/publications/food-system-scenarios-exploring-global-local-linkages/

Chicago

T.E., Downing,, and Ziervogel, G. Food System Scenarios: Exploring Global / Local Linkages. Stockholm Environment Institute, 2009. https://www.sei.org/publications/food-system-scenarios-exploring-global-local-linkages/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=T.E. |first1=Downing, |last2=G. |first2=Ziervogel, |title=Food System Scenarios: Exploring Global / Local Linkages |publisher=Stockholm Environment Institute |date=10 June 2009 |url=https://www.sei.org/publications/food-system-scenarios-exploring-global-local-linkages/ |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{te2009food, author = {T.E., Downing, and G., Ziervogel,}, title = {{Food System Scenarios: Exploring Global / Local Linkages}}, institution = {Stockholm Environment Institute}, year = {2009}, month = jun, url = {https://www.sei.org/publications/food-system-scenarios-exploring-global-local-linkages/}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }