Food System Scenarios: Exploring Global / Local Linkages

The paper argues for a multi-scale scenario methodology that integrates local livelihood dimensions with global stressors to better understand food insecurity and climate vulnerability. It identifies four key challenges: the need for global scenarios to include socioeconomic vulnerability and adaptive capacity, the requirement for consistent treatment of vulnerability across scales (household to world), the integration of livelihood analysis into long-term food security scenarios, and the necessity of participatory stakeholder processes.

• Current global food system scenarios often fail to adequately frame the multiple dimensions of food insecurity; for example, the IPCC's SRES scenarios, designed to bracket greenhouse gas emissions, are insufficient 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.
• Vulnerability is a multi-scale phenomenon requiring a consistent treatment from the household level up to the global level, focusing on processes and pathways rather than simple parameter downscaling or aggregation.
• There is a gap in long-term food security scenarios regarding the explicit inclusion of livelihood analysis, despite the prevalence of livelihood analysis in general development planning.

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} }