Sustainability and food and nutrition security: An indicator-based vulnerability and resilience approach for the Mediterranean Region

Abstract

Recurrent food crises and global change are critical issues that pushed food security and environmental sustainability to the top of the political agenda. Using the lens of a broad sustainability approach and recognizing the systemic dimension of sustainability, the thesis developed a multidimensional framework to identify metrics for assessing the sustainability of food systems and diets. Building on the theories of vulnerability and resilience, the Mediterranean Region presents a set of socioeconomic and biophysical drivers of change affecting the sustainability of the food system in its main functions providing food and nutrition security. Formalizing the food system as a dynamic complex system, several causal models of vulnerability were identified, describing the interactions where drivers of change directly affect food and nutrition security outcomes, disentangling exposure, sensitivity, and resilience. This theoretical approach was operationalized through the identification of a first suite of indicators. A reduced pool of metrics was then obtained through an expert-based Delphi survey, moving beyond subjective evaluation and reaching consensus.