Relying on local food is a distant dream for most of world

A recent study by the Aalto University showed that less than one-third of the world's population could currently meet their demand for food produced in their local vicinity, said a press release.

Globalisation has revolutionised food production and consumption in recent decades and cultivation has become more efficient, and as a result, many people’s diets have diversified and food availability has increased in various parts of the globe.

However, it has also led to a situation where the majority of the world population live in countries that are dependent on, at least partially, imported food. This can intensify vulnerabilities during any kind of global crisis, such as the current COVID-19 pandemic, as global food supply chains are disrupted.

‘There are big differences between different areas and the local foliage. For example, in Europe and North America, temperate crops, such as wheat, can be obtained mostly within a radius of 500 kilometres. In comparison, the global average is about 3,800 kilometres,’ Aalto University dissertation researcher Pekka Kinnunen said.

The recent study, published in Nature Food and led by Kinnunen, modelled the minimum distance between from crop production to consumption that humans around the world would need to be able to meet their food demand.

The study was conducted in collaboration with the University of Columbia, the University of California, the Australian National University and the University of Göttningen.

It was shown that 27% of the world’s population could get their temperate cereal grains within a radius of fewer than 100 kilometres. The share was 22% for tropical cereals, 28% for rice and 27% for pulses. In the case of maize and tropical roots, the proportion was only 11-16%, which Kinnunen said displays the difficulty of relying solely on local resources.

‘We defined foodsheds as areas within which food production could be self-sufficient. In addition to food production and demand, food fences describe the impact of transport infrastructure on where food could be obtained’, Kinnunen said.

The study also showed that foodsheds are mostly relatively compact areas for individual crops. When crops are looked at as a whole, foodsheds formed larger areas, spanning the globe. This indicates that the diversity of our current diets creates global, complex dependencies.

According to Associate professor Matti Kummu, who was also involved in the study, the results clearly show that local production alone cannot meet the demand for food; at least not with current production methods and consumption habits.

‘The ongoing COVID-19 epidemic emphasises the importance of self-sufficiency and local food production. It would be important also to assess the risks that dependence on imported agricultural inputs such as animal feed proteins, fertilisers and energy, might cause’, said Kummu.