Sustainable food systems with ICT?

• The food system is burdened by many and severe negative environmental and social impacts. Two of the reasons for the impacts are the increasing scale and globalisation of the food system. ICT has been put forward as a means to enhance sustainability in society, yet the potential for food systems is underexplored. In this paper we review ICT solutions for improved sustainability of food systems, which are used in practice or are discussed as potential solutions. The aim is to identify ICT solutions that can potentially enhance sustainability in the food system. We review mostly scientific literature. The ICT solutions are categorized according to four main purposes of the approach, to 1) efficiency through monitoring and assessment of environmental impact, 2) enhance transparency and traceability in the food system, 3) creating network between actors in the food chains, 4)influence and change food practices. We conclude that there is no coherent research field covering ICT in food systems. The papers reviewed are scattered over several disciplines and scientific journals. We also conclude that there is a predominance of research on monitoring of food production and ransparency and traceability in the food chain. More research is needed that take on holistic approaches and include several parts of the food system.Furthermore, we would also like to see more research onwhat sustainable food systems could be like and how ICT couldsupport and perhaps sometimes hinder such developments.

Subject headings

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Medie- och kommunikationsvetenskap -- Mänsklig interaktion med IKT (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Media and Communications -- Human Aspects of ICT (hsv//eng)

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Annan samhällsvetenskap (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Other Social Sciences (hsv//eng)

Keyword

ICT4S

ICT

food

agriculture

sustainability

Media Technology

Medieteknik

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

kon (subject category)