A Resilient and Sustainable Food Supply. The Coronavirus Crisis and Other Challenges

The coronavirus crisis and its impacts have severely tested the structures and resilience of food supply systems around the world. Thanks to its combination of regional and global value chains, Germany’s food supply is proving to be largely resilient, despite some problems at the start of the first wave in March and April caused by factors such as restrictions on entry to the country. Internationally, the economic crisis triggered by the coronavirus pandemic is having a particularly serious impact on access to food.

The mostly short-term effects of the coronavirus pandemic provide an opportunity to reflect on the future of our food supply. Agriculture in particular faces a number of major long-term challenges due to the effects of phenomena such as climate change and biodiversity loss. In order to meet these challenges and ensure that our food supply has the necessary resilience, we must develop solutions that guarantee future productivity while also improving the food industry’s compatibility with sustainability goals. This IMPULSE examines different agricultural, technological and social priority areas that can play their part in achieving this objective.