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Abstract
The food system involves all actors, activities, resources, and environments that produce and provide
food to people wherever they are. It serves basic human needs and is as such of core relevance for
human survival.
It is global in production, consumption, and environmental impacts. But it is also deeply rooted in the
social, cultural, natural, political, and legal environments of society. It needs to serve a diversity of
consumer needs and lifestyles and has to cope with an organizational complexity where, a.o. small
scale farms or enterprises interact with globally active industry or retail groups and where rural sites
of production are remote from the urban and ever growing centers of consumption.