Summary
This systematic review examines the fragmentation in how sustainability and resilience are defined and measured across global food systems literature, revealing substantial divergence in conceptualisations and methodologies. The authors synthesise existing metrics and evaluation approaches, demonstrating that a unified assessment framework is lacking and that context-specific, stakeholder-informed approaches are needed. The review identifies Life Cycle Assessment and the Food-Energy-Water Nexus as particularly promising methodologies for addressing the gap between definitions and practical implementation.
Regional applicability
Whilst the review is global in scope and does not focus specifically on United Kingdom conditions, its findings on the need for stakeholder-engaged, context-specific metrics are directly applicable to UK food policy and practice. The proposed methodologies (LCA and FEWN) are increasingly relevant to UK sustainability reporting and agricultural policy frameworks.
Key measures
Definitions and conceptualisations of food systems sustainability and resilience; evaluation methodologies; metrics used across regions and scales; characteristics of case studies implementing quantification approaches; Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and Food-Energy-Water Nexus (FEWN) frameworks
Outcomes reported
The study systematically analysed alignment of definitions, evaluation methods, and existing metrics for sustainability and resilience across food systems literature, examining the diversity of approaches across regions and scales. The analysis identified a lack of consensus in defining these concepts and proposed Life Cycle Assessment and the Food-Energy-Water Nexus as promising methodologies for comprehensive evaluation.
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