Impacts of COVID-19 on food security and food system sustainability

The COVID-19 pandemic has taken a heavy toll on the population and economies. It also undermined food security and food system sustainability. In this context, this review paper analyses the outbreak impacts on the different dimensions of food security (viz. availability, access, utilisation, stability) and food system sustainability (viz. environmental, economic, social), and explores possible solutions to mitigate its negative consequences. The pandemic has affected food security both directly, leading to a decrease in food production and availability, and indirectly, as lockdown, social distancing, movement restrictions and other containment measures taken by local and national governments have undermined people's ability, especially the most vulnerable, to access food (cf. food prices) and to have a healthy and diverse diet (cf. food utilisation). The impacts of COVID-19 on the stability dimension of food security will depend on the duration of the emergency. Furthermore, the outbreak had severe consequences on the overall sustainability of the food systems (cf. production, processing, distribution, consumption);disruptions of food systems caused by COVID-19 affect not only the food system functioning but also its performance and sustainability. However, food-related impacts of the pandemic vary not only from a country to another - depending, among others, on the epidemiological situation - but also among socio-economic groups. Indeed, it seems that COVID-19 is particularly affecting developing countries, whose food systems were already under strain, and poor and vulnerable households, which already suffered from food insecurity and malnutrition. Of particular concern are the impacts on children, women and indigenous communities. The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the unsustainability of the current food systems. Therefore, recovery plans should include actions to foster transition towards a sustainable and resilient food system. Only a sustainable system could withstand severe shocks such as COVID-19 and ensure food security under similar stressful conditions.