Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2022 Aug 12;22(1):1539.
doi: 10.1186/s12889-022-13987-z.

Consumer-driven strategies towards a resilient and sustainable food system following the COVID-19 pandemic in Australia

Katherine Kent  1   2 , Fred Gale  3 , Beth Penrose  4 , Stuart Auckland  5 , Elizabeth Lester  6 , Sandra Murray  7
Affiliations

Consumer-driven strategies towards a resilient and sustainable food system following the COVID-19 pandemic in Australia

Katherine Kent et al. BMC Public Health. .

Abstract

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic and associated public health restrictions temporarily disrupted food supply chains around the world and changed the way people shopped for food, highlighting issues with food systems resilience and sustainability. The aim of this study was to explore consumer-driven strategies towards a more resilient and sustainable food system in Australia, learning from experiences during the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods: During May-June 2020, a cross-sectional, online survey was conducted in Tasmania, Australia in a non-random sample of adults aged 18 years and over. The survey collected demographic data and posted the open-ended question: "How could Tasmania's food system be better prepared for a disaster in the future?" Descriptive statistics were used to analyse the demographic data and thematic analysis was employed to analyse the qualitative data.

Results: Survey respondents (n = 698) were predominantly female (79%), over 55 years of age (48%), university educated (70%) and living with dependents (45%). Seven key themes were identified: (i) balance food exports with local needs; (ii) strengthen local food systems; (iii) increase consumer awareness of food supply chains; (iv) build collaboration and connection in the food system; (v) embed clear contingency arrangements; (vi) support community capacity building and individual self-sufficiency; and (vii) the food system coped well.

Conclusions: The consumer-driven strategies identified indicate multiple opportunities to increase resilience and sustainability in the food system to avoid future supply disruptions. Our findings indicate that considerable popular support for more resilient, local and sustainable food systems may be emerging from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Keywords: COVID-19; Community resilience; Food access; Food insecurity; Food system; Sustainability.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Six of the seven key themes identified in the thematic analysis indicate key action areas to build a resilient and sustainable food system
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Ericksen PJ. Conceptualizing food systems for global environmental change research. Glob Environ Chang. 2008;18(1):234–245. doi: 10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2007.09.002. - DOI
    1. Heller MC, Keoleian GA. Assessing the sustainability of the US food system: a life cycle perspective. Agric Syst. 2003;76(3):1007–1041. doi: 10.1016/S0308-521X(02)00027-6. - DOI
    1. Béné C, Prager SD, Achicanoy HAE, et al. Global map and indicators of food system sustainability. Sci Data. 2019;6:279. doi: 10.1038/s41597-019-0301-5. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Crippa M, Solazzo E, Guizzardi D, et al. Food systems are responsible for a third of global anthropogenic GHG emissions. Nature Food. 2021;2:198–209. doi: 10.1038/s43016-021-00225-9. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Willett W, Rockström J, Loken B, et al. Food in the Anthropocene: the EAT–Lancet Commission on healthy diets from sustainable food systems. The Lancet (British edition) 2019;393:447–492. - PubMed

Publication types