The Role of Alternative Crops in an Upcoming Global Food Crisis: A Concise Review

Abstract

Achieving Food Security (FS) is perhaps our most challenging aspiration. Despite our best efforts, millions of people around the globe are malnourished or live with hunger. The state of the geo-political scene, as well as the COVID-19 pandemic, have recently brought forth fears of a Global Food Crisis (GFC). Here, we present the factors that threaten FS and could trigger a GFC, examine the potential of alternative crops (ACs) as a measure against an upcoming GFC, and highlight the key aspects of the ACs introduction process in new regions. ACs could enhance FS, yet their success is premised on the adoption of sustainable practices and the implementation of food strategies that aim to promote healthy consumer behaviours.

Keywords: Food Security; Global Food Crisis; Sustainable Development Goals; alternative crops.

Figure 1

The share of Ukraine, the Russian Federation, and the rest of the world in the global exports of sunflower-seed or oil (crude) on the top, and wheat on the bottom, during 2021. Data obtained from the official website of the Observatory of Economic Complexity (OEC) (https://oec.world/en) (accessed on 14 October 2022).

Figure 2

Highlights of the three stages of introducing ACs. All the actors (yellow color) of the ACs value chain and their key interactions are briefly depicted in the figure. The actions and interactions of each stage are depicted with different colors (white, blue, and green). As the three stages are not necessarily successive, actions and interactions of the actors from different stages could be simultaneous.

Figure 3

ACs and the SDGs set by the UN. Each SDG is depicted with a different color and is attributed its corresponding number. The contribution of ACs to the SDGs is depicted in the center of the figure next to the corresponding number of each SDG.