An editorial published in Nature Food in November 2020 emphasized the importance of systems thinking in tackling the multidimensional problems in the food system. Research methods and frameworks provide the perspectives when analyzing a problem, and the way they are constructed or applied determine the scope of the solutions that can be explored. Therefore, the risks of disengagement from systems thinking should not be underestimated.

At JIRCAS, the ‘Food and Nutritional Balance Project’ aims to evaluate the current status and to develop a foresight model of global supply demand and nutritional balance. One of the achievements of this project is the development of the Economic Model for Evaluation of Climate Change in the Long-run for International Agriculture (EMELIA), which provides a platform for trend analyses of supply of nutrition elements and economic evaluations of new agricultural technologies such as dissemination of high- temperature tolerant varieties of crops in economically developing countries under climate change. 

References

Systems thinking, systems doing. Nat Food 1, 659 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43016-020-00190-9

Furuya J (2020) Development of an Economic Model for Evaluation of Climate Change in the Long-run for International Agriculture: EMELIA JIRCAS Working Report No.89 https://www.jircas.go.jp/sites/default/files/publication/jircas_working…

Contributor: IIYAMA Miyuki (Research Strategy Office)