Innovative Agri-food Systems

Since the late 20th century, the agricultural, processing and distribution sectors have been facing numerous new challenges, such as climate change, food security, and environmental sustainability. In both the Global North and South, the entire value chain of food systems and stakeholders of agricultural and agri-food sectors are seeking to respond to these issues: consumers, citizens, firms, farmers and policy makers. The process of innovation itself has to change so as to reorganize and redefine the agri-food system as a whole. While the need to change the conventional agri-food systems is becoming almost unanimous, the modification of existing practices and the introduction of new farming systems and new forms of distribution are indeed disrupting the existing productive patterns, and thus are often blocked. The authors of this issue of the Journal of Innovation Economics & Management discuss the challenges facing the agri-food sector, the options that are opening up and the ways in which the multiple problems can be solved through... innovation.