Food Systems based on Life Cycle Assessment

Abstract

The food system is a complex social system. At present, international studies on food security evaluation indicators are mainly at the level of quantitative security, and even after including quality security, ecological and market security, they are only analyzed at the national macro level, and cannot be compared with other major international food producing and consuming countries. Therefore, the construction of a complete food system model is of great practical research interest. We establish the current food system with efficiency and profitability as priorities. Considering that food cannot be completely separated from other agricultural production, and that defining strict geographical areas is also its difficult, we selected three-level indicators around the boundaries of the food system, such as factors such as import and export of agricultural products, based on the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) analysis method. Regarding the optimization of the food system with the priority of equity and sustainability, we select two developed countries, the United Kingdom and the United States, and two developing countries, China and India.