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Food system characteristic |
Potential links to vulnerability in the food system |
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Heavy reliance on external or distant resources |
Hard for consumers to react to production problems; more potential for weak
links in the commodity chain |
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Low diversity in assets or entitlements |
Consumers have few options if regular food security entitlements fail;
agricultural production is more susceptible to degradation or disturbance;
the diversity of assets upon which to draw is critical to social adaptive capacity
and ecological resilience |
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Inequity in either access to resources and/or the ability to take action to
use or increase them |
Inequity is a sign of social vulnerability |
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Institutional weaknesses and low institutional capacity |
Institutional capacity is critical to management for both social and
environmental outcomes; weak institutions result in poor management |
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Inflexible policy |
Adaptation in complex systems requires flexible management |
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Lack of functioning markets and low levels of economic activity |
Markets play a key role in food systems and ensure that demand meets
supply; low levels of economic activity constrain access to food |
|
Highly specialized production, supply, and marketing chains |
Highly specialized chains have low diversity, which is a key component for
buffering against shocks such as production failures |
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Ignoring slow variables and only responding to fast triggers |
Ecological resilience depends on slow variables |
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Cross-scale interactions, including subsidies, that are poorly understood
and lead to uncertainty and surprise |
Surprises usually lead to crises; uncertainty can paralyze
decisions |
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Insufficient recovery from previous shocks that have reduced the adaptive
capacity |
When the adaptive capacity is eroded, vulnerability is increased and resilience
is lost when a shock or surprise overwhelms the system |