A new report led by researchers at the University of Oxford’s Environmental Change Institute (ECI) has mapped the sustainability of the food system across the island of Ireland, bringing together evidence on agriculture, health, the environment and the economy to identify where the system is performing well and where there are pressures for change.
The mapping reveals a food system of contrasts: the agri-food sector is a major economic success, but also contributes to significant environmental and health pressures. Food and drink exports are worth €18.1 billion in the Republic of Ireland and £5.1 billion in Northern Ireland. At the same time, agriculture accounts for around 38% of greenhouse gas emissions in the Republic of Ireland and 31% in Northern Ireland, while around two-thirds of adults across the island of Ireland are overweight or obese.
While these statistics are not new, bringing them together provides a different way of understanding the food system. Evidence is often collected and considered separately by different sectors, disciplines and organisations. By mapping it together, the report shows how issues such as agricultural emissions, diets, health, food access and economic activity are interconnected – and how action in one part of the food system will have consequences elsewhere.
Rather than aiming to compare the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, the mapping looks at the food system across the island as a whole. Its purpose is to provide a clearer picture of the current state of the system and a starting point for identifying priorities for research, policy and action, as well as tracking how the food system changes over time.
A systems approach to food sustainability
The mapping was developed through the Co-Centre for Sustainable Food Systems, a research collaboration bringing together researchers and partners across Ireland and the United Kingdom.
ECI researcher Dr Alice Gilmour, Food System Analysis Researcher with the ECI’s Food Systems Transformation Group, led the drafting and production of the report. Her work included identifying and collating data sources, analysing and interpreting the evidence, and synthesising the findings, applying the Food Co-Centre’s Conceptual Framework and Sustainability Compass, both developed by ECI researchers as part of the Co-Centre’s work to support more joined-up thinking about food system decisions.
Dr John Ingram was the project’s Principal Investigator, with Dr Monika Zurek as Co-Investigator. Dr Jing Zhang supported the initial stage of data collation.
Dr Gilmour said: “The exercise of mapping the food system across the island of Ireland was fascinating. It was great to use the two systems thinking tools I had developed through work with the Co-Centre, trying to quantify all the words and phrases across both jurisdictions. The work highlighted where there are data gaps and shows where there are ‘issues’ in the current food systems sustainability.”
Following meetings with key organisations, the work received positive feedback from officials in both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. They found the report impressive, well presented and valuable as the mapping exercise quantified the food system at a particular point in time. The scale of the exercise was described as pioneering and officials suggested that a similar approach could be valuable in other countries.
The project demonstrates how a systems approach can help move beyond looking at individual food system problems and towards understanding the relationships between them. By bringing existing evidence into a common framework, the mapping can help researchers, policymakers and other stakeholders identify where interventions could have wider effects across the food system.
Read the full report: Mapping the Food System across the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland