Report on Barriers to Achieving Sustainable Food Systems and the Sustainable Development Goals

1.0 Introduction: The Imperative for Food System Transformation

The transformation of global food systems is a critical prerequisite for achieving the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Current food systems, while capable of supporting human health, economic prosperity, and environmental integrity, are on a trajectory that threatens these core pillars of sustainability. This misalignment poses a direct challenge to multiple Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including SDG 2 (Zero Hunger), SDG 3 (Good Health and Well-being), SDG 8 (Decent Work and Economic Growth), and SDGs 12-15, which cover responsible consumption, climate action, and biodiversity.

Transformative change is imperative but is obstructed by significant, complex, and interconnected barriers. A comprehensive understanding of these barriers is essential for designing and implementing effective policies and interventions. This report introduces an integrated, interdisciplinary framework for analyzing the obstacles that hinder the transition to sustainable food systems, thereby providing a structured approach to advancing the SDGs.

2.0 Foundational Concepts for Analysis

2.1 Defining Food System Sustainability in the Context of the SDGs

A consensus on a single definition of sustainability remains elusive. This report adopts a holistic definition aligned with the principles of the Sustainable Development Goals. A sustainable food system is one that:

• Protects the environment (SDGs 13, 14, 15): Avoids harm to the natural environment, mitigates climate change, and engages in regenerative and restorative activities.
• Ensures human health and equity (SDGs 2, 3, 10): Guarantees universal access to healthy and nutritious food for all.
• Promotes inclusive economies (SDGs 1, 8): Supports an equitable economy that fosters decent livelihoods and reduces poverty.

This definition moves beyond a narrow focus on economic growth to encompass the interconnected social, economic, and environmental dimensions essential for long-term global stability.

2.2 Understanding Barriers and Their Mechanisms

Barriers to sustainability are multifaceted constraints, impediments, and resisting factors that perpetuate unsustainable patterns within food systems. They manifest across social, economic, technical, and institutional domains. The persistence of these barriers is often explained by underlying mechanisms:

• Path Dependency: Historical decisions and investments create self-reinforcing cycles that make it difficult to shift to more sustainable alternatives, even if they are superior.
• Lock-in: A state where a system becomes trapped in a particular technological, institutional, or behavioral pathway, reinforced by economic, political, and social factors.
• Inertia: The tendency of a system to resist change due to established routines, norms, and structures.

These mechanisms help explain why unsustainable practices persist despite widespread recognition of the need for change to meet global sustainability targets.

3.0 A Comprehensive Framework for Analyzing Barriers to Sustainable Food Systems

This report proposes a framework that categorizes the multifaceted barriers to food system sustainability into five distinct but interconnected domains. This structure is designed to provide clarity for policymakers, researchers, and practitioners working to align food systems with the SDGs. The framework identifies 12 primary barriers organized as follows:

1. Political Economy Barriers
2. Socio-technical Barriers
3. Socio-cultural and Behavioral Barriers
4. Biophysical Barriers
5. Socio-economic Barriers

3.1 Political Economy Barriers

Political economy barriers are foundational, often shaping all other types of barriers. They relate to the interplay between economic power, political structures, and institutional performance, directly impacting the achievement of SDG 16 (Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions) and SDG 10 (Reduced Inequalities).

3.1.1 Dominance of Powerful Incumbent Actors

Concentrated economic power in the hands of a few large multinational corporations (“Big Ag” and “Big Food”) allows them to exert significant influence over food systems. This dominance is a major barrier to sustainability, as these actors often prioritize short-term financial returns over long-term social and environmental outcomes, undermining progress on SDG 2, SDG 3, and SDG 12. Their influence is exerted through:

• Instrumental Power: Lobbying, political campaign financing, and intellectual property strategies that shape regulations to favor their interests.
• Discursive Power: Shaping public narratives through marketing, knowledge production, and media influence to promote consumption patterns that benefit their business models, often at the expense of public health and environmental sustainability.

3.1.2 Deficient Institutions and Policies

The erosion of public institutions and their inability to effectively govern food systems for sustainability is a critical barrier. This deficiency, often linked to the influence of powerful corporate actors, manifests in several ways that hinder the implementation of the SDGs:

• Inaction: The failure of policymakers to address known problems, such as unhealthy food environments, due to political inertia or the influence of vested interests.
• Ineffectiveness: The implementation of policies that are poorly designed or fail to address the structural drivers of unsustainability, such as those focusing on individual behavior change without addressing the systemic factors that shape food choices.
• Fragmentation: A lack of coordination and coherence between different policies and government departments (e.g., agriculture, health, environment), leading to conflicting objectives and inefficient use of resources.
• Dilution: The weakening of effective policies over time through incremental changes or the layering of new, less robust regulations, often as a result of industry pressure.

3.2 Socio-technical Barriers

These barriers arise from the technical choices, practices, and research priorities that lock food systems into unsustainable pathways, challenging the achievement of SDG 9 (Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure) and SDG 12 (Responsible Consumption and Production).

3.2.1 Persistent Technologies and Infrastructures

Existing infrastructure and technologies, often optimized for industrial-scale, commodity-focused agriculture, create significant rigidities. Sunk costs and established routines create path dependency and lock-in effects that hinder the transition to more diversified and sustainable systems like agroecology. This includes infrastructure for producing and distributing ultra-processed foods, which contributes to poor health outcomes (SDG 3) and environmental degradation.

3.2.2 Suboptimal Research and Innovation Priorities

The global research and innovation agenda is heavily skewed towards technological, productivist solutions that align with the interests of incumbent actors. This focus perpetuates a cycle of dependency on capital-intensive inputs and neglects holistic, systems-level approaches. Key issues include:

• A disproportionate allocation of public and private funding towards a narrow range of commodity crops and input-intensive farming systems.
• Insufficient investment in transdisciplinary research on sustainable practices like agroecology and on understanding the socio-political drivers of unsustainability.
• The influence of private sector funding on research agendas, which can introduce bias and prioritize commercial returns over public goods like environmental health and nutritional security (SDG 2).

3.3 Socio-cultural and Behavioral Barriers

These barriers are rooted in societal norms, cultural values, and individual behaviors that shape food production and consumption, impacting SDG 12 and SDG 3.

1. Aversion to Change: Resistance from individuals and communities to altering established routines, lifestyles, and traditions, even when faced with the need for more sustainable practices.
2. Propensity for Unsustainable Change: The active adoption of unsustainable behaviors, such as the increasing consumption of ultra-processed foods and animal-sourced proteins, driven by factors like rising incomes, urbanization, and the pursuit of convenience.
3. Lack of Awareness and Knowledge: A significant portion of stakeholders, from producers to consumers, may not fully grasp the health, social, or environmental implications of their choices. This is often compounded by a lack of access to reliable information and low self-efficacy, where individuals feel powerless to make a difference.

3.4 Biophysical Barriers

These barriers are environmental constraints, often resulting from past and present unsustainable human activities, which create feedback loops that make future sustainability efforts more difficult. They represent direct threats to SDG 13 (Climate Action), SDG 14 (Life Below Water), and SDG 15 (Life on Land).

• Climate Change: Rising temperatures and extreme weather events disrupt agricultural production, threaten ecosystems, and undermine food security (SDG 2), forcing producers into reactive, often unsustainable, coping strategies.
• Depletion of Natural Resources: The degradation of soil, overuse of water, and loss of biodiversity diminish the productive capacity of natural systems, creating a vicious cycle where environmental stress leads to more intensive and damaging agricultural practices.

3.5 Socio-economic Barriers

Broad socio-economic trends create pressures that drive unsustainable practices and exacerbate inequalities, challenging progress across the entire 2030 Agenda.

• Demographic Shifts: Rapid urbanization (SDG 11) and population growth increase demand for food and pressure on natural resources. Urban lifestyles often lead to dietary shifts towards more processed, resource-intensive foods.
• Globalization: While offering economic benefits, the global interconnectedness of food systems has facilitated the spread of unsustainable production models and consumption patterns, often with negative environmental and health externalities.
• Inequality (SDG 10): Socio-economic disparity is a critical barrier at both ends of the spectrum.
  • Poverty and low incomes constrain the ability of households and smallholder farmers to adopt sustainable practices, forcing a focus on short-term survival.
  • Affluence drives disproportionately high levels of consumption and larger environmental footprints, including resource-intensive diets and technologies.

4.0 Analysis and Implications for Achieving the SDGs

4.1 The Interconnected Nature of Barriers

The barriers identified in this framework do not operate in isolation. They are deeply interconnected, creating complex feedback loops that reinforce unsustainability. For example, the global rise in obesity (a failure to meet SDG 3) is not a single issue but the result of a convergence of barriers:

• Political Economy: The dominance of corporations promoting ultra-processed foods and weak institutional responses.
• Socio-economic: Urbanization and income shifts driving demand for convenience foods.
• Socio-cultural: Shifting dietary norms and a lack of nutritional awareness, often fueled by corporate marketing.
• Socio-technical: Infrastructure optimized for the production and distribution of unhealthy products.

This interconnectedness means that single-barrier, siloed interventions are destined to fail. Addressing these complex challenges requires integrated strategies that tackle multiple barriers simultaneously.

4.2 The Primacy of Political Economy Barriers

While all barriers are significant, this report posits that political economy barriers are foundational. The concentration of corporate power and the deficiencies of public institutions (challenges to SDG 16 and SDG 17) create the conditions in which other barriers thrive. Corporate influence shapes research agendas (socio-technical), consumer preferences (socio-cultural), and policy environments. Therefore, addressing the political and economic drivers of unsustainability is a critical entry point for unlocking systemic change. Achieving food system sustainability is an inherently political process that requires rebalancing power and strengthening governance to prioritize public health and environmental integrity over narrow commercial interests.

5.0 Conclusions and Recommendations for Future Action

Transforming food systems to meet the Sustainable Development Goals requires a holistic approach that acknowledges the full spectrum of interconnected barriers. The framework presented in this report offers a tool for researchers, policymakers, and practitioners to analyze these complex challenges in a structured manner.

Key conclusions include:

1. Interconnectivity is Key: Effective strategies must address the combined and interdependent nature of barriers, moving beyond single-issue solutions.
2. Political Economy is Foundational: Tackling the influence of corporate power and strengthening institutional governance (SDG 16) is paramount to creating an enabling environment for broader sustainability transitions.
3. A Systems Approach is Non-Negotiable: Progress on the SDGs depends on our ability to understand and intervene in food systems as complex, dynamic wholes.

Future research should focus on empirically validating and quantifying the relative importance of these barriers in different contexts, mapping their interdependencies, and tracking the effectiveness of integrated interventions over time. Such knowledge is essential to guide evidence-based decision-making and accelerate the transition towards food systems that are healthy, equitable, and sustainable for all.

SDGs Addressed in the Article

1. SDG 2: Zero Hunger

   • The article directly addresses the core tenets of SDG 2 by focusing on the need for food systems to “ensure universal access to healthy and nutritious food” and to achieve “food security.” It critiques current systems for failing in this regard and explores barriers to establishing “sustainable food production systems” and “resilient agricultural practices,” such as agroecology, which are central to this goal.

2. SDG 3: Good Health and Well-being

   • The connection to SDG 3 is prominent throughout the article. It highlights how current food systems pose threats to “human health” and contribute to “dietary-related diseases such as obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular diseases.” The discussion on the “increased consumption of ultra-processed food” and the failure of policies to create a “healthier food environment” directly relates to promoting well-being and preventing non-communicable diseases.

3. SDG 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth

   • The article links food systems to economic well-being, stating they should “provide livelihoods” and “support an inclusive and equitable economy that foster decent livelihoods for all.” It also touches upon the tension between “economic growth” and sustainability, a key consideration for achieving sustainable economic models as outlined in SDG 8.

4. SDG 10: Reduced Inequalities

   • Inequality is identified as a critical socio-economic barrier. The article explains how “power asymmetries,” “corporate dominance,” and “socio-economic inequality” hinder sustainability. It details how both poverty (“low-income households face significant constraints”) and affluence (“wealthier individuals and communities contribute disproportionately to unsustainability”) perpetuate unsustainable systems, directly aligning with the goal of reducing inequality within and among countries.

5. SDG 12: Responsible Consumption and Production

   • This SDG is central to the article’s theme. The text is built around analyzing barriers to “sustainable food production and consumption.” It discusses issues like the “overconsumption of meat,” the rise of “ultra-processed foods,” and the need to shift away from “input-intensive systems.” The call for changing “societal norms, cultural values, individual behaviors, and societal patterns shaping production and consumption” is a direct echo of SDG 12’s objectives.

6. SDG 13: Climate Action

   • The article explicitly identifies “climate change” as a major biophysical barrier that both results from and reinforces unsustainable food systems. It notes that food systems should avoid “contributing to climate change” and mentions the impact of human activities like “fossil fuel” use, linking the food sector’s performance directly to climate action.

7. SDG 15: Life on Land

   • The environmental dimension of food systems is a key focus, connecting directly to SDG 15. The article discusses the need to “avoid doing harm to the natural environment” and mentions specific biophysical barriers like the “depletion of natural resources” (including arable land), “loss of biodiversity,” “habitat destruction,” and “pollution of ecosystems,” all of which are critical concerns for this goal.

Specific SDG Targets Identified

1. SDG 2: Zero Hunger

   • Target 2.1: By 2030, end hunger and ensure access by all people, in particular the poor and people in vulnerable situations, including infants, to safe, nutritious and sufficient food all year round. The article directly supports this by defining a sustainable food system as one that can “ensure universal access to healthy and nutritious food” and by discussing failures to tackle “food security” and “alleviate hunger.”
   • Target 2.4: By 2030, ensure sustainable food production systems and implement resilient agricultural practices that increase productivity and production, that help maintain ecosystems, that strengthen capacity for adaptation to climate change, extreme weather, drought, flooding and other disasters and that progressively improve land and soil quality. This target is the article’s centerpiece, which analyzes barriers to “sustainable food production,” critiques “monocropping and input-intensive systems,” and advocates for alternatives like “agroecology.”

2. SDG 3: Good Health and Well-being

   • Target 3.4: By 2030, reduce by one-third premature mortality from non-communicable diseases through prevention and treatment and promote mental health and well-being. The article’s extensive discussion on the “rising rates of obesity” and other “dietary-related diseases” linked to the consumption of “ultra-processed and nutritionally poor food products” directly addresses the prevention of non-communicable diseases.

3. SDG 10: Reduced Inequalities

   • Target 10.2: By 2030, empower and promote the social, economic and political inclusion of all, irrespective of age, sex, disability, race, ethnicity, origin, religion or economic or other status. The article highlights “inequality” as a barrier, noting how “low-income households” are constrained in their food choices and smallholder farmers face “disempowerment.” It critiques “power asymmetries” and the “dominance of powerful incumbent actors,” which prevent inclusive decision-making.

4. SDG 12: Responsible Consumption and Production

   • Target 12.2: By 2030, achieve the sustainable management and efficient use of natural resources. The article’s analysis of “depletion of natural resources, such as water, minerals, and arable land” as a biophysical barrier directly relates to this target.
   • Target 12.8: By 2030, ensure that people everywhere have the relevant information and awareness for sustainable development and lifestyles in harmony with nature. This is explicitly identified in the article as a barrier, namely the “lack of awareness and knowledge,” where stakeholders “do not fully grasp the environmental impact as well as social or health implications of their actions and behaviors.”

5. SDG 13: Climate Action

   • Target 13.2: Integrate climate change measures into national policies, strategies and planning. The article points to the failure of this integration by identifying “climate change” as a key barrier and criticizing “deficient institutions and policies” for their “inaction” and “ineffectiveness” in responding to such systemic challenges.

6. SDG 15: Life on Land

   • Target 15.5: Take urgent and significant action to reduce the degradation of natural habitats, halt the loss of biodiversity and, by 2020, protect and prevent the extinction of threatened species. The article explicitly names the “loss of biodiversity” and “habitat destruction” as profound implications for sustainability, directly aligning with the aims of this target.

Indicators for Measuring Progress

1. For SDG 2 (Zero Hunger)

   • Prevalence of food insecurity: Implied in discussions about achieving “food security” and ending “hunger.”
   • Rate of adoption of sustainable agricultural practices: The article contrasts “agroecology” with “monocropping and input-intensive systems,” suggesting the adoption rate of the former is an indicator of progress.
   • Use of chemical inputs: The “intensification of chemical inputs use” and reliance on “chemical fertilizers and pesticides” are mentioned as unsustainable practices, making their reduction a key indicator.

2. For SDG 3 (Good Health and Well-being)

   • Obesity rates: The article explicitly mentions the “rising rates of obesity” as a negative outcome of the current food system.
   • Consumption of ultra-processed foods: The “increased consumption of ultra-processed food” is identified as a primary driver of poor health outcomes, making its prevalence a critical indicator.

3. For SDG 10 (Reduced Inequalities)

   • Carbon footprints by income level: The article states that “wealthier individuals and communities contribute disproportionately to unsustainability through… larger carbon footprints,” implying this is a measurable indicator of inequality.
   • Income disparities: Mentioned as a factor that impedes consumers’ ability to afford healthy food, making it a relevant indicator of socio-economic barriers.

4. For SDG 12 (Responsible Consumption and Production)

   • Meat consumption levels: The article refers to the “overconsumption of meat” and “higher meat consumption” as unsustainable dietary patterns.
   • Consumer awareness of sustainability issues: The “lack of awareness and knowledge” is cited as a barrier, implying that measuring awareness levels would be an indicator of progress towards Target 12.8.

5. For SDG 13 (Climate Action) & SDG 15 (Life on Land)

   • Rates of natural resource depletion: The article identifies the “depletion of natural resources, such as water… and arable land” as a key biophysical barrier.
   • Biodiversity loss metrics: The “loss of biodiversity” is explicitly named as a consequence of unsustainable systems, making its measurement a direct indicator of environmental impact.

Table of SDGs, Targets, and Indicators

Source: frontiersin.org