Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: Amid rising trade disruptions, food self-sufficiency (FSS) has become central to food sovereignty agendas aimed at strengthening national control over food systems and enhancing resilience to external shocks. However, FSS policies interact with economic, social, political, and environmental factors, potentially generating synergies, such as improved food security and political stability, or trade-offs, including economic inefficiencies and resource stress. This review analysis aimed to clarify the mechanisms underlying trade-offs between key components of FSS: production and consumption, and their influencing factors. This review synthesises the literature to identify the key mechanisms driving trade-offs between FSS objectives and ten major groups of influencing factors. We classify these factors as primary or secondary based on the nature of their influence on FSS outcomes. Primary factors exert an immediate and measurable impact on a country's capacity to produce or access food; most notably through constraints on agricultural production systems. Secondary factors influence FSS more indirectly by reshaping land-use priorities, ecological conditions, and resource competition, often through cumulative or spatially diffuse pressures such as industrial development. Our analysis shows that trade-offs involving primary factors predominantly affect the production component of FSS and are most pronounced in regions with low self-sufficiency ratios and limited local food supply independence, where land, water, and dietary constraints heighten vulnerability to global market fluctuations. In contrast, trade-offs involving secondary factors are more prevalent in regions characterised by intensive, industrialised agriculture and strong export orientation, where policy attention has shifted toward sustainability, resource optimisation, and balancing socioeconomic and environmental objectives through multi-objective strategies. Overall, the evidence confirms that no universal pathway to FSS exists. Context-specific interventions, informed by the dominant trade-offs, their hierarchical drivers, and mediating mechanisms, are essential for guiding sustainable and resilient food system transitions.
Source: Global Food Security
Language: English
Subfield: Safety Research
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
Estimated APC paid: $5,240
Funder: Agence Nationale de la Recherche
OpenAlex ID: W7125239409