ReportsIJRG

International Journal of Global Risks and Governance

Publisher of record: GCRI for the Nexus Consortium
Editor: Saeed Valadbaygi, Chief Steward and Managing Editor, GCRI
Licence: CC BY 4.0, open access
Report series: 17
Networks: 10

Draft, not yet released. In stewardship review. Not indexed until the first approved release.

Sector profile

Food and agrifood: sector profile

Abstract. Food and agrifood in the global baseline: 673 million facing hunger. Exposure: concurrent breadbasket failure.

Code: GS-03
Edition: Global Systems 2026
Coverage: good
Status: Draft in stewardship review

01Reading

673 million facing hunger [7]

02Exposure

concurrent breadbasket failure

03Evidence coverage

Good coverage of the baseline evidence. This describes the evidence, not the performance of the sector.

04All sectors in the edition

Sector screen
Code	Sector	Baseline evidence	Exposure	Coverage
GS-00	Cross-system	entangled crises; six of nine boundaries transgressed [20]	compound and cascading shocks	PARTIAL
GS-01	Water	2.2 billion without safely managed water [8]	drought and flood extremes	GOOD
GS-02	Energy	record CO₂; about 41% clean power [4] [6]	heat demand; mineral concentration	GOOD
GS-03	Food and agrifood	673 million facing hunger [7]	concurrent breadbasket failure	GOOD
GS-04	Health	6.7 million air-pollution deaths a year [14]	heat, pandemics, antimicrobial resistance	PARTIAL
GS-05	Finance and economy	US$102 trillion public debt [13]	debt distress after disasters	GOOD
GS-06	Development	123.2 million forcibly displaced [12]	conflict–climate compounding	PARTIAL
GS-07	Climate	1.43 °C in 2025 [1]	extremes and tipping risk	GOOD
GS-08	Disaster	US$224 billion losses in 2025 [2]	frequency of medium events	GOOD
GS-09	Infrastructure	chokepoint concentration	shipping, power and cable outages	PARTIAL
GS-10	Cities	most people now live in cities [11]	urban heat and flooding	PARTIAL
GS-11	Biodiversity	−73% wildlife populations [9]	land-use change and fire	GOOD
GS-12	Earth observation	strong global observing systems	continuity of key missions	PARTIAL
GS-13	Cyber and digital	concentrated cloud and network dependence	systemic outages	THIN
GS-14	Policy and institutions	new pandemic and ocean agreements [27] [32]	implementation and finance gaps	PARTIAL
GS-15	Science and engineering	deep research base; AI adoption rising [37]	translation and dual use	THIN

Cite

Saeed Valadbaygi, Chief Steward and Managing Editor, the Global Centre for Risk and Innovation (GCRI) (Ed.). (2026). Food and agrifood: sector profile. In Global Systems 2026 [Draft under review]. GCRI for the Nexus Consortium.

Review copy. The DOI is issued at deposit. Text under CC BY 4.0.

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Sector signature

The sectors behind Global Systems.

A reading aid: the sectors the findings run through and how strongly they depend on each other.

Select corners · hover lines6 / 15 relations

Signature

Food and its partners

Food gives nutrition to health (0.7), land conversion to biodiversity (0.6) and withdrawals and runoff to water (0.3).

W · E · I · F · H · B

Sectors: 4 of 6
Relations: 6 of 15
Coupling: 0.46 share of total

Strongest relations in play

Food → Biodiversity · land conversion0.6
Water → Food · irrigation0.8
Water → Biodiversity · environmental flows0.6
Food → Health · nutrition0.7

Teaching values for a typical city-region, not measurements for any place. Coupling is the summed strength of the relations in play, as a share of all fifteen.