15 нояб. 2016
Research // The Water, Energy And Food Nexus and Ecosystems: The Political Economy of Food and Non-food Supply Chains
By Tony Allan and Nathanial Matthews. In this article, the authors argue that the Nexus concept must incorporate a strong ecosystem stewardship component. It must shift from a focus on addressing hotspots, which is the approach that currently dominates Nexus analysis, to one that examines the uses of water, energy and food production and consumption in supply chains across the Nexus, and their impact on ecosystems. To date the hotspots approach has stimulated the engagement of the private sector supply chain players in Nexus debates, since it is these professionals who have to confront the consequences of the scarcity of water and/or energy in their operations.
Throughout this article, the authors use a political economy analysis to show how renewable and non-renewable water and energy resources are consumed and managed in long-established private sector supply chains in the food sector. These supply chains operate in, and are driven by, markets that are greatly distorted by allocative and management practices that do not account for the value of water or of the other ecosystems – the atmosphere and biodiversity – on which they depend. The authors then explore the consequences of these political economy distortions in Nexus contexts. We maintain that the upshot of Nexus systems that do not value ecosystems is that they tend to address collapses or weakness along global supply chains by looking at smaller scale hotspots, as opposed to examining these problems through a supply chain lens.