How we put food on the table looked different in 2020. Prepandemic, the biggest challenge stressing our global food system was how to keep it thriving to feed the world’s estimated 10 billion people by 2050.¹ As I explained in an earlier article in this magazine, our food system is under volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA) challenges. While the VUCA acronym was first coined by the U.S. Army War College to describe the rate of the turbulent and unpredictable forces dynamically changing an environment or organization, VUCA also accurately describes the global food system disruptions incited by the pandemic. These disruptions left many grocery shelves empty and the residual effects can still be seen in the system today.
More than a year after coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) forever changed our way of life and further strained our food system, we face greater VUCA challenges as a result of new vulnerabilities caused by the pandemic. In March 2020, the food system quickly shifted from its everyday challenges and long-term planning for sustainability to operating within a disaster scenario. In a matter of days, the VUCA environment morphed into: