12th AIEAA Conference, Milano, 22-23 June 2023

The Program is now available!

Recently, the agrifood systems have faced unprecedented challenges due to global warming, the Covid-19 crisis, and the war in Ukraine marking the third global food price crisis in 20 years. Since the start of the war, calls to strengthen food security have dramatically increased across the world. The conflict has exacerbated surges in agricultural prices, jeopardising the access of the poor to food intake and diet as well as the ability of more vulnerable countries to import the required quantity of food. The increased frequency of climate, health and conflict shocks requires more effective and bold responses at both the national and international level. Making the food systems more resilient to such shocks to ensure food security and support livelihoods, and doing so in an environmentally sustainable way require multilateral cooperation, political collaboration, innovation and long-term commitments from both public and private stakeholders.

Many claim that is time for a new approach to food system management. On the one hand, international organizations need for a comprehensive humanitarian-development-peace nexus approach that calls for a more effective and efficient aid. This entails, among other things, more holistic analyses, long-term strategies that support systemic transformation, and investment in adaptive management. On the other hand, the European Commission has asked Member States to adjust their CAP national strategic plans in consideration of the evolving geopolitical context while keeping in mind the EU Green Deal and the Farm to Fork objectives, to build more resilient and sustainable food system.

With an emphasis being put on sustainable agricultural production, food processors and retailers are also expected to contribute to the sustainability and inclusiveness of the food value chains, for example, through responsible food business and marketing practices. International trade should also contribute to advancing the transformation of food systems, although the inclusion of sustainability standards in bilateral trade agreements entails trade-offs and might not deliver the desired outcome in a reasonable timeframe.

The 12th AIEAA Annual Conference aims to discuss how shocks – being them extreme weather events, health-related shocks or anthropogenic events (e.g., conflicts) – are affecting food systems and explore how food systems can be reformed to be better prepared to absorb, adapt and transform in the face of shocks as well as to slow onset disruptions. It will contribute to scholarly and policy debate, by putting together different (economic) disciplines and approaches to discuss innovations, incentive schemes and policies to create more resilient, equitable and inclusive food systems while reducing their environmental footprint.

The overall conference theme is "Guns, Germs and Climate: Food Security and Food Systems in a Risky World", with a focus primarily but not exclusively on the following sub-themes:
• The EU Code of Conduct on Responsible Food Business and Marketing Practices
• Carbon farming mechanisms
• Modelling food systems in a risky world
• Policy options to respond to shocks and stressors
• Affordability of nutrient-adequate diets in the face of shocks
• Shock-induced poverty traps/resilience to shocks
• Food security and nutrition in migrant and left-behind households
• Food systems’ innovation strategies in the face of shocks and stressors
• Strategies and tools for the adaptation to climate change

AIEAA welcomes the submission of contributions on the topics above. However, the submission of contributions on other agricultural and applied economics topics is also encouraged.