Glossary

Resilience in the food system

Resilience is the ability of a system to react to disruptions and to withstand them. A system is resilient if it can reliably cope with its tasks despite impairments and shocks. Promoting resilience in the food system is an important goal in agriculture. Food output must be sufficient, appropriate and accessible even in the event of unforeseen events such as droughts, floods, storms or pests.

A resilient nutritional system is robust against disturbances, can recover quickly and adapt flexibly to changed conditions. Because the conditions for crops are constantly changing due to climate change, research and the development of new technologies play an important role. The risks of extreme weather events need to be cushioned and the resilience of the food system increased. To do this, agriculture depends on innovative processes that make plants more robust against environmental influences such as drought and heat.