Food Systems Modelling

Chapter 1

Using models to study food systems

Christian J. Peters^a and Dawn Thilmany^{b a}USDA, Agricultural Research Service, Food Systems Research Unit, Burlington, VT, United States. ^bDepartment of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Regional Economic Development Institute, Colorado State University, Fort Collins CO, United States

1.1 Introduction

Food systems have existed for millennia. Since the agricultural revolution enabled the first cities to form, people have grown crops, raised livestock, caught fish, milled grains, pressed oils, preserved perishables, baked breads, butchered meats, and turned these raw and processed ingredients into food people eat. Goods often changed hands and forms many times before they were transformed ...