A Systemic Assessment of COVID-19 Impacts on Pacific Islands’ Food Systems

Abstract

In this commentary, we present an analysis of how COVID-19 has impacted food systems in the Pacific Islands The Pacific Islands region is home to over 10 million people across 22 countries, with hugely diverse agricultural and fisheries systems The analysis is based on a systems framework developed by Allen and Prosperi (2016), which covers various aspects of human ecology food systems We synthesized material from 21 interviews, news websites, emerging literature, and parallel published assessments of COVID-19 impacts in the region We present examples of impacts across different elements of food systems throughout the region We then apply a systems-based analysis to illustrate how the impacts of COVID-19 on Pacific food systems create an opportunity to find innovative ways of transforming localized and regional food, and create an opportunity to building resilience to future shocks © 2020, Society for Human Ecology All rights reserved