Walk into any European supermarket and the shelves are full. It is easy to conclude that food insecurity is something that happens somewhere else. According to Pablo Vidueira, food security researcher at Comillas Pontifical University, this is one of the most persistent misunderstandings in his field.
“Nearly 30% of the world population is currently experiencing situations of severe or moderate food insecurity,” he says — around 2.5 billion people. And the problem is not confined to distant regions: in Europe, close to one in ten people cannot afford a healthy diet.
A full supermarket, Vidueira argues, tells us very little. Having food in front of you does not mean you can afford it, or that you can sustain the kind of diet that supports a healthy and dignified life. Access also has to be stable and sustainable over time — and that is precisely where the fragility begins. Conflicts, pandemics or energy crises can move prices and availability within a matter of weeks.
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Three major threats
In the interview, Vidueira identifies three major threats to global food security.
1. Climate change
Climate change is already affecting food production. Droughts, heatwaves and extreme weather events are reducing agricultural yields, which could fall by 10–25% in some regions by 2050 — and by as much as 40% depending on the crop, the region and the climate scenario.
2. Conflict and instability
Wars destroy crops, infrastructure and production areas, displace populations, and block markets and supply routes. Around 70% of people facing acute food insecurity live in conflict-affected contexts, according to figures from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the World Food Programme (WFP). “Apart from affecting infrastructure, farming areas, and population displacement, they also often block trade routes on which our food systems depend heavily,” he explains.
3. Dependency
Structural, and the least visible. Europe imports large volumes of fertilisers, animal feed and energy, and disruptions such as the war in Ukraine feed straight through to prices and production.
Both a driver of climate change and part of the solution
The relationship between climate and food runs in both directions. Climate determines what can be produced: less water or more heat changes which crops are viable, what they cost and how nutritious they are. At the same time, roughly one third of global emissions come from producing, transporting and consuming food.
That makes the food system part of the problem and part of the solution. More sustainable ways of producing, distributing and consuming — less waste, more diversity in our diets — cut emissions and improve public health at the same time.
What can one person actually do?
Vidueira points to three things.
Reduce food waste. “Around 30% of everything we produce ends up being wasted,” he notes. In Europe, each person throws away between 70 and 130 kilograms of food a year.
Act as a citizen, not only as a consumer. We are not merely consumers, he argues, but active participants in deciding what kind of agriculture, livestock farming and fisheries we want, what kind of access to food is desirable, what working conditions we want for farmers, what quality standards, and what environmental impact we consider tolerable. Systemic change is not only an individual responsibility — but individuals are part of the solution.
Make better-informed consumption decisions, prioritising local and seasonal products with a smaller environmental footprint. “There are better, more local sources which can have a significantly smaller impact.”
Transitions on this scale are already happening
Vidueira is keen to stress that sustainability transitions are not hypothetical. Territorially rooted food systems are already operating across Spain and Europe, and some transitions are remarkable in scale. Andhra Pradesh, in India, is home to the largest state-level agroecological transition in the world: six million farmers, more than eight million hectares and 50 million consumers. The results so far include an 11% increase in yields for the main crops, a 49% rise in net farm income, and an average 44% reduction in input costs.
He also points to a broader shift in the international debate. Food has moved from being treated as a sectoral agricultural matter to occupying a central place at climate summits, where food systems are now a fundamental part of the negotiating agenda.
From food security to the right to food
That shift is also visible in how the issue is framed in international governance. The United Nations Committee on World Food Security moved the focus from food security to the right to food — a change with real consequences for how policy is designed and who is held accountable.
“Access to food is a matter of justice. Ensuring that the population has access to food for a dignified, healthy and sustainable life is a matter of justice and a right.”
Why this matters for EUPeace
Food security sits at the intersection of the three commitments in EUPeace’s name: peace, justice and inclusive societies. Without food security there is no stability — rising food prices have historically been linked to protests and conflict. It is a question of justice, because unequal access to healthy food both reflects and reproduces social inequalities. And it is a question that no single country can address alone: European collaboration makes coordinated responses possible, and sharing knowledge, policies and resources strengthens resilience in the face of global crises.
For Vidueira, this is also where research earns its place. The role of the university, he argues, is to work side by side with those on the front line of food security — producers, producer associations, civil society organisations and governments — to advance sustainability transitions. That means generating knowledge that is useful for decision-making, from risk models to evaluations of food policy; translating complexity into practical tools and analytical frameworks that help governments and organisations act within complex systems; and training both professionals and critical citizens. Transforming the food system, he insists, requires new capabilities — not only new technologies.
Evaluating whether systems really change
That way of working is not confined to food. Vidueira also takes part in ImpactABLE, one of the EUPeace Living Labs hosted by Comillas and led by the University’s Chair of Social Impact. ImpactABLE brings together around 100 organisations from universities, public administrations, businesses and civil society to build practical, accessible ways of evaluating the social impact of initiatives that promote the inclusion of people with disabilities.
At the Living Lab’s launch, Vidueira presented Evaluative Inquiry for Systemic Change: A Guide to Shift Beyond Fixes to Lasting Value, the book he co-authored with Emily Gates, and set out the principles of evaluative inquiry. The underlying question is the same one that runs through his work on food: how do you tell whether a system is genuinely changing, rather than simply being patched? It is the methodological thread connecting a fragile global food system to the structures that shape who gets included in a society.
The EUPeace Living Labs are open innovation ecosystems in which universities work alongside communities, civil society, businesses and public authorities on shared societal challenges. Explore the full set of projects across the Alliance: EUPeace Living Lab Projects
Related: ImpactABLE Living Lab Launches with Discussion on Systemic Change and Social Inclusion
Living Labs: EUPeace Living Lab Projects
