Eating issues in a time of crisis: Re-thinking the new food trends and challenges in Spain

Food systems have become a privileged sphere for explaining the past and present of peoples, and, analysed in their various dimensions, for thinking about the future. In a world of such extraordinary food disparity, it is necessary to ask what this reveals about current societies and what uncertainties and opportunities it entails. This commentary examines some paradoxes related to the global food system. When we consider where it is heading, multiple questions arise, for while this is apparently more productive than ever, it far from guarantees an inclusive, healthy and sustainable food supply for all. If, as is widely maintained, current food production is sufficient to feed the entire world population, we need to ask why food insecurity persists and, at the same time, why emerging diseases such as obesity have become a health problem on a global scale. Focusing on these growing trends in Spain, we discuss how they are linked to this system, their complex nature and possible ways of dealing with them. The findings show how some of the positive trends engendered by the industrial food system, such as the progressive democratisation of food access and the reduction of social differences in food consumption, are now in retreat. The diagnosis we have presented on the increase in food insecurity and obesity alludes to profound changes in environments and lifestyles, but also to the social inequality produced by the impact of austerity policies. The paper postulates the need to transform structural factors in order to reverse these trends. Analytical synthesis with socioeconomic and epidemiological data in SpainSource: Author’s own elaboration [Display omitted] •Positive trends engendered by global food system are currently in retreat in Spain.•Key drivers for explaining the increase in food insecurity and obesity are discussed.•Precarisation and social inequality condition eating practices and health.•Socioeconomic crisis and policies inhibit a more inclusive, healthy and sustainable food system.•Complex and contextualized social diagnosis is needed to enable reversal of both trends.