Global food security depends on highly interconnected international trade networks that facilitate the distribution of staple crops such as rice, wheat, and corn, essential energy sources for sustaining human populations worldwide.

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Using Network Science theory, the GADAL lab examines how these trade networks respond to localized or global shocks. Our research focuses on the following primary sources of disruption:

• Crop Disease: Failures that propagate between countries as cereal infestations spread across international borders.

• Conflict and War: Disruptions that affect a country’s ability to participate in global trade, such as the cascading effects observed during the Ukraine war. These disruptions can impact all cereal production equally.

• Natural Disasters: Disruptions that can affect one or several crop types.

 

By modeling these food networks, we analyze how perturbations in one country can propagate through international trade, potentially triggering cascading failures that threaten global food security.

 

Our work provides insight into the resilience and vulnerabilities of global food systems, emphasizing the importance of tailored, country-specific strategies to strengthen food supply networks.

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For a tailored, country-specific analysis, please contact us at GADAL.