Food and Nutrition Systems: Food Web

Food webs provide a way of thinking about the food and nutrition system that focuses on interrelationships between individuals and groups involved with food and nutrition. A wide range of roles exists in the system, including farmers, butchers, grocers, cooks, food servers, dietitians, and many others.

The food web is experiencing increasing consolidation and concentration in the scale and scope of agriculture, food processing, food retailing, and food service. Many diverse small farms have been combined into large corporate farms. Only a small percentage of the U.S. population is engaged in farming, but it produces enough to supply food and drink to the more than 300 million food consumers in American society and to send exports to other parts of the global food system. Food production and processing are increasingly mechanized and employ an increasing proportion of unskilled workers. Small, local food processors have become centralized and integrated into global food corporations. Specialized community food distributors, such as butchers, bakers, and other food vendors, have declined, and large grocery chains have developed networks of supermarkets and even larger-scale hypermarkets. Independent restaurants have declined as restaurant chains and fast food franchises have standardized the food service industry. Food distribution has become the largest employment sector in the food web.