The key roles of economic and social organization and producer and consumer behaviour towards a health-agriculture-food-environment nexus: recent advances and future prospects

We discuss in this paper the role of the economic and social organization in agriculture and the food industry, in relation with the Health-Agriculture-Food-Environment (HAFEN) concept. The aim is to better understand the potential impact of the implementation of this concept in food consumption and production systems in terms of research needs. The paper suggests a research agenda dedicated to the modes of social and economic organization of key stakeholders in the implementation of nexus-based systems, facilitating the convergence among health, food and environmental objectives. Based on a literature survey, three main topics are discussed: (a) processes and drivers of change of food consumption practices; (b) coordination and multi-agent governance modes to better account for health issues in agrifood systems and (c) the analysis of paradigms that put forward health as an entry point to reshape existing agricultural and food systems, and associated modes of knowledge production. For each of these topics, we suggest a selection of research priorities for the future and conclude with methodological perspectives on the HAFEN.