Current, prevalent models of the food system, including complex-adaptive systems theories and commodity-as-relation thinking, have usefully analyzed the food system in terms of its elements and relationships, confronting persistent questions about a system’s identity and leverage points for change. Here, inspired by Heldke’s (Monist 101:247–260, 2018) analysis, we argue for another approach to the “system-ness” of food that carries those key questions forward. Drawing on Niklas Luhmann’s systems theory, we propose a model of the food system defined by the relational process of feeding itself; that is, the food system is made of feeding and only feeding, and system structures are produced by the coupling of that process to its various contexts. We argue that this approach moves us away from understandings of the food system that take structures and relations as given, and sees them instead as contingent, thereby helping to identify leverage points for food system change. The new approach we describe also prompts us as critical agrifood scholars to be constantly reflexive about how our analyses are shaped by our own assumptions and subjectivities.

中文翻译：

---

喂养关系：将卢曼的运作理论应用于食物系统


当前流行的粮食系统模型，包括复杂适应性系统理论和商品关系思维，有效地分析了粮食系统的要素和关系，解决了有关系统身份和变革杠杆点的持续问题。在这里，受到 Heldke（Monist 101:247–260, 2018）分析的启发，我们主张采用另一种方法来解决食品的“系统性”，从而推动这些关键问题的发展。借鉴 Niklas Luhmann 的系统理论，我们提出了一个由喂养本身的关系过程定义的食物系统模型；也就是说，食物系统是由喂养组成的，而且只是喂养，系统结构是通过该过程与其各种环境的耦合而产生的。我们认为，这种方法使我们摆脱了对粮食系统的理解，将结构和关系视为既定的，而是将它们视为偶然的，从而有助于确定粮食系统变革的杠杆点。我们描述的新方法也促使我们作为批判性农业食品学者不断反思我们的分析是如何受到我们自己的假设和主观性影响的。