Triggers of food transition in Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities

A global scale review

Bibliographic Data

ID12950686
AuthorsDaiane Soares Xavier Da Rosa (0000-0001-5530-4317, Sustainability Institute, corresponding author), João Afonso Baptista (0000-0003-2445-0340, University of Lisbon), Patrícia Carvalho Rosa (0000-0001-7570-3702, Instituto de Desenvolvimento Sustentável Mamirauá), Cristina Branquinho (0000-0001-8294-7924, Sustainability Institute)
Year2025
Volume21
Issue2
Pages793-808
Publication date2025-12-23
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueSustainability Science (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1862-4057 • E-ISSN: 1862-4065
PublisherSpringer Science+Business Media (PUBLISHER • DE)
DOI10.1007/s11625-025-01763-y
OpenAlexW7117058893
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited103

Symptomatic of the social change brought by late globalization, the dietary patterns of Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities (IPLC) worldwide are changing, bringing consequences for people’s health and well-being. In this review we focused on food transition (FT) and the driving forces behind these changes. We aimed to diagnose, analyse, and quantify the key factors influencing FT in IPLC worldwide. For this purpose, we conducted a systematic literature review to analyse scientific discourse and synthesize key insights. We analysed 36 papers published between 1996 and 2022. The key factors leading FT (151) were identified in the papers and clustered by similarity into 21 categories. These categories were then grouped according to their: spatial scale: household, community, regional, national, and global; typology: driver (external to the system), fast and slow variables (internal to the system); and social, economic, and environmental dimensions. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first diagnostic-orientated review of the key factors leading FT in IPLC. The categories with the highest number of key factors were those associated with the economic dimension. According to our review, economic key factors are the primary drivers of changes in community dynamics at household level, while social key factors, as a response to economic changes, contribute to transformations in lifestyle and dietary patterns. The environment plays also a central role in FT in IPLCs, determined by the availability of wild natural resources used as food. Drivers acting regionally are among the most frequent triggers of FT. We highlight the importance of identifying and monitoring key factors triggering FT to support and provide insights for further research, as well as propose effective public policies that guarantee food diversity, food security, and life quality for IPLC

Identification (biology · Indigenous · Key (lock · Natural resource · Nutrition transition · Scale (ratio · Sustainability · Sustainable development · Environmental and Cultural Studies in Latin America and Beyond · Indigenous Health and Education · Indigenous Studies and Ecology