The Global Food System: A Study on the Social Perception in Catalonia

Abstract

The conceptual model on the Global Food System (GFS) formulated by Clotet and others (2013), is articulated around four axes: Availability, Economy, Politics and Knowledge (knowledge, social behavior and culture). In this model, each of these axes has the same significance or weighting and for the quantitative study of results, concepts and methods of Compositional Data Analysis are applied (Jarauta-Bragulat et al., 2018). The purpose of this paper is to study and characterize the social perception in Catalonia of the relative importance (weighting) of each of the four axes of the aforementioned model. The study is carried out through the statistical analysis of the results of a survey completed by people who make up a random sample within the territory of Catalonia. The results of this survey are intended to analyze whether the equal balancing of the model axis is adequate or, on the contrary, the weights should be modified in that territory and, in this way, apply a more refined and representative weighting of reality. Several aspects are exposed and commented on: the design of the questionnaire, the data collection, the application of statistical sampling techniques (stratification by quotas and weighting of the strata), polish debugging techniques, as well as profiling techniques to differentiate groups between the variables of the food system and the sociodemographic characteristics that determine them. Based on the results, conclusions are stated. Main conclusions are: adequacy of the theoretical framework of the global food system to articulate the study (Colomer and Jarauta-Bragulat, 2016); adequacy of cluster analysis as a tool and obtaining four differentiated groups; obtaining a relative weight on the axes of the food system model; valuing availability and economy above the other two axes and, lastly, the need for greater food training for citizens for the collective benefit and for each of its members.