Flexibility or coerced resilience: Analysing the role of flex crops in the global production ecosystem

Abstract: Large parts of Earth’s natural ecosystems have been converted into simplified production system. These production systems, named the Global Production Ecosystems (GPE) are characterised by homogenised and industrial production, that delivers predictable yields of biomass and is highly connected through global trade. The anthropogenic inputs required to keep this predictability is likely to cause environmental degradation and could cause novel risks in the long term. The rise of flex crops is a phenomenon that is likely to further promote this homogenisation and industrialisation. These are crops with multiple and flexible uses that are increasingly targeted by agribusinesses to feed the demands of food, feed, fuel and other industrial products. This study examines global flex crops production ecosystem through the lens of resilience thinking, by analysing production data over time, including the social and environmental impacts of inputs, and assess the national concentration of production. I find that flex crops have expanded and intensified more so than similar crops. Since 1961 flex crops harvested area have increased in more than 150% in size, while similar crops have increased 10%. At the same time yields for flex crops have almost tripled, while similar crops have doubled their yield. I also find that in some aspects flex crops are heavily reliant on anthropogenic inputs. On a global scale the use of inputs is generally concentrated to a small number of countries, but that the average use of inputs varies greatly between countries. These findings indicate that the development of flex crops is an important to research to understand the GPE and that using resilience thinking is key to understand this phenomenon.