The environmental polycrisis and global production networks: insights from agriculture in South Africa, Kenya, and Nicaragua

Abstract

The environmental polycrisis, including climate change, biodiversity loss, and water scarcity, touches down in agricultural global production networks (GPNs) through different environmental interactions. Drawing on environmental economic geography and critical systems thinking, we propose a novel conceptualization to trace environmental interactions of influence, disruption, and synergy, and their implications for GPNs, GPN actors, and the environmental risks they face. Through empirical material from horticulture in South Africa and Kenya and cocoa in Nicaragua, we demonstrate this conceptualization’s relevance by showing how environmental interactions reshape GPNs, creating uneven environmental risks for smallholders accompanied by often adverse economic and social implications.