Interdisciplinary Center for Network Science and Applications-iCeNSA and Department of Physics, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, Indiana, United States of America.
PLoS One. 2012;7(5):e37810. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0037810. Epub 2012 May 31.
With the world's population now in excess of 7 billion, it is vital to ensure the chemical and microbiological safety of our food, while maintaining the sustainability of its production, distribution and trade. Using UN databases, here we show that the international agro-food trade network (IFTN), with nodes and edges representing countries and import-export fluxes, respectively, has evolved into a highly heterogeneous, complex supply-chain network. Seven countries form the core of the IFTN, with high values of betweenness centrality and each trading with over 77% of all the countries in the world. Graph theoretical analysis and a dynamic food flux model show that the IFTN provides a vehicle suitable for the fast distribution of potential contaminants but unsuitable for tracing their origin. In particular, we show that high values of node betweenness and vulnerability correlate well with recorded large food poisoning outbreaks.
随着世界人口现已超过 70 亿，确保我们的食物的化学和微生物安全，同时保持其生产、分配和贸易的可持续性至关重要。我们使用联合国的数据库，在此展示了国际农产品贸易网络（IFTN），其节点和边分别代表国家和进出口通量，已经演变成一个高度异质、复杂的供应链网络。七个国家构成了 IFTN 的核心，中间中心度的值很高，每个国家与世界上超过 77%的国家进行贸易。图论分析和动态食品通量模型表明，IFTN 提供了一个适合快速分配潜在污染物的载体，但不适合追踪其来源。特别是，我们表明，节点中间中心度和脆弱性的值较高与记录的大规模食物中毒爆发密切相关。
