This review synthesises the findings from over 100 scientific paper to document the key mechanisms driving trade-offs between Food Self-Sufficiency (FSS) objectives and ten major groups of influencing factors.

The authors identify 10 principal groups of factors as involved in trade-offs with FSS: Crises; Population Density; Urbanisation and Industrialisation; Climate and Climate Change; Dietary Patterns; Agricultural Land; Water; Gross Margins; Infrastructure, Raw Materials, and Production Costs; and Habitat Quality and Biodiversity.

Backed-up by their findings from the scientific literature, the article displays a table summarising main mechanisms and drivers that shape all the different trade-offs between factors and achieving FSS goals, like for the examples of Water and Agricultural land:

These factors are classified as primary or secondary based on the nature of their influence on FSS outcomes.

Primary factors exert an immediate and measurable impact on a country's capacity to produce or access food; most notably through constraints on agricultural production systems.

The analysis shows that trade-offs involving primary factors predominantly affect the production component of FSS and are most pronounced in regions with low self-sufficiency ratios and limited local food supply independence, where land, water, and dietary constraints heighten vulnerability to global market fluctuations.

Secondary factors influence FSS more indirectly by reshaping land-use priorities, ecological conditions, and resource competition, often through cumulative or spatially diffuse pressures such as industrial development.

In contrast, trade-offs involving secondary factors are more prevalent in regions characterised by intensive, industrialised agriculture and strong export orientation, where policy attention has shifted toward sustainability, resource optimisation, and balancing socioeconomic and environmental objectives through multi-objective strategies.

Overall, the evidence confirms that no universal pathway to FSS exists. Context-specific interventions, informed by the dominant trade-offs, their hierarchical drivers, and mediating mechanisms, are essential for guiding sustainable and resilient food system transitions.