The vulnerability of the food system to shocks and stresses needs to be assessed in an integrated way by identifying outcomes to be avoided along with investigating their root causes and dynamic pressures (vulnerability context) as well as pathways leading to them (Ericksen, 2008; Ingram, Ericksen, & Liverman, 2010). We delineate the pathways leading to vulnerability on a matrix as a function of three main vulnerability dimensions: exposure to shocks and stresses, and related sensitivities and adaptive capacities of the diverse activities, actors, assets and institutions that determine the outcomes of a food system (Turner et al., 2003). Using this conceptualization, to be vulnerable to the impacts of drivers of change, the food system regime, as a special type of coupled SES and STS, must not only be exposed and sensitive to shocks and stresses but also have limited ability to adapt (Finan, West, Austin, & McGuire, 2002; Schroeter, Polsky, & Patt, 2005; Smit, Burton, Klein, & Street, 1999). The terms coupled SES and STS are used in our conceptualization to highlight the fact that social, ecological and technical systems are not separable entities but a part of an integrated whole.