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College aantekeningen Food For Tought
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College 2 : SustainabilityFraming the present day challenges
Malthus hypothesis
- Malthusian catastrophe = there was a line of food production that was going up but the
population growth was going in a faster rate
- In a certain time you will have a problem because you can’t feed the whole population
- The only solution he saw to stop the population grow was moral restraint = the poor people
should not have a family because they couldn’t afford it
- But the population grow went on, but the food production also increased (even more). The
highest rise became after the green revolution.
Framing the present day challenge :
We put enormous external pressures to food production by the : population growth, urbanisation,
economic development and globalization
- There is a food gap of 56% can we close this gap? And how?
The total crop supply = 3.938 kcal/a day/ per person, but 27% percent of the crops are used for
animal feed and 66% for human food.
External pressures to food production: Climate change, water stress & environmental degradation.
We are going in to the direction of a structural crisis in the food system.
- Food is a key driver of problems for health (can be because you eat too much or you don’t
eat enough)
Triple burden of malnutrition: undernutrition, micronutrient deficiencies, overweight &
obesity leads to infectious diseases and chronic diseases
Dietary risks are responsible for the highest amount of Daly’s.
- Food is a key driver of problems for economics
The high food production and the big companies make it difficult for small players to take
advantage of the system. Small farmers suffer, because they cannot earn enough to live
from. There is an unequal food supply chain.
The rising health care costs. Obesity, diabetes, Hunger and food insecurity.
- Food is a key driver of problems for society.
Child labour, unsafe workplaces, etc.
Not everybody has access to safe and healthy food. The disparity gap is becoming wider.
¼ did not have regular access to nutrition or sufficient food in 2019
, - Food is a key driver of problems in environment
Climate change, biodiversity loss, pollution, eutrophication, resource depletion (land,
water, fuel, phosphate and other nutrients)
Food waste
Globally, 30% cultivated food for human consumption is lost or wasted (20% food produced in EU is
lost or wasted)
- Waste of resources (land, water, energy, etc.)
- Most of the food is waste in the households.
- Repercussions on hunger and poverty alleviation, nutrition, economic growth
Food systems and sustainability
The food system
Encompasses all the stages of keeping us fed :
It’s the main driver of and the solution to the societal challenges.
The food-system is :
- Multi-faceted = it includes many different aspects including the
biological system, the economic system, political system and
social system.
- Complex = there are varies factors and players involved.
- Dynamic = these factors are interactive with each other
- Adaptive= there are feedback loops
This system is not only responsible for keeping us fed, but also for
providing food that keeps us healthy.
Sustainability
What is sustainability? “Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the
present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own
needs.”
Sustainable nutrition = nutrition that is good for health and the environment
,Sustainable diets = "those diets with low environmental impacts that
contribute to food and nutritional security and to healthy lives for present
and future generations. Sustainable diets are protective and respectful
of biodiversity and ecosystems, culturally acceptable, accessible,
economically fair and affordable, are nutritionally adequate, safe, and
healthy, and optimize natural and human resources."
Sustainable diets : key features & determinants
Environmental impact of food
Environment & human health
- They are linked to each other
- We depend on the food that we get, and we get that food from the environment and that
can be influenced by direct drivers of change and indirect drivers of change.
, Calculating environmental impact of diets
To be able to determine the environmental impact of diets we need to be able to calculate this. We
do that by using indicators. 2 groups of indicators :
- Pollution (greenhouse gases climate change, nitrogen & phosphorous eutrophication)
- Resource depletion (e.g. land, fuel, water)
There are different methods to determine the impact on these indicators :
- Life cycle assessment (LCA) – per foot it determines the impact cradle to farm gate or
from cradle to grave (you determine someone footprint)
- Input-output analysis – involves use of aggregate sector level data on how much
environmental impact can be attributed to each sector
- Integrated assessments – global equilibrium models
There is a lot of variation and uncertainty in the estimates that are used in these calculations.
Reasons :
- Complex agricultural systems
- Definition of functional unit - per 100 g food or per 100 kcal?
- Underlying assumptions vary
- Broad range of boundaries (e.g. cradle to farm-gate vs. cradle to grave)
Planetary boundaries
Environmental indicators in relation to diet
Resource depletion :
- Land use
38% global land surface used for agriculture, of which 1/3 is used for crops and 2/3
used for grazing livestock (grazend vee)
Agriculture is estimated to be responsible for 80% deforestation worldwide
- Water use
Agriculture uses 70% of water worldwide, 30% is drinking water, cooking and
industry.
The amount of water we need to produce 1kg of meat is many times higher than for
example the production of 1kg fruits.
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