Chapter 11 - Sustainable Food and
Agriculture
Overview
• About Food Systems and Value Chains
• Economic, Social and Environmental Dimensions
• Flaws of the Present Food System
• Challenges for 2050
• Improving Global Food Security
• Four Views of Sustainable Agriculture
• Eco-tourism’s Contribution
About Food Systems and Value
Chains
• Value Chain: The stages of production, from field or mine to final use
and waste disposal, during which value is added
• Food System: The value chain of food products, including inputs,
infrastructure and outputs at each stage
• Off-farm jobs: Income-generating activities besides farming which
reduce the need for overexploitation of the land (e.g., bee-keeping
and eco-tourism)
Economic, Social and Environmental Dimensions
• Economic
o Biggest sector of global economy; source of jobs & income for 2.5 billion people, most of
them smallholder farmers
o Food and non-food (cash) crops compete for space on basis of price
o In some countries, women play a major role but have unequal access to resources
• Social
o 2 billion people suffer micro-nutrient deficiency; 800 million are hungry
o 161 million children under age 5 are stunted; 6.3 million die each year
• Environmental
o Gains in productivity at cost of damage to resource base (e.g., land degradation)
Flaws of the Present Food System
• Food enough for everyone, but not affordable for
all
• Growing demand for higher value fuel crops drives
up food prices
• Gender-unequal access to resources aggravates
poverty and hunger
• Useful varieties of crop and livestock disappear
Vulnerable to pests and climate change Source: IPCC 2007
• Wasteful irrigation methods Depleted water
A Source of GHGs and Vulnerable to Climate
resources and saline/infertile soils Change
Challenges for 2050
Population Growth: Feeding/nourishing more mouths, while demand for non-food crops grows and
area of degraded land increases
Fast Urbanisation: Swallows up fertile land around cities and draws in ever-larger regions to meet
city needs
Reduce Food Waste: Improve information, distribution, and (refrigerated) storage to reduce food
waste between field and plate
Growth of Middle Class and Lifestyle Change: Increases demand for luxury foods, meat and fish;
gives attention to healthy food habits and reduction of consumer food waste
Adaptation to Climate Change:
• Sea-level rise and salt intrusion in coastal areas
• Shifting of habitats for plants and animals, and disease vectors
• Change of rainfall & wind patterns More drought and flooding, and more frequent and intense extreme
weather events
Improving Global Food Security
• Access to food: Matter of price and income/jobs, but also better nutrition
• Use of available food: Look critically at what is set aside for bio-fuel and
animal fodder; improve distribution and storage
• Production systems: There is a place for small-scale, low-input, mixed crop
and animal farms; adapting agriculture to changed climates is smart
Source: Saturnino Borras, The Hague Institute of Social Studies; Rotterdam Erasmus University, Netherlands
Four Views of Sustainable
Agriculture
• Bio-environmentalist: The food system has increased its own financial result by putting burdens on
people and the environment; fair trade over free trade; support biological farming; promote vegetarian
and vegan alternatives
• Institutionalist: Focus on constant productivity increases has led to a system that exhausts soil, pollutes
water with pesticide leftovers; support the shift of public funds to ecological forms of agriculture
• Market liberal: International Financial Institutions (IFI) imposed conditions on poor country lenders to
minimise regulation, reduce trade barriers, and privatise technical and market advisory services and
cheap lending facilities
• Social green: Smallholder farmers are business people, educators and stewards of the land; must have
our support against extortive practices by powerful investors (TNCs) from rich countries; against GMO
(genetically modified organism) food
Eco-tourism’s Contribution
• Minimise visitor impact, for instance, by limiting group size, offering basic
accommodation and practising the 3Rs
• Show sensitivity for local cultures and vulnerable ecosystems, for instance, by
minimising noise and nuisance from transport
• Provide financial or in-kind benefits for conservation, for instance, by volunteer labour
• Involves local communities sharing their knowledge of nature and culture; since they
benefit from eco-tourism, they become guardians of local ecosystems
• There is an educational component for the tourists and for the local communities as
they increase their learning of and respect for nature
End of Chapter 11 Food is life. It is the fundamental
connection between people and the
planet. The fruits of the earth have
long sustained us, but there are
increasing signs that our way of
working the land and ensuring all are
nourished will have to be revisited.
—UN Food and Agriculture
Organisation
