food systems Flashcards
Food System
The interdependent parts of the system that provides
food to a community.
Includes growing, harvesting, storing, transporting,
processing and disposal of waste.
Sustainable Food System
“…provides healthy food to meet current
food needs while maintaining healthy
ecosystems that can also provide food for
generations to come with minimal negative
impact to the environment.”
Green Revolution
Until the 20th century all the food energy on this planet was
derived directly or indirectly from the sun through
photosynthesis.
In 1950s/60s industrialization of agriculture - Green
Revolution resulted in massive increases in world food
production (2.5X grain, etc)
Some of the world’s most infamous chemicals (DDT, 2,4-D,
malathion, etc) were first developed as nerve gases or to
protect soldiers from malaria during WW1 and WW2 but
had to find peacetime uses so were re-developed as pesticides.
1) Revolution in how food was produced
capital-intensive equipment became the norm in
industrialized countries
science and engineering-intensive inputs (irrigation, chemical
fertilizers, pesticides, patented seeds)
soy and corn became central to intensive management of
livestock
2) Revolution in who produced food
not the farmer nearby but an unknown member of the global
labour market
3) Revolution in where food was produced
Containers, superhighways, seaways drastically cut the cost of
transport – bulky and low-value products qualified for longhaul
transit
4) Revolution in how food was processed before being sold
No longer in bulk bags but in cans and boxes often with
multiple ingredients and often ready-to-heat-and-eat
5) Change in where people bought food
From farmers’ market or local store to supermarket/big box
store
6) Revolution in food preparation in the home
household skill level down, smart equipment use up
7) Revolution in where food was eaten
Kitchen to the TV room, home to restaurant (almost
half of meals eaten outside the home)
8) Revolution in how food is eaten
From quintessentially social to individual, on-the-run
4 Areas of Concern for Food System
Sustainability
1) Climate change
2) Cheap fossil fuels/peak oil
3) Water supplies
4) Soil fertility
Fossil Fuels and the Food
System
Energy for Green Revolution came from fossil fuels –
natural gas (fertilizers), oil (pesticides), variety of
hydrocarbons (irrigation)
Fertilizer and pesticide manufacture biggest use of oil in ag
Vast amounts used at all stages of production: planting,
irrigation, feeding and harvesting, processing, distribution,
packaging
Essential for construction/repair of equipment and
infrastructure needed for the industry, including farm
machinery, processing facilities, storage, ships, trucks and
roads.
Spiral of increasing energy costs to maintain our
current system
Total fossil fuel use NA has increased 20X in the last 40
yrs.
Ag directly accounts for approximately 15-20% of all
the energy used in NA.
NA consume 20-30X > fossil fuel energy per capita
than people in developing nations.
Climate Change and the
Food System
the industrial food supply system is one of the biggest
consumers of fossil fuels and one of the greatest
producers of greenhouse gases
Climate change impacts the food system and the food
system impacts climate change
Peak Oil and the Food
System
is when the maximum rate of global petroleum
extraction is reached and begins to decline.
It is not oil running out but instead when the rate at which we
can remove it from the ground hits its peak and starts its
decline.
It is well-accepted that we have either already hit the peak,
or will very soon (debate is on exactly when but somewhere
between 2005 and 2020).
Peak Oil and the World
Food System/Nutrition
Dramatic spikes in food costs (and ensuing extreme
hunger, malnutrition and poverty, here in Canada
and much more so in poorer countries)
Reduced access to non-local food sources
Need to dramatically change agricultural methods
in a very short period of time, away from fossil fuel
dependent, to a system that requires mostly human
and animal labour and photosynthesis
water supplies
Agriculture consumes more than 70% of our
global fresh water resources for irrigation and
this consumption is occurring at a highly
unsustainable rate (Kirschenmann, 2008).
Soil Fertility
Can take up to 500 years to replace 1 inch of
topsoil yet current agricultural practices are
depleting topsoil through erosion to the extent
that in many regions up to 1/2 of it is gone, and
it is being lost up to 30 times faster than it is
being built (Pimental & Giampietro, 1994).
US Farm Bill and Agricultural Subsidies
50 billion a year to crop subsidies (corn, wheat, cotton, soy, rice, sorghum,
barley, peanuts)
All subsidized crops are for export and almost all give US global price
leadership, determining what unsubsidized smallholder farmers will be able to
charge in their own countries
Lowers cost of practices harmful to health and environment – no fruit and
vegetables subsidized, no alternative crops, nothing for local markets
Subsidies encourage large mechanized farms which deplete water and soil
nutrients: violate basic principal of resource conservation. Many require high
levels of pesticides and poison water tables
Cheap Food Policy
Historically how did food become cheap?
Cheap sugar came from enslaving Africans and forcing
them to grow it on lands where Indigenous Peoples were
removed
Cheap grains came from forcing Indigenous Peoples off
the land in NA so that Europeans who had been driven off
the land in their home countries could settle and grow
grain.
Cheap Food Policy
1970s shift from industrialized workforce into service and office
workforce, male no longer earned wage to support whole family.
Two-income families mean household tasks are left behind – need
cheap processed food (‘convenience’)
More and more money towards processing and other middle-men,
less money towards people who grow food (from almost 40% of
the food dollar in the 1970s to about 20% of the food dollar
today – and much less for grain farmers)
Grains and meat must be foundation of cheap food diet because
they can be processed and stretched, whereas vegetables and fruit are
not as easily processed
Hidden Costs of Cheap Food
Junk costs as much to get rid of as to buy (for example, low fibre,
high sugar diets go hand in hand with diabetes and cancers), hidden
costs go to health budget and are therefore invisible
2) Government bail-outs – instead of positive incentives to farmers,
taxes pay for cheap food later
3) Poverty and inequality that comes from underpaying food workers,
hidden costs come as greater need for welfare and other social
development programs
4) Repairing damage to environment after producers ‘externalize’
costs of proper stewardship (‘regulatory subsidy’)
5) Loss of (knowledge of) ‘real food’
Benefits of Regional/Local
Food Systems
In addition to environmental stewardship,
1) Farms create backward linkages (jobs repairing tools,
etc)
2) Farms create forward linkages (local processing, etc)
3) Farms provide direct employment
4) ‘Multiplier effect’ – spending in local community and
support for other local businesses
