Session 14 – The State of Food and Agriculture

Objectives

After completing this lesson, you should be able to:

• Articulate sustainability issues of the modern food system
• Prepare for Term 2 group presentations

Key Terms + Concepts

• Climate change
• Non-communicable diseases
• Nutrition transition
• Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

Required Readings + Resources

• FAO, 2019. The State of Agriculture and Food in 2019. Retrieved from http://www.fao.org/3/CA1554EN/ca1554en.pdf
  • Read the Executive Summary only
  • HIGHLY RECOMMENDED - View the FAO website for interactive diagrams and in-depth analysis - http://www.fao.org/state-of-food-agriculture/en/

Concerns about the Modern Food System

Concerns exist about the sustainability of the modern food system. A consensus is emerging that “something is wrong with our agriculture and food systems” (Pretty 2008, p. 457; see Pretty, 2008, Godfray et al, 2010, Foley et al., 2011, Sage, 2012, Holt-Giménez & Altieri, 2013, and Tomlinson, 2013 for analysis of the current crises in our modern food system). Since the 1960s, our ability to increase agricultural yield through scientific and technological innovation has been remarkable. Even with the boom in world population over the past five decades, per capita food production has outpaced global population growth (Pretty, 2008). In 2012, the global food system produced 2800 calories per person per day, “enough to make us all chubby” (Moore Lappé, 2012, p. 221). Consumers in the global North have more food choices available at historically low costs. This has been achieved through innovations in food processing and distribution, complemented by a retail industry that aims to maximize choice and minimize the time and effort needed to sustain oneself and one’s family (Lang & Heasman, 2004; Sage, 2012).

However, despite technological advances and significant resource allocation devoted to food production, processing, and distribution, roughly one in seven people globally do not obtain adequate amounts of protein and energy from their diet, and another one in seven suffer from micronutrient malnutrition (Godfray et al., 2010; Patel, 2012). And beyond the inability to alleviate global hunger, there are alarming ecological, social, and human health trends associated with our efforts to increase food output. Growing evidence suggests that the ecological services at the foundation of agricultural productivity are being undermined and diminished through improper soil conservation practices, over-reliance on synthetic inputs, inefficient use of water resources, contamination of air and water, and loss of biodiversity (Pretty, 2008; Foley et al., 2011; Sage, 2012; Holt-Giménez & Altieri, 2013). The social impacts associated with our ability to increase agricultural yield include the unraveling of the social fabric in rural communities, an increased reliance on migrant workers and landless farmers, and the distancing, disconnect, and food de-skilling occurring in our increasingly global urban population (Allen, 2008; Holt Giménez & Shattuck, 2011; Wittman, 2009; Sage, 2012). Human health has also been affected by an increased availability of, and demand for, refined cereal, dairy, and meat products. Degenerative, non-communicable diseases like obesity, type II diabetes, and cardiovascular diseases have been linked with an increased intake in hypercaloric food in developed and developing countries in epidemic proportions (Lang & Heasman, 2004; Magrone et al., 2013; Popkin, 1998; Pretty, 2008).

Amongst these complex issues associated with the sustainability of the modern food system is a backdrop of uncertainty mounting from climate change, market instability, and an over-reliance on fossil fuels. Changing weather patterns and the increased incidence of extreme weather events are having, and will continue to have, a dramatic impact on our food system (Francis & Porter, 2011; MacDiarmid et al., 2012). Not only will primary production be impacted through events like droughts and floods, but so too will our supply chains that rely upon the integrity of regional transportation routes and electrical power systems, as Hurricanes Katrina and Sandy both recently revealed in the United States (Twilley, 2014). As seen in the food crisis of 2008, the commodification of staple cereal crops leads to dramatic increases in prices through market speculation and hoarding at times of need (Tscharntke et al., 2012). Confounding the problem are global development policies that promote a reduction in national food storage capacities and a reliance on global markets to provide sources of staple grains (Jarosz, 2011). The result is decreasing accessibility to basic foodstuffs for millions of the world’s vulnerable populations. And throughout the food system, our over-reliance on fossil fuels is staggering (Maye & Kirwan, 2013; Woods, Williams, Hughes, Black, & Murphy, 2010). The use of fossil fuels in farm machinery, synthetic fertilizers, distribution networks, storage, and consumer transportation to and from markets has led one author to assert that we are actually eating fossil fuels (Pfeiffer, 2008). As the era of cheap energy diminishes, experiences suggest that the current global food system is not resilient to market price instability or resource scarcity, potentially leaving hundreds of millions of people vulnerable to food insecurity in the future (Homer-Dixon, 2007; Woods et al., 2010).

• VIDEO - Future of Food: Why Food Matters Now More Than Ever

At National Geographic's 2014 Future of Food forum, leading experts gathered to discuss how we can feed a global population set to top nine billion by 2050. In a special eight-month series, National Geographic is investigating the future of food. Why now? In this video, Dennis Dimick, executive environment editor at National Geographic magazine, explains the urgency of today's global food issues.

In this TED Talk, chef and food writer, Mark Bittman, describes issues of human health and sustainability associated with the American diet.

• In this BLOG posting from Ensia.com, authors Timothy Wise and Kristin Sundell discuss changes to the modern food system that they believe are necessary to feed a growing world population by 2050.

References

• Allen, P. (2008). Mining for justice in the food system: perceptions, practices, and possibilities. Agriculture and Human Values, 25(2), 157–161.
• Foley, J. A., Ramankutty, N., Brauman, K. A., Cassidy, E. S., Gerber, J. S., Johnston, M., … Zaks, D. P. M. (2011). Solutions for a cultivated planet. Nature, 478(7369), 337–342.
• Francis, C. A., & Porter, P. (2011). Ecology in Sustainable Agriculture Practices and Systems. Critical Reviews in Plant Sciences, 30(1-2), 64–73.
• Godfray, H. C. J., Beddington, J. R., Crute, I. R., Haddad, L., Lawrence, D., Muir, J. F., … Toulmin, C. (2010). Food Security: The Challenge of Feeding 9 Billion People. Science, 327(5967), 812–818.
• Holt-Giménez, E., & Altieri, M. A. (2013). Agroecology, Food Sovereignty, and the New Green Revolution. Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems, 37(1), 90–102.
• Holt Giménez, E., & Shattuck, A. (2011). Food crises, food regimes and food movements: rumblings of reform or tides of transformation? Journal of Peasant Studies, 38(1), 109–144.
• Homer-Dixon, T. (2007). The upside of down: catastrophe, creativity and the renewal of civilization. Toronto: Vintage Canada.
• Jarosz, L. (2011). Defining World Hunger: Scale and Neoliberal Ideology in International Food Security Policy Discourse. Food, Culture and Society: An International Journal of Multidisciplinary Research, 14(1), 117–139.
• Lang, T., & Heasman, M. (2004). Food wars: the global battle for mouths, minds and markets. Earthscan.
• Macdiarmid, J. I., Kyle, J., Horgan, G. W., Loe, J., Fyfe, C., Johnstone, A., & McNeill, G. (2012). Sustainable diets for the future: can we contribute to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by eating a healthy diet? The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 96(3), 632–639.
• Magrone, T., Perez de Heredia, F., Jirillo, E., Morabito, G., Marcos, A., & Serafini, M. (2013). Functional foods and nutraceuticals as therapeutic tools for the treatment of diet-related diseases. Canadian Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology, 91(6), 387–396.
• Maye, D., & Kirwan, J. (2013). Food security: A fractured consensus. Journal of Rural Studies, 29, 1–6.
• Moore Lappé, F. (2012). Beyond the scarcity scare: reframing the discourse of hunger with an eco-mind. Journal of Peasant Studies, 40(1), 219–238.
• Patel, R. (2012). Stuffed and starved: the hidden battle for the world food system. Brooklyn, N.Y.: Melville House Pub.
• Pfeiffer, D. A. (2008). Eating fossil fuels: oil, food and the coming crisis in agriculture. Gabriola Island (BC): New Society Publishers.
• Popkin, B. M. (1998). The nutrition transition and its health implications in lower-income countries. Public Health Nutrition, 1(01), 5–21.
• Pretty, J. (2008). Agricultural sustainability: concepts, principles and evidence. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 363(1491), 447–465.
• Sage, C. (2012). Environment and food. London; New York: Routledge.
• Tscharntke, T., Clough, Y., Wanger, T. C., Jackson, L., Motzke, I., Perfecto, I., … Whitbread, A. (2012). Global food security, biodiversity conservation and the future of agricultural intensification. Biological Conservation, 151(1), 53–59.
• Twilley, N. (2014, January 6). Is Your Refrigerator Running? Retrieved January 15, 2014, from http://modernfarmer.com/2014/01/refrigerator-running/
• Wittman, H. (2009). Reframing agrarian citizenship: Land, life and power in Brazil. Journal of Rural Studies, 25(1), 120–130.
• Woods, J., Williams, A., Hughes, J. K., Black, M., & Murphy, R. (2010). Energy and the food system. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 365(1554), 2991–3006.

Tutorial Session

In tutorial, your TA will

• Guide you through the expectations of Term 2 presentation format - Tag Team Debate
• Work through the process of unpacking a debate issue, developing affirmative and negative positions, finding suitable evidence to support your claims, developing rebuttals, and crafting closing statements

Here is an excellent resource (15 minute read!) for preparing for your debates in LFS 250 (and beyond):

Beqiri, G. (2018) - [BLOG] Complete Guide to Debating: How to Improve your Debating Skills.

HIGHLIGHTS:

• Basic Argument Structure
• Rebuttals + Common Logical Flaws (fallacies)
• Important Skills for Debating