Global food systems must be transformed ‘on industrial revolution scale’

The existing food production system clearly isn’t working as millions of people are still malnourished and the environmental impact of food production is not sustainable – as this blog has shown.

‘1 billion are going hungry, 1 billion are lacking crucial vitamins and minerals from their diet and another billion are "substantially overconsuming”’ (Guardian, 2011).

This Guardian article 2011 highlights the need for a change in agricultural practices as shown in the Global Food and Farming Futures report, from the Government office for science. The article nicely sums up how, with our current practices, the world cannot feed itself without destroying the environment, therefore we have no option but to make a change.

We have three main issues – an expanding population to feed, which requires  a change in the unsustainable nature of the exploitation of our natural resources as well as consideration for the impacts associated with climate change – as agriculture is a large contributor of green house gasses. These issues highlight the urgency of the problem.

            The main conclusion is that farmers need to grow more food at a smaller cost to the environment – but unfortunately this is easier said than done and as a result, the report comes to the conclusion that no single solution exists.

            The report states that the solution must involve reducing food waste and spreading our existing knowledge to developing countries. As well as the incorporation of organic agriculture, although the report states that this shouldn’t be the main strategy, as they don’t believe that organic agriculture can meet future demands without huge changes in peoples diets (I will address this in a later post). The report also states that technological advances should be considered such as genetically modified crops and cloned livestock and that they shouldn’t be excluded on ethical or moral grounds. They also highlight that government policy has a large role to play in changing global food systems as the government have been criticized for suggesting that technology holds the solution, many believe it will take a lot more than that!

Have a read of the Guardian article and let me know what you think… should we put our faith in technology and go for GM or should we go back to the small scale organic production of the past, after all, it was a technological revolution that got us into this mess in the first place. Can technology get us out of it again?