Background Image
Previous Page  31 / 104 Next Page
Information
Show Menu
Previous Page 31 / 104 Next Page
Page Background

31

Sustainable food supply

The discourse around food and agriculture that has dominated

the past 60 years needs to be fundamentally re-thought over the

next few years. New strategies are needed that respond to the

daunting challenges posed by climate change mitigation and ad-

aptation, water scarcity, the decline of petroleum-based energy,

biodiversity loss, and persistent food insecurity in growing popu-

lations. A narrowly-focused ‘seed and fertilizer’ revolution will not

avert recurrent food crises under these conditions; current mod-

els of intensive livestock production will be unaffordable; global

and national food supply chains will need to be restructured in

light of demographic shifts and increasing fuel costs. Future food

production systems will not only depend on,

but must contribute

positively to

, healthy ecosystems and resilient communities. Soils

and vegetation in agricultural landscapes must be restored and

managed in ways that not only achieve food security targets far

more ambitious than those committed to under the Millennium

Development Goals, but also provide watershed services and

wildlife habitat, and sequester greenhouse gases.

pellini and Ceponis, 1984; Harvey, 1978; Kader, 2005). Kan-

tor

et al

(1999) estimated the U.S. total retail, foodservice, and

consumer food losses in 1995 to be 23% of fruits and 25% of

vegetables. In addition, losses could amount to 25–50% of the

total economic value because of reduced quality (Kader, 2005).

Others estimate that up to 50% of the vegetables and fruits

grown end as waste (Henningsson, 2004). Finally, substantial

losses and wastage occur during retail and consumption due

to product deterioration as well as to discarding of excess per-

ishable products and unconsumed food. While the estimates

therefore vary among sources, it is clear that food waste rep-

resents a major potential, especially for use as animal feed,

which, in turn, could release the use of cereals in animal feed

for human consumption.

In 2007, US$148 billion was invested in the renewable energy

market, up 60% from the previous year. Recovering energy

from agricultural wastes is becoming increasingly feasible at

the industrial production level; investments in technology en-

hancement of existing systems and innovation in new waste

management systems is called for to support this expanding

green economy.