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  • From: "Tradingpost" <tradingpost@lobo.net>
  • To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [Livingontheland] Food needs 'fundamental rethink'
  • Date: Mon, 29 Dec 2008 23:57:13 -0700



"The 21st Century is going to have to produce a new diet for people, more
sustainably, and in a way that feeds more people more equitably using less
land."

Hey, we know how to do that already.
----------------------------------------------------


Food needs 'fundamental rethink'
By Mark Kinver
Science and environment reporter, BBC News

Vegetables (Getty Images)
Food crops, agriculture and biodiversity cannot be separated from one
another

A sustainable global food system in the 21st Century needs to be built on a
series of "new fundamentals", according to a leading food expert.

Tim Lang warned that the current system, designed in the 1940s, was showing
"structural failures", such as "astronomic" environmental costs.

The new approach needed to address key fundamentals like biodiversity,
energy, water and urbanisation, he added.

Professor Lang is a member of the UK government's newly formed Food
Council.

"Essentially, what we are dealing with at the moment is a food system that
was laid down in the 1940s," he told BBC News.

"It followed on from the dust bowl in the US, the collapse of food
production in Europe and starvation in Asia.

"At the time, there was clear evidence showing that there was a mismatch
between producers and the need of consumers."

Professor Lang, from City University, London, added that during the
post-war period, food scientists and policymakers also thought increasing
production would reduce the cost of food, while improving people's diets
and public health.

We all know that waste is everywhere; it is immoral what is happening in
the world of food
Raymond Blanc,
Chef and food campaigner

"But by the 1970s, evidence was beginning to emerge that the public health
outcomes were not quite as expected," he explained.

"Secondly, there were a whole new set of problems associated with the
environment."

Thirty years on and the world was now facing an even more complex
situation, he added.

"The level of growth in food production per capita is dropping off, even
dropping, and we have got huge problems ahead with an explosion in human
population."

Fussy eaters

Professor Lang lists a series of "new fundamentals", which he outlined
during a speech he made as the president-elect of charity Garden Organic,
which will shape future food production, including:

* Oil and energy: "We have an entirely oil-based food economy, and yet
oil is running out. The impact of that on agriculture is one of the drivers
of the volatility in the world food commodity markets."
* Water scarcity: "One of the key things that I have been pushing is to
get the UK government to start auditing food by water," Professor Lang
said, adding that 50% of the UK's vegetables are imported, many from
water-stressed nations.
* Biodiversity: "Biodiversity must not just be protected, it must be
replaced and enhanced; but that is going to require a very different way
growing food and using the land."
* Urbanisation: "Probably the most important thing within the social
sphere. More people now live in towns than in the countryside. In which
case, where do they get their food?"

Professor Lang said that in order to feed a projected nine billion people
by 2050, policymakers and scientists face a fundamental challenge: how can
food systems work with the planet and biodiversity, rather than raiding and
pillaging it?

The UK's Environment Secretary, Hilary Benn, recently set up a Council of
Food Policy Advisers in order to address the growing concern of food
security and rising prices.

Farm working cutting kale (Getty Images)
The 21st Century is going to have to produce a new diet for people, more
sustainably, and in a way that feeds more people more equitably using less
land
Professor Tim Lang

Mr Benn, speaking at the council's launch, warned: "Global food production
will need to double just to meet demand.

"We have the knowledge and the technology to do this, as things stand, but
the perfect storm of climate change, environmental degradation and water
and oil scarcity, threatens our ability to succeed."

Professor Lang, who is a member of the council, offered a suggestion: "We
are going to have to get biodiversity into gardens and fields, and then eat
it.

"We have to do this rather than saying that biodiversity is what is on the
edge of the field or just outside my garden."

Michelin-starred chef and long-time food campaigner Raymond Blanc agrees
with Professor Lang, adding that there is a need for people, especially in
the UK, to reconnect with their food.

He is heading a campaign called Dig for Your Dinner, which he hopes will
help people reconnect with their food and how, where and when it is grown.

"Food culture is a whole series of steps," he told BBC News.

"Whatever amount of space you have in your backyard, it is possible to
create a fantastic little garden that will allow you to reconnect with the
real value of gardening, which is knowing how to grow food.

"And once you know how to grow food, it would be very nice to be able to
cook it. If you are growing food, then it only makes sense that you know
how to cook it as well.

"And cooking food will introduce you to the basic knowledge of nutrition.
So you can see how this can slowly reintroduce food back into our culture."

Waste not...

Mr Blanc warned that food prices were likely to continue to rise in the
future, which was likely to prompt more people to start growing their own
food.

Norfolk black turkey (Getty Images)
Sustainable food helps protect rare breeds and varieties

Raymond Blanc on good food

He was also hopeful that the food sector would become less wasteful.

"We all know that waste is everywhere; it is immoral what is happening in
the world of food.

"In Europe, 30% of the food grown did not appear on the shelves of the
retailers because it was a funny shape or odd colour.

"At least the amendment to European rules means that we can now have some
odd-shaped carrots on our shelves. This is fantastic news, but why was it
not done before?"

He suggested that the problem was down to people choosing food based on
sight alone, not smell and touch.

"The way that seeds are selected is about immunity to any known disease;
they have also got to grow big and fast, and have a fantastic shelf life.

"Never mind taste, texture or nutrition, it is all about how it looks.

"The British consumer today has got to understand that when they make a
choice, let's say an apple - either Chinese, French or English one - they
are making a political choice, a socio-economic choice, as well as an
environmental one.

"They are making a statement about what sort of society and farming they
are supporting."

Growing appetite

The latest estimates from the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)
show that another 40 million people have been pushed into hunger in 2008 as
a result of higher food prices.

This brings the overall number of undernourished people in the world to 963
million, compared to 923 million in 2007.

The FAO warned that the ongoing financial and economic crisis could tip
even more people into hunger and poverty.

"World food prices have dropped since early 2008, but lower prices have not
ended the food crisis in many poor countries," said FAO assistant
director-general Hafez Ghanem at the launch of the agency's State of Food
Insecurity in the World 2008 report.

"The structural problems of hunger, like the lack of access to land, credit
and employment, combined with high food prices remain a dire reality," he
added.

Professor Lang outlined the challenges facing the global food supply
system: "The 21st Century is going to have to produce a new diet for
people, more sustainably, and in a way that feeds more people more
equitably using less land."




  • [Livingontheland] Food needs 'fundamental rethink', Tradingpost, 12/30/2008

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