Food needs 'fundamental rethink'
LODI,
Calif. - DeBy Mark Kinver
Science and environment reporter, BBC News
|
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.
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.
|
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."