Angie Celis

Our food system is facing great challenges worldwide. The world’s population is growing rapidly. It is estimated that by the year 2050 the global population will reach 9.8 billion people (Searchinger et al., 2019). Right now, there are hundreds of millions of people suffering from chronic undernourishment. According to the World’s Health Organization 1 in 3 people globally do not have access to safe drinking water (UNICEF & WHO, 2019). On the other hand, water shortage, land decline, loss of biodiversity and resources and subsequently climate change threaten our food system to collapse. At this point, it is crucial to develop a sustainable food future where the growing demands of food can be met without destroying our planet. We have to take into account that our food system is a wicked problem. Wicked problems are problems which are difficult, if not impossible to solve. They represent symptoms of other problems and cannot be proven true or false (Berardy, 2018). In this case, the problems of our food system are simultaneously symptoms of poverty, ethical dilemmas and political negligence.

In this blog, I want to take a look at various agricultural methods such as precision agriculture, genetically modified organisms, agroecology and permaculture as well as their advantages and disadvantages. Furthermore, I want to discuss social environmental awareness and how consumers can help shape public policies and therefore the food system. Lastly, I want to suggest how a combination of the methods discussed can lead to an enhancement of our food system.

Precision Agriculture

Precision Agriculture is a modern management concept based on digital technologies to monitor and optimize agriculture production processes. In the first place, field recordings are created in order to read different soil properties since the fields mostly have uneven soil conditions. This data enables more targeted sowing, fertilization, irrigation and, correspondingly, a better harvesting strategy. Digitalization therefore allows the work to be tailored to the personal needs of the farmer, resulting in higher productivity. This means that precision farming methods help increase both the quality and quantity of agricultural production while using fewer resources such as water, energy, pesticides, etc. This data can also be used to assess the needs and living conditions of individual animals and to optimize their feeding (Schrijver et al., 2016).  In summary, it can be stated that the goals of precision agriculture are to save costs in order to operate more efficiently, to reduce environmental pollution, to produce more and better food and ultimately to improve the animal welfare.

However, many farmers are reluctant to switch to digitalization due to the high investment costs. One has also to take into account that the enormous amount of data generated by digitized agriculture means that fast and reliable data transmission is required (Schrijver et al., 2016). This means that farmers are not only highly dependent on the internet, but also on the owners of these technical platforms. Moreover, cybersecurity is essential since the internet is crucial in this agricultural area meaning that the operating systems are susceptible to hacking attacks. It should be also noted that precision agriculture is more appealing to young farmers, since older farmers may need a longer time to become familiar with these technologies. For this reason, farmers would have to be trained which would lead to additional costs. Lastly, questions arise regarding data ownership rights.

Genetically modified organisms (GMO)

Genetically modified organisms are organisms whose genetic material has been artificially altered in order to include resistance to certain diseases, chemicals or environmental conditions as well as to enhance the nutritional value of certain crops. In this manner, people living in poverty can have access to the nutrients they need in order to maintain their health without spending a lot of money. As mentioned before, GMO crops can be genetically manipulated so that the crop’s yields become much higher satisfying the increasing food demand due to their increased resistance. This means that farmers can use less resources while increasing their output. These crops are also less energy-, soil- and water-demanding which leads to a lower impact on the environment (Gaille, 2020).

On the other hand, new allergies or food intolerances among people could arise due to GMOs. They could also contaminate other plants leading to an unpredictable output with unpredictable features. Another issue is that the use of GMOs encourages a lot of farmers to increase the use of herbicides since their crops won’t be affected negatively. This is a controversial topic due to the negative impact of herbicides on the environment in form of water pollution as well as on human health. This is the case with glyphosate which according to the World Health Organization is a probable carcinogenic. Lastly, genetically modified food does not need to be labelled in many countries which is a questionable lack of transparency towards consumers (Gaille, 2020).

Agroecology and permaculture

Agroecology is an agricultural method that associates ecology and agronomy. It tries to resemble the natural processes of ecosystems allowing a higher production of food while using less resources and therefore reducing the input costs which leads to a higher productivity and a reduction of rural poverty. By using crop rotations and polycultures to avoid soil degradation and minimize crop diseases, agroecology can also help minimize greenhouse emissions, pesticide use, energy and water consumption, etc. contributing to environmental sustainability. Agroecological methods are usually built on traditional farming methods and science. This allows the inclusion and participation of all actors involved. Furthermore, agroecological methods are based on closed-loop, symbiotic relationships where sustainable productivity is sought to be maximized for the long term unlike industrial methods which focus mostly on profit and maximized yield short-term (Hathaway, 2016).

The following chart shows how incorporating diversity on farms can help increase crop yields between 88 up to 190%. This could be achieved in this case just by adding trees.

Figure 1: Maize yields are higher under Faidherbia trees in Zambia (Searchinger et al., 2019)

Permaculture is a form of agroecology that can also be applied beyond agricultural areas such as gardens. Permaculture aims to develop production systems that do not result in ecological degradation or social injustice. Besides being an agricultural method, permaculture has also become a sort of philosophy where ecological as well as social aspects play an important role. The goal is to work with nature in a way that ecosystems stay preserved while humans can satisfy their necessities in a sustainable way (Hathaway, 2016).

Despite the benefits of agroecology, conventional agriculture methods are still wide spread. This is mostly because agroecology is not well known among the public. Also, agroecological methods still need to be improved which requires more research.

Environmental awareness

People around the world are starting to recognize and understand current environmental issues. One has to take into account that in order to obtain effectiveness of policy people need to be mobilized in mass. In order to achieve social mobilization, people need to be provided with information in the four following areas[1]:

• General information on environment to make people aware of a problem
• Information that explain and link the cause and effect of environmental damage, what individuals should be doing
• Information on activities executed by others
• Correct information on government policies, to show that public as well as private sectors are also participating in the process of change.

Changes across the production, distribution and consumption are vital in order to make progress towards a more sustainable food system. It is important to note, that these changes are primarily mediated and influenced by consumers. Thus, the awareness as well as the actions of the public play a crucial role in making environmental policy successful.

An example of how the food system is slowly changing due to environmental awareness is the rise of veganism and other plant-based diets. A study conducted in 2016 in Italy explores the environmental impact of omnivorous, ovo-lacto-vegetarian, and vegan diets in real-life context instead of using hypothetical data and average consumption values like many other studies do. This study shows that vegan and vegetarian diets have a clear environmental advantage regarding carbon, water and land footprints (Rosi et al., 2017). One of the many reasons why this is the case is because meat, particularly beef, is very resource-intensive requiring 20 times more land and emitting 20 times more greenhouse gases per gram of edible protein than common plant proteins (Searchinger et al., 2019).

The following chart shows the land use as well as the greenhouse gas emissions produced by different foods. One can clearly see that animal-based foods are more resource-demanding than plant-based foods leading to a higher negative impact on the environment.

Figure 2: Foods differ enormously in land-use and greenhouse gas (Searchinger et al., 2019)

 

Conclusion

In this blog, I discussed the benefits and drawbacks of precision agriculture, genetically modified organisms, agroecology and permaculture as well as environmental awareness. In regards to precision agriculture, we saw how not only the food system but also the environment can profit from digitalization. We know that working in the agricultural sector is declining even though our population is growing every second meaning that the food demand just continues to increase. We also know that conventional farming threatens future food production by reducing biodiversity and contributing to environmental degradation and climate change while producing less food. This is why it is so important to modernize current agriculture.  We have seen how technology has been picked up rapidly around the world, for instance in the communication area where nowadays, almost everybody possesses a cell-phone regardless their socioeconomic status. This leads to the conclusion that digitalization is almost inevitable in the agriculture. This also applies for GMOs. It will not be possible for every farmer around the world to use technological methods, such as precision agriculture, due to the high investment costs. They still need to figure out how to feed our increasing population levels. With GMOs we have the potential to maximize our output without having to invest in hight-cost technologies. On the other hand, maximizing the output while creating health problems for consumers may not be the right path either. The food system should work to prevent resistance instead of encouraging it. On this account, GMOs should be implemented in moderation. At the same time, methods such as agroecology should be used in order to reduce environmental degradation and to encourage biodiversity.

It is important to say that sustainability is not just about the environment but also about our society. Our food system needs to be environmentally-friendly but also ethical. Lastly, we, the consumers, are probably the most important actors in the food system, since we can more or less steer the food demand.

It is not yet clear what our sustainable food system will look like. In my opinion, there is not a “one size fits all” solution to tackle the challenges that our food system and sustainability are facing today. I think it is rather a combination of different strategies such as technology and environmental awareness together. We can work towards an environmentally sustainable future by partially replacing our animal-based food needs with more vegetables, legumes, fruits and cereals while agriculture adopts different methods to produce food that do not harm the environment and even stimulate it.

Hopefully this blog helps to inform decision makers such as producers and consumers about different agricultural methods besides the well-known conventional agriculture and encourage them to either produce or consume food products with lower environmental impact and to consider new technologies which can help overcome the challenges our food system is facing today.

References

Berardy, A. (2018). Finding the Future of Food: Sustainable Consumption Lessons from and for Veganism. Journal of Chemical Information and Modeling, 53(9), 1689–1699. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781107415324.004

Gaille, L. (2020). 24 Advantages and Disadvantages of GMOs. https://vittana.org/24-advantages-and-disadvantages-of-gmos

Hathaway, M. D. (2016). Agroecology and permaculture: addressing key ecological problems by rethinking and redesigning agricultural systems. Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, 6(2), 239–250. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13412-015-0254-8

Iizuka, M. (2000). Role of Environmental Awareness in Achieving Sustainable Development. 5–34.

Rosi, A., Mena, P., Pellegrini, N., Turroni, S., Neviani, E., Ferrocino, I., Di Cagno, R., Ruini, L., Ciati, R., Angelino, D., Maddock, J., Gobbetti, M., Brighenti, F., Del Rio, D., & Scazzina, F. (2017). Environmental impact of omnivorous, ovo-lacto-vegetarian, and vegan diet. Scientific Reports, 7(1), 1–9. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-06466-8

Schrijver, R., Poppe, K., & Daheim, C. (2016). Precision agriculture and the future of farming in Europe.

Searchinger, T., Waite, R., Hanson, C., & Ranganathan, J. (2019). CREATING A SUSTAINABLE FOOD FUTURE (Issue July).

UNICEF, & WHO. (2019). 1 in 3 people globally do not have access to safe drinking water. https://www.who.int/news-room/detail/18-06-2019-1-in-3-people-globally-do-not-have-access-to-safe-drinking-water-unicef-who

Index of figures

Figure 1: Maize yields are higher under Faidherbia trees in Zambia (Searchinger et al., 2019) 2

Figure 2: Foods differ vastly in land-use and greenhouse gas (Searchinger et al., 2019) 4