Sustainable: "Meeting the needs of the present, without compromising the needs of future generations" (Bruntland report)
- so, in terms of food supply it needs to be sufficient and secure, long term and not damaging to the environment
It is a 21st Century Challenge - watch
Limiting factors to achieving sustainability in terms of food supply:
Climate change - advice for UK farmers at Farming Futures Watch this for how farmers can limit their impact on the environment.
A news article about the devestating long term drought and its impact on nomadic pastoralists in Kenya
A new American Dustbowl? Central Valley, California - watch!
Demand for biofuels A Guardian report states: China has signed a contract with the Democratic Republic of Congo to grow 2.8m hectares of palm oil for biofuels. and it's not just 'landgrabbing for biofuel - read more and extract some examples...
Land grabbing - 12 mins newsnight report focusing on the Ukraine.
Population growth? A great link to our population unit - which parts of the world are growing most rapidly?
Strategies?
A possible question?
" Assess possible strategies for achieving a sustainable food supply"
- this table will help you. = WORK TOGETHER HERE
Use fair trade strategies, relocalise food supplies, use less food packaging, increase the use of appropriate technology in LEDCs, increase organic farming, demand more efficient farming practices...
love food hate waste campaign!
More organic farming:
If all UK farmland were converted to organic, the report says, at least 3.2 million tonnes of carbon would be taken up by the soil each year – the equivalent of taking nearly 1 million cars off the road. Read more...
More efficient farming practices? An extract from an FT article...
With 70 per cent of all the world’s fresh water consumption being used for agriculture and more than 200bn tonnes of fertiliser used a year – causing about 2 per cent of CO2 emissions and creating land and water pollution – there is great potential to reduce the amount of water and fertiliser used in cultivation through more precise agricultural practices, and a number of companies have emerged in these areas. READ MORE to find an example of more efficient irrigation and fertiliser.
UK government info re farm efficiency
Science's Role - Watch BBC news and this - it is a 21st Century Challenge
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