Sustainable Agriculture Series
- SIG UofT
- Oct 22, 2024
- 3 min read
Part 1: Why We Need More Sustainable Food Systems
When we take that long sip of coffee or savor a bite of that breakfast bagel, we are unlikely to consider the issues surrounding even the smallest ingredients that comprise them. But did you know that getting food onto our plates is not as straightforward as it seems? This three-part series offers a brief exploration of some of the challenges facing agriculture and the actions we can take to make it more sustainable.
Why should we care?
In the final months of 2022, the United Nations (the UN) made an announcement that took the world by storm. Humanity had reached a remarkable milestone. November 15 marked the Day of 8 Billion, the day the UN projected that the world's population had reached a whopping 8 billion. To visualize that magnitude: if you counted each person alive every second, you would be stuck counting for over 250 years!
But despite how mind-boggling it is to imagine, did you know that for the past several decades, humans have been producing more food than we actually need? By 2009, farmers around the world were already producing one and a half times more food than the global population required. This meant they were producing enough food for up to 10 billion people.
Yet, in its annual report, The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2024, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) documented that 2.33 billion people faced moderate to severe food insecurity in 2023.
So, if we produce a surplus amount of food, why do we still grapple with issues of hunger, food insecurity, and malnutrition? Let’s delve into why the UN’s Sustainable Development Goal 2 is “dedicated to ending hunger, improving food security and nutrition, and promoting sustainable agriculture”.
How our current agricultural and food systems fail us.
Here is a quick snapshot of some reasons why our current agricultural system does not work:
❖ As mentioned earlier, we produce enough food to feed the population, but poverty, inadequate infrastructure, and unequal distribution of resources prevent many people from accessing what they need to be healthy.
❖ Environmental damage and climate change adds another layer of complexity, as many current agricultural practices contribute to environmental degradation and greenhouse gas emissions. Additionally, monoculture farming—growing a single crop type at a time—contributes significantly to deforestation and reduces agrobiodiversity, leading to diminished crop resilience and further exacerbating climate change.
❖ Additionally, agriculture is water-intensive, with a significant portion of our freshwater resources dedicated to crop growth, threatening our drinking water supply and causing water scarcity globally.
❖ Our food supply chain also leaves much to be desired, as about one-quarter of produced food is lost or wasted due to inefficient distribution.
How can something so vital to us as human beings have such a wide range of problems? Furthermore, how can we solve them?
The big deal about sustainable agriculture.
Sustainable agriculture aims to tackle all these issues and more.
The Sustainable Agriculture Research & Education Program (SAREP) at the University of California states the goal of sustainable agriculture is to “meet society’s food and textile needs in the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”
Sustainable agriculture encompasses three key dimensions: environmental sustainability, which focuses on promoting responsible stewardship of natural resources; social equity, addressing food injustice and ensuring fair access to nutritious food for all; and economic viability, which guarantees that agricultural practices are profitable and positively contribute to local economies.
In essence, sustainable agriculture is an interdisciplinary approach that acknowledges the interconnected components necessary for food production, emphasizing the collaboration of various systems to make our agricultural and food systems more sustainable.
Some exciting innovations!
While the next two parts will tackle sustainable agriculture from a societal lens, there are still exciting scientific and technological innovations being developed to combat the environmental issues.
These include vertical farming, precision agriculture, biotechnology, agroecology and soil microbial ecology, to name a few. Each of these tackle different issues of sustainable agriculture and hold exciting results!
Bottomline
Sustainable agriculture is a promising approach to feeding humans but as SAREP mentions, sustainable agriculture is also a “negotiation” in progress. There will always be conflicts of interest which is why understanding its importance and the part we play as a community is vital.
See you in part two!
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