Читать книгу The Atlas of Food - Erik Millstone - Страница 13

Contemporary Challenges

Part 1

The current global agricultural and food system has many structural defects. Despite centuries of productivity and efficiency increases, a chronic problem of malnutrition continues to afflict a large proportion of poor people, especially those in developing countries. This situation persists despite the fact that, in aggregate, there is enough food to feed everyone a sufficient diet. Undernutrition, characterized by too few calories and/or too few nutrients, is fundamentally linked to poverty, lack of income and entitlement or rights. Although recent years saw reductions in farm-gate prices, to the detriment of farmers around the world, since early 2007 there have been substantial increases in food prices. This has been caused by a combination of factors. High oil prices impact on food production and transport costs, and have encouraged the drive towards the cultivation of crops for biofuels. This in turn has reduced the amount of grain available for food, which has led to an increase in grain prices and increasingly urgent warnings of diminishing global food stocks. Of course, the people most affected by rising prices are poor people everywhere, given that they are likely to spend the highest proportion of their incomes on food. The practices of farmers, traders, food processors and retailers make heavy demands on the environment, increasing the rate at which resources such as rainforest, soil and water are depleted, and the rate of pollution from fossil fuels and agri-chemicals. Once again, the adverse consequences of these unsustainable practices fall disproportionately on the poor, and especially on those in the poorest countries. It would be a mistake, however, to suppose that problems of food-related public and environmental health are confined to the impoverished. Bacteria, viruses and chemical contaminants are found everywhere, and diet-related problems such as obesity and diabetes are becoming increasingly prevalent in rich countries, and among well-off citizens of countries where poorer people are dying of malnutrition. The levels of waste, pollution and soil degradation, and the use of energy and water in food and agriculture could be markedly reduced. Social and technological changes could help slow or reverse some forms of land degradation, and diminish the adverse environmental and health impacts of the food system. International co-operation is essential, however, to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and to make our food systems more ecologically, socially and economically sustainable.

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