ABSTRACT
This chapter investigates modern food systems from a perspective of Sustainability. Food is among the most basic human needs. A massive range of human activities relate to the production, processing, and distribution of food. An equally broad and diverse range of practices relates to the preparation and consumption of food. Moreover, food is highly relevant with regard to Sustainability. For example, access to food (including land and water for food production) as well as the protection from food scarcity, low quality, or unequal distribution of food are age-old questions of social power and order. At the same time, agriculture (as the main source of food) always has to operate within ecological boundaries, which also implies that bad weather events, droughts, pests as well as overexploitation can have devastating effects on human health and well-being. Finally, contemporary globalised and industrialised food production as well as consumer cultures in affluent societies have created a broad range of additional challenges to Sustainability from processed food of low nutritional and health value to packaging, to massive amounts of food waste, and to so called food miles accumulated in production and distribution chains.
