ABSTRACT
It has become clear during the course of this book that the contemporary
global agri-food system – despite its achievements in producing more
calories for less money than ever before – is facing a number of
profound challenges. Each of the major components of the system is
associated with a particular set of problems, although we have seen how
dependence on fossil fuels and contributions to global warming are
common features throughout. For primary food production, where
industrialised methods have come to dominate across large parts of the
world, key issues include the excessive utilisation of soil and water
resources, the loss of ecological services, the depletion of biodiversity
(including wild fish stocks), and anxieties around the safety and ethical
dimensions of intensive livestock production. For food processing and
manufacturing, which encompass a wide range of activities, the drive to
deliver convenience and low prices has resulted in many food products
deleterious to nutritional health, and packaging waste streams that
threaten to overwhelm the capacity of local infrastructures. Third,
corporate retailing, which has become the gravitational centre of the
agri-food system, is exerting extraordinary influence, both upstream
through its supply chain and the contracting of producers, and
downstream by shaping the purchasing behaviour of consumers,
including the buying of more than is needed. Waste and
overconsumption are key consequences of a system designed to
maximise throughput and opportunities for profit. Finally, and most
unforgivably of all, while the majority of people in the North and many
in middle-income countries enjoy the luxury of abundance, choice and
low food prices, over 1 billion people in the world today are hungry and,
for at least part of the year, malnourished.
