Sustainability is one of the great problems facing food production today. Using cross-disciplinary perspectives from international scholars working in social, cultural and biological anthropology, ecology and environmental biology, this volume brings many new perspectives to the problems we face. Its cross-disciplinary framework of chapters with local, regional and continental perspectives provides a global outlook on sustainability issues. These case studies will appeal to those working in public sector agencies, NGOs, consultancies and other bodies focused on food security, human nutrition and environmental sustainability.
This book takes a wide-ranging and non-dogmatic view of SDG12, tackling various approaches as to how production and consumption can provide for human well-being while minimizing destructive effects on the biophysical environment.
Agricultural and food consumption practices are the most important contributors to ecosystem degradation and climate change. Consumers are called on to take responsibility for sustainable development; to consider the environment in their everyday life, to choose more sustainably produced goods and services. However, often consumers are not directly involved in food production and preparation. Today many of the meals we eat are prepared by someone other than ourselves. In addition, environmental and social issues of food production might be important to us but they have to be weighed up against a range of situational and personal considerations. Thus 'making a sustainable choice' can be far from straightforward. This book explores the question 'how sustainable food consumption can be encouraged' using social practices theory. This approach focuses not on the individual behaviour of consumers, but on everyday food practices (like shopping for food, eating lunch at work, etc.) and their context. The book discusses how Dutch consumers engage in sustainable food consumption on an everyday basis, and how consumers with different grocery shopping practices differ in this engagement. A second study considers the sustainable development of food provisioning within business catering (food procurement and provisioning). Here we discover the importance of food professionals and the opportunities that canteens and kitchens offer to explore more sustainable ways of eating. Both studies illustrate how a context-oriented approach leads to insights on where we find leverage points for changing consumption patterns.
The Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research works to promote food security, poverty eradication, and the sound management of natural resources throughout the developing world. It is the largest scientific network of its kind. CGIAR operates through 16 international research centres around the world and its members comprise 58 industrial and developing countries, private foundations, and regional and international organisations.
This book takes a wide-ranging and non-dogmatic view of SDG12, tackling various approaches as to how production and consumption can provide for human well-being while minimizing destructive effects on the biophysical environment.
This Brief examines the sustainability of energy use in global food production and processing. The nexus between food, water, and energy are explored against a background of climate change. Current efforts to reduce the energy intensity of food and increase sustainability are explored. Food waste and its impact on energy is covered, including regional variations and nutrient recycling methods. Energy Use in Global Food Production uses case studies to illustrate how food production and processing is a significant contributor to anthropogenic climate change. Modern industrial agriculture uses fossil fuel to grow crops and produce fertilizers, pesticides and farm machinery. Additional energy is used to transport and process food at a primary and secondary level. With the median forecast for global population at more than 9 billion by 2030, a 30% increase over the current population, energy efficient food processing will be of increasing importance. This Brief provides an overview of current energy efficient food processing methods looks at the way forward as demands continue to increase.
Providing food, clean water and energy for a growing population is one of the greatest challenges facing public and private sector professionals. While there is widespread recognition of the complex feedback loops between energy, water and food, there has been less focus on viable solutions. This guide by Will Sarni – an internationally recognized thought leader on corporate water stewardship and water tech innovation – frames the key issues and challenges for business professionals, and then outlines emerging solutions which include both "soft path" and technology innovation approaches. The book includes case examples of multinational companies who are abandoning business as usual and moving beyond traditional thinking. It also highlights crucial new partnerships or "collective action initiatives" where NGOs, multinationals and the public sector come together to forge practical solutions to meet the needs of their stakeholders. Solutions to the energy–water–food nexus will need to be disruptive, not incremental, and will require technology innovation, new public–private partnerships, and changes in public policy. Beyond the Energy–Food–Water Nexus shows organizations how they can play their part in improving the quality of life for an urbanized global population while preserving the ecosystems that sustain us all.
Sustainability can be seen as one of the most important issues of the 21st century and has increasingly moved into the spotlight in Germany, becoming the main topic of discussion today. The growing interest in sustainable food is not only pushing the German food industry to expand its supply of sustainable products to meet the consumer demand, but it also raises the question about what is driving German consumers to adopt a sustainable nutrition lifestyle today more than ever before. Since neither literature nor preliminary data are available to provide information on the causes of this shift in sustainable consumption behaviour in Germany, it has become the subject of the present research work. It attempted to identify certain links between motivation, relevant external factors and the shift in eating behaviour patterns that have contributed to the growing awareness and trend towards sustainability. Regarding this, the theory of consumer behaviour proposes a number of models and explanatory approaches to explain consumer behaviour among which the SOR model provides a suitable explanatory approach to better understand the rising shift in sustainable food consumption as it analyses the consumer's internal processes which is also called the black box. In this way, it was the purpose of the research to open the black box in order to obtain a better understanding of the internal consumers' processes responsible for the decision to adopt a sustainable nutrition. As a result, the research identified a range of motivations, which has been essentially seen as an interplay between intrinsic beliefs and extrinsic drivers. Among these reasons cited were environmental and climate factors, health, wellbeing and altruistic attitudes, ethics and morals, animal welfare, and others. Furthermore, external factors such as the Corona pandemic, social media, media in general, the social environment such as family, friends or colleagues, and others were identified to have played an immediate, influential role and have contributed to the shift towards sustainable food consumption. This paper has also further demonstrated the importance of further research, especially in interdisciplinary areas of sustainable nutrition, and the need to develop applicable approaches for action. This is because planet earth reflects the ways people live today and the time is now to start making a difference in how people live on it - which is why sustainable nutrition offers one of the many ways to accomplish it.
