Abstract

Winton Scholar Monika Szumilo will host this informal discussion.

Abstract: Our current food system is facing major sustainability challenges. About 65% of the daily water consumption is used for the production and processing of food. The Western style diet requires between 7 and 10 calories of fossil fuel energy to produce 1 calorie of food energy, when looking at energy use in the entire food chain. Both water and fossil fuel are likely to become scarce, in particular in light of the expected growth of the world population from the current 7 billion to 9 billion by 2050. Furthermore, the use of pesticides and chemical fertilizers has contributed to environmental pollution and degradation. The focus on high yielding plant varieties and animal breeds has caused massive genetic erosion, due to the disappearance of many diverse populations of crops and animals maintained by farmers and adapted to local circumstances. In addition, large areas of rainforest, and concomitantly flora and fauna species, are disappearing as more land is needed for the production of animal feed and biofuels. Finally our food system is characterized by diet-related ill-health: over 1 billion people are overweight and many suffer from obesity-related diseases while also more than 1 billion people suffer from malnutrition and hunger. Lack of resources, environmental degradation and diet-related ill-health are just a few of the problems inherent to our food system. Other issues of concern are for instance food waste, climate change, soil degradation, competition over land use and large social inequalities in access to food.