Sustainable food systems
A type of food system that provides healthy food for people and creates sustainable environmental, economic, and social systems surrounding food. Sustainable food systems begin with developing sustainable agricultural practices, more sustainable food distribution systems, and reducing food waste. Sustainable food systems also play a central role in many United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and Saudi Vision 2030.
Sustainable food systems aim to address several problems, including social phenomena such as
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undernutrition, nutrient deficiencies, obesity (the triple burden of malnutrition), and environmental phenomena such as climate change, biodiversity loss, and land degradation.
Sustainable food systems in Saudi Arabia
This includes studying eating patterns, considering the impact of food consumption on the planet’s resources and human health, and enhancing the needs of the environment, society, and the economy. International bodies such as the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the World Health Organization (WHO) recognized those researches.
Growing populations and rising incomes are shifting global demand towards what is known as the global food system. This requires a diet high in animal protein, oils, salts, and processed foods.
More research and methods that will help address issues of agricultural production methods, food waste, and environmental problems such as biodiversity loss and global warming are essential to promoting sustainable diets, and determining whether there should be concern about plant versus animal diets and their impact on health.
The transition to sustainable food systems is an important component of addressing the causes of climate change. A 2020 review conducted for the European Union found that up to 37% of global greenhouse gas emissions can be attributed to the food system, including crop and livestock production, transportation, land use change (including deforestation), and food loss and waste. Sustainable food systems are often at the heart of sustainability-focused policy agendas, such as the proposed Green New Deal.
Food Sustainability Standards
The recent increased interest in sustainability has led to the emergence of some food sustainability standards that can be adopted and certified by farms and food processors, the most important of which are:
- Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) standards
- Rainforest Alliance (RFA) standards
- Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) standards
- Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) standards
Problems with conventional food systems
Industrial agriculture causes environmental impacts, and health problems associated with obesity in the rich world and hunger in the poor. This has generated a strong movement toward healthy and sustainable eating as a key component of overall ethical consumption.
Conventional food systems rely heavily on the availability of inexpensive fossil fuels, which are essential for mechanized agriculture, chemical fertilizers manufacture or collection, the processing of food products, and the packaging of foods. Food processing began when the number of consumers began to grow rapidly. The demand for cheap and efficient calories increased, leading to decreased nutrition. Industrial agriculture, which relies on economies of scale to reduce production costs, often damages local, regional, or global ecosystems through fertilizer runoff, non-point source pollution, deforestation, suboptimal mechanisms that influence consumer product choices, and greenhouse gas emissions.
Depending on where a person lives, the amount and type of food resources they have access to will determine. Therefore, not everyone receives the same quality of food. In addition, conventional channels do not distribute food through emergency or charitable aid. Urban dwellers don’t have to worry about their food system because it’s always working for them. Urban dwellers get more sustainable food production from healthier and safer sources than low-income communities. However, traditional channels are more sustainable than charitable or social welfare food sources. Although the conventional food system provides easier access and lower prices, their food may not be the best for our environment or health.
Also, reducing production costs in an increasingly global market can move food production to areas where economic costs (labor, taxes, etc.) are lower or environmental regulations are more lenient, often farther from consumer markets. For example, most salmon sold in the United States are farmed off the coast of Chile, largely due to Chile’s less stringent fish-feeding standards and even though salmon are not native to Chilean coastal waters. The globalization of food production can lead to the loss of traditional diets in less developed countries, and negatively impacts the health of populations, ecosystems, and cultures in those countries.
Furthermore, the conventional food system does not facilitate sustainable production and consumption patterns. Decision-making responsibility is largely assumed to lie with consumers and private companies, who are often expected to spend time – voluntarily and/or without external benefit – seeking to educate themselves about whether specific behaviors and product choices are sustainable. In cases where product information and education are publicly available, they are then expected to change their production and consumption decisions because of the supposedly prioritized ethical values and sometimes health benefits.
In addition, the conventional food system’s popularity among consumers, the high prices of organic food, the relative price gaps between animal-based and plant-based products, and the inadequacy of consumer guidance through assessments.
In 2020, an analysis of the external climate costs for food indicates that external greenhouse gas costs are typically highest for animal products – conventional and organic to about the same extent – followed by dairy products and lowest for organic plant-based foods. Contemporary critical assessments conclude that “inadequate” policymaking that leads to reductions in these costs is feasible, appropriate, and urgent.
Sustainable Agriculture
Globally, the environmental impact of agribusiness is being addressed through sustainable agriculture, cellular agriculture, and organic farming.
At the local level, various movements are working towards local food production, more productive use of urban wastelands, and local gardens including sustainable agriculture, urban gardening, local food, slow food, sustainable gardening, and organic gardening.
Sustainable Seafood
Sustainable seafood is sourced from fished or farmed sources that can sustain or increase production in the future without endangering the ecosystems from which it was sourced. The sustainable seafood movement has gained momentum as more people become aware of overfishing and environmentally destructive fishing methods.
Sustainable Meat
Although livestock meats such as beef and lamb are considered unsustainable, some proponents of regenerative agriculture suggest raising livestock in a mixed-cropping system to reclaim organic matter from grasslands. Organizations such as the Canadian Roundtable for Sustainable Beef are looking for solutions to reduce the environmental impact of meat production. In October 2021, 17% of beef sold in Canada was certified as sustainable beef.
Plant-based meats have been proposed as sustainable alternatives to meat consumption. Plant-based meats emit 30% to 90% less greenhouse gases and 72% to 99% less water than conventional meat.
In addition to reducing the negative impacts of meat production, facilitating transitions toward more sustainable meat, and facilitating reduced meat consumption (including plant-based meat alternatives), cultured meats may offer a potentially sustainable way to produce real meat without the associated negative environmental impacts.
If you have a food facility, Guidance for Consulting and Training will help protect your product/service from exposure to mycotoxins by qualifying it for the international food safety standards ISO 22000 and HACCP.
Guidance for Consulting and Training
We have the knowledge and experience to help institutions and individuals comply with the requirements of the Saudi Standards and Quality Organization, the Food and Drug Authority, and other entities that impose legal and mandatory requirements in the Saudi market.
To qualify your facility, train its personnel and fulfill the required documents to implement the quality and ISO systems.