'Sustainable' Food is healthier for People and the Planet...
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People:
Double Burden: There are now over a billion people in the world who go hungry - about the same number who are overweight The WHO calls this "the double burden" and they are both linked through inequality.
"Cheap" food ignores health and the environment. 'Sustainable' food takes into account environmental, health and social concerns.
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courtesy: www.sln.org.uk/geography/
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Planet:
Global Warming: Farming & Food production together make up about 1/5th of UK & World Greenhouse Gases (Stern Report & others)
Land: The UK 'Food Footprint' is 5X the size of the UK
(What, Why, Who, How)
Other concerns: energy use, (ca 10 calories used to produce one food calorie),,water (20 Niles flown out of Africa), biodiversity (v. few crops instead of diverse range).
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What does "sustainable food" mean?
"Sustainable" food promotes various health, environmental and social concerns in the food chain When producing food, we need to use less finite resources like oil, and emit less greenhouse gases (Environmental), treat those in food chain better (Social), and make money for further investment (Economic). Sustainable food encouarges debates and dilemmas such as food miles or local, organic v GM, ethical & fair trade, land & labour, climate change & carbon labelling, cheap v quality (assured), health & environment, biodiversity v monoculture, veggie & animal welfare? On this site, we try to deal with these dilemmas at all levels, from consumer choice to government policy, but mainly at the level of your organisation. Two more Definitions & Principles
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