DIETARY GUIDELINES AND THE
SUSTAINABILITY OF FOOD SYSTEMS
Malcolm Riley
Sustainable development is relevant to dietary guidelines because the production and consumption of food is a fundamental human activity guided by what we choose to eat. Human activity has affected all the major planetary processes and cycles, and the earth’s human population continues to grow, as does its appetite for resources. The immediate problems facing the world concern not limits to those resources but the increasing disturbances to global and natural systems.
Systemic changes have been recognised—climate change, ozone depletion, biodiversity loss, freshwater depletion and degraded food-producing systems.
1. All of these have important implications for activities such as food production. Although sustainable development is a global concern, solutions also need to be sought at national and local levels. If we are to deal comprehensively with the problems that have been identified, we need integrated policies across many sectors; these policies must be adequately resourced and have an effective legislative and administrative base.
2. The World Commission on Environment and Development defined sustainable development as ‘the ability to meet the needs of the current generation without compromising future generations’ ability to meet their economic needs’. Common elements in more comprehensive definitions of sustainable agriculture and animal production are resource efficiency, profitability, productivity, environmental soundness, biodiversity, social viability, and other ethical aspects.
3. Important prerequisites for sustainable production are appropriate governmental policies, awareness of our way of thinking, and a more communal world view. The consensus on human impact is that every major planetary process—whether in the biosphere, the lithosphere, the hydrosphere or the atmosphere—is already dominated by our activity.
4. The dominant species on earth (domesticated animals and plants) are heavily selected for specific traits, and this has reduced genetic heterogeneity and adaptability. Maintaining the desirable traits in adverse environments, and in the face of mounting disease and pathogen attacks (predicted results of global climate change), requires ever-increasing energy
inputs and environmental modification.
5. It can be argued that the limits of sustainability have already been reached in the human population—with 6 billion humans alive today—since at least 20 per cent of the population suffers from hunger, our natural resources are overexploited, and biodiversity is threatened.
6. Demographers now believe that the world population will reach a peak of 8 to 10 billion during the 21st century, before beginning to slowly decline as fertility rates drop below the level necessary for replacement.
7. Problems relating to sustainable development will then be focused on managing for the peak world population, rather than for a continually rising population. This task will be difficult enough in its own right, and ecological
SUSTAINABILITY OF FOOD SYSTEMS
Malcolm Riley
Sustainable development is relevant to dietary guidelines because the production and consumption of food is a fundamental human activity guided by what we choose to eat. Human activity has affected all the major planetary processes and cycles, and the earth’s human population continues to grow, as does its appetite for resources. The immediate problems facing the world concern not limits to those resources but the increasing disturbances to global and natural systems.
Systemic changes have been recognised—climate change, ozone depletion, biodiversity loss, freshwater depletion and degraded food-producing systems.
1. All of these have important implications for activities such as food production. Although sustainable development is a global concern, solutions also need to be sought at national and local levels. If we are to deal comprehensively with the problems that have been identified, we need integrated policies across many sectors; these policies must be adequately resourced and have an effective legislative and administrative base.
2. The World Commission on Environment and Development defined sustainable development as ‘the ability to meet the needs of the current generation without compromising future generations’ ability to meet their economic needs’. Common elements in more comprehensive definitions of sustainable agriculture and animal production are resource efficiency, profitability, productivity, environmental soundness, biodiversity, social viability, and other ethical aspects.
3. Important prerequisites for sustainable production are appropriate governmental policies, awareness of our way of thinking, and a more communal world view. The consensus on human impact is that every major planetary process—whether in the biosphere, the lithosphere, the hydrosphere or the atmosphere—is already dominated by our activity.
4. The dominant species on earth (domesticated animals and plants) are heavily selected for specific traits, and this has reduced genetic heterogeneity and adaptability. Maintaining the desirable traits in adverse environments, and in the face of mounting disease and pathogen attacks (predicted results of global climate change), requires ever-increasing energy
inputs and environmental modification.
5. It can be argued that the limits of sustainability have already been reached in the human population—with 6 billion humans alive today—since at least 20 per cent of the population suffers from hunger, our natural resources are overexploited, and biodiversity is threatened.
6. Demographers now believe that the world population will reach a peak of 8 to 10 billion during the 21st century, before beginning to slowly decline as fertility rates drop below the level necessary for replacement.
7. Problems relating to sustainable development will then be focused on managing for the peak world population, rather than for a continually rising population. This task will be difficult enough in its own right, and ecological
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