Sustainable Food Supply and Water Security Quiz

Sustainable Food Supply

• A sustainable food supply produces food while protecting land, energy, and water resources for future generations.
• Meeting the food needs of a growing population (projected 9.1 billion by 2050, a 34% increase) requires a 70% increase in food production by 2050; food will need to be produced on less land, and water and electricity will become increasingly scarce.
• Food security involves access to enough nutritious food, affordable and readily available food. This includes all citizens having enough nutritious food, the capacity of people to buy food of acceptable quality, and barrier-free access to food. The right to food is an international human right.

Water Security

• Water security encompasses providing safe drinking water, sanitation, and hygiene. It also involves supporting agriculture, industry, and energy; maintaining healthy rivers and ecosystems; preventing water-related disasters; and creating adaptable communities.

Economic Opportunity

• Sustainable agriculture conserves resources, potentially lowering input costs and creating stable future revenue for farmers.

Increased Stability

• Food security, water security, and economic development create greater stability and safety for individuals and societies.
• Resource competition (e.g., shared water resources) can lead to national and group conflicts.
• Resource scarcity can cause migration, further straining resources and causing tensions.

Environmental Protection

• Sustainable food production reduces environmental damage and resource depletion.
• Sustainable farming practices use integrated pest management, minimizing the use of harmful pesticides.
• Sustainable farming promotes carbon sequestration.
• Sustainable practices also consider energy consumption in transportation and storage and the environmental effect across the whole food production chain, to reduce impacts on local biodiversity, waterways, air, and sound quality.

Need for Sustainable Food Supply

• Sustainable food production and consumption improves human and environmental health.
• Global food production systems need to change to reduce their environmental impact.

Environmental Impact of Food Production

• Food production contributes to climate change, water scarcity, soil degradation, and biodiversity loss.
• Crop, animal, and forestry production account for 25% of global greenhouse gas emissions.
• Agricultural land accounts for 37% of Earth's land surface and consumes 70% of freshwater resources.
• The environmental impact depends on where and how food is produced and the local availability of resources.

Depletion of Natural Resources

• Healthy soil is essential for healthy plants and animals, leading to nutritious food.
• Conventional agriculture, with excessive tillage and harmful chemicals, damages soil ecology, increasing issues like erosion, disease susceptibility, water pollution, and drought vulnerability.

Climate Change

• Climate change affects the quantity, quality, stability, and safety of the global food supply.
• Rising temperatures, increased carbon dioxide, and changing weather patterns affect food systems' efficiency and functionality.
• Changes in the environment can negatively impact crop yields, nutrient content, and wider ecosystems that support food production.
• Climate models predict rising temperatures, decreasing crop yields in tropical areas, and potentially higher yields in higher-latitude areas in the short term.
• Lower yields and production unpredictability jeopardize food security and nutrition, raise food prices, and negatively impact poorer households.
• Global reliance on a global rather than local food supply may result from disparities in crop yields, affecting food distribution equity, food sovereignty, and food system sustainability.

Unpredictable Geopolitical and Disease Outbreaks

• Increased carbon dioxide levels may lower the nutritional value of staple crops (e.g., rice, wheat), reducing protein, iron, and zinc content.
• Micronutrient deficiencies will disproportionately affect low-income groups who rely on staple grains.
• Rising food prices exacerbate the risk of nutrient deficiencies amongst vulnerable populations, especially for nutrient-dense foods.
• Impacts of disease outbreaks and climate change can disrupt global supply chains, making access to food more challenging.

Diet and health

• Climate change affects human health via changing food yields, nutrient content, and the spread of pests and infections.

• Aflatoxins, produced by specific molds in tropical regions, pose a risk to human health and affect crop yields, potentially becoming a more widespread issue.

• Higher insect proliferation may result in increased pesticide consumption.

• Warmer weather and rising carbon dioxide levels increase harmful algal blooms, impacting human health, marine health, and economies.

Factors of Food Sustainability

• Sustainable farming practices attempt to be productive and environmentally beneficial, maintaining or improving output while reducing the environmental impact.
• Maintaining biodiversity (plants, animals, and ecosystem) is essential.
• Soil fertility must be protected for ongoing food production.
• Organic and low-carbon food production is encouraged, avoiding artificial fertilizers, insecticides, and genetically modified organisms; better farming practices and techniques are also essential.
• Sustainable farming uses techniques like crop rotation and integrated pest management.

Upholding Animal Welfare

• Sustainable livestock practices prioritize animal health and well-being, providing pasture and free-grazing, minimizing animal pain and suffering.

Protection of Public Health

• Sustainable food is safe and healthy, avoiding harmful pesticides and chemicals, and unnecessary antibiotics and growth promoters.
• Nutrition is increasingly important, with plant-based foods becoming more important.
• Whole foods and fewer processed ingredients are emphasized in sustainable diets.

Good Employment Practice and Community Support

• Sustainable food brands pay fair wages in safe and sanitary environments.
• They support local and regional economies by creating jobs and strengthening communities.