Food Systems and the Environment Essay

The status of food security in any community across the globe can be considered as the major principal outcome of food systems when these systems are defined generically and broadly. Increase in the productivity and efficiency of food systems have shown much success across the globe in improving nutrition and reducing the prevalence of hunger. However the efficiency and productivity of food systems have raised concerns as they pose serious threats to economic, environmental and social goals and hence they have undermined food security. On the other hand environmental changes around the world in the context of political, economic and social changes may result to unprecedented stresses to bear on food security and food systems. Food systems are conceived as set of activities that range from production through to consumption. In production process of raw materials for food the major trends have been intensification of agriculture which is accompanied by concentration in the agricultural inputs and the trend to larger agricultural lands sizes with hired labor. This trend is accompanied by increased fragmentation of land among the marginalized small holders. As a consequence there is increased demand of water for irrigation, increased pollution, soil loss and increased energy demands in the production sectors. (i. ) Environmental pollution resulting from food processing industries In the current economic systems farming is no longer the dominant economic activity in the overall food systems. This is because people are more concerned in adding value in the overall food product in the area of processing and packing of raw materials into food products. Due to increase of these activities many factories and industries have concentrated up and down the food production and supply chain. The expansion of industries has resulted to more toxic effluents being emitted from factories into water and air. The number of processing industries in both urban and rural areas has grown tremendously which have resulted to pollution of water bodies, air and soil (Richardson, pp 7). In some cases ground water quality has also been affected due to increasing production and use of pesticides and fertilizers aimed at promoting more intensive cropping and self sufficiency in food. Expansion of factories and food processing plants has also created major problems of waste disposal. Low lying fields are generally used for waste disposals without the benefits of using sanitary methods have resulted to major pollution problems. (ii) Over killing of animals species leading endangered species. Endangered animal species face the dander of becoming extinct since they are low in number and therefore need protection in order to survive. Human activities such as killing animals for food and commercial trade are rendering many animals to continue suffering high rates of exploitation. A species that is being overexploited become endangered or may become extinct due to the rate at which is being consumed. An example of over exploitation that has been experienced was the unrestricted whaling. The whaling industry during this time over exploited whales and resulted to low population sizes of whales. Due to the decreased number of whales and nearly some of them were nearly extinct several governments agreed to abide by international moratorium on whaling. Over exploitation of animals species harms livelihood since high proportion of world’s population depends on wildlife for their meat protein and their components provided traditional medicines. Over exploitation of plant and animal species does not only affects the following community and threatens the particular species but also it causes imbalance in the whole ecosystem (Guynup, para 4). (iii) Genetically modified foods ecological balance Genetically modified foods are produced from animals and plants which their genes are changed by scientists in the laboratory. Genes are written on the DNA and are the chemical instruction for building and maintaining life. Scientists modify these genes and alter the characteristics of an organism. In so doing yields and resistance to diseases can be improved in both plants and animals. However there are fears some of the genes which have been introduced into some crops can escape and be transferred to other plant species where they can have adverse effects. Some critiques believes that leakage of these genes will result to emergence of super weeds and extinctions of ordinary species of birds and insects and the food chain will became damaged (Eiswasser, Gan & Alia, pp 9). (b) Influence of environment to food systems (i) Effects of global warming and environmental pollution. The overall climate changes including global warming and the increased climate variability will result to variety of impacts on agriculture. Some of he effects of climate change are ecological, biophysical and some are economic. These factors include the following; first there will be shift in agricultural zone and climate towards the poles. Second, the production patterns would be changed due to higher temperatures. Third, agricultural productivity in some regions would be increased due to increased levels of carbon dioxide, fourth the precipitation patterns will be changed and finally most people will be vulnerable of becoming landless. In addition changes of weather patterns may lead to increased crop infestation by pests and chocking weed. In most of the low lying climate change will result to decreased crop yields and therefore in most regions net import of crops will increase. Higher prices of food will render most people to become at risk of hunger (Natural Resources Defense Council, para 8). (ii) Greenhouse production Greenhouse method of food production makes use of controlled environment in modern terms it is also referred to as controlled environmental agricultures. Those methods enables farmers to cultivate food or fruit producing plants in areas and at times when weather conditions would prevent them from growing or adversely affects them green house also prevents the crops from adverse weather conditions which due to the ever increasing population and more agricultural land being lost to urban development. Intensive food production in greenhouse will play a significant role in food production (Peet, para 11). (iii) Location and food prices Provision of food system impacts on what people choose to eat and evidently people can only choose foods that are accessible, affordable and available to them. Food availability is related to the prices and this is determined on the process that the food gets to the consumers and what is on offer. Development and changes of food distribution and supply may be parallel but there may remain strong cultural differences between regions in the way food is produced, distributed and made available to consumers. The cost of distribution of food also affects the food prices due to higher transport costs over long distances (Iton, pp 14). 2. Relationship between food and society. (a) Influence of food systems to the society. Alongside global environmental changes globalization of consumers’ preferences is another change that is taking place. In food systems the spread of fast food is considered synonymous with globalization. There has also been expansion of Asian Latin American and African and other international cuisines into national food cultures (Food and Fuel America. com, para 8). (ii) Food cultures bring people together. There are several areas which can help to bring cultures together. These include talent shows, style shows, and food court. These areas are more effective especially when they are organized for international cultural festivals. When people are eating from the same table they can speak and ask each other questions about their culture directly. Food cultures and style show displays expressions from different countries and therefore people can learn the cultures through hearing, feeling and experiencing the show. In addition people learn about each other when they start taking about food (Weickgenant, para 5). (iii)Treads in food production in the global economy In the year 1999 economic recovery had manifested itself globally after the global slow down which was cause by financial crisis in 1997 and 1998 in Asia. In the year 2000 there was further strengthening and the world GDP was expected to rise by not less than 3 percent which would reflect stronger economic activities. GDP in the developing countries is expected to rise by 4 to 5 percent. At this rate the growth of agricultural GDP in developing countries would not grow strongly than overall GDP in developed countries which is expected to grow at the rate of 5 to 6 percent (Rosegrant, Paisner & Witcover, pp 4). Emerging food safety technologies Due to the needs of the societies to keep food for longer, government agencies and departments of homeland security set targets on bulky food contamination as the focus of attention for food security. Tampering of food or contamination of bulky food poses a serious threat to society. New technologies on the other hand provide mean of monitoring food systems and modifies people behavior. The surveillance technology that has been developed influences individual behaviors and altitudes by introducing additional procedural arrangement (Hendrickx, para 10). Government enacts laws and policies in order to offer remedies of harms which might have been created in the past for example enacting new seed law. Government also aims at protecting safety, quality and health of its citizens (Niskanen, pp 13). Changing in demand and supply When the demand and of a particular product of food increases production and supply of that product increases. As a result there will be much of that product in the market leading to fall in demand and price of the product leading to reduced production and supply (Lee, pp 6). Work Cited Eiswasser E, Gan K & Alia K. Genetically modified foods raise new legal issues, 2001.Retrieved on 1st October 2008 from; http://www. cov. com/files/Publication/e435e641-b00a-4e20-92f3-0a8639b8f9bb/Presentation/PublicationAttachment/7cd905a2-fe8e-4a25-8709-1096d7ce6aef/oid6070. pdf. Food and Fuel America. com. Food and Fuel America, 2007. Retrieved on 1st October 2008 from; http://www. foodandfuelamerica. com/2007/06/find-alternative-fuel-location. html. Guynup S. Killing the Endangered Species Act, 2008. Retrieved on 1st October 2008 from; http://www. blueridgepress. com/Forms/brp_columns/*ws4d-db-query-Show. ws4d? *ws4d-db-query-Show***EBK-EB-089090098094094090-1377***-Database***-***brp_columns(directory)***. ws4d? brp_columns/detail. html. Hendrickx D. Innovative Food Science and Emerging Technologies, 2008. Retrieved on 1st October 2008 from; http://www. elsevier. com/locate/ifset. Iton A. Tackling the Root Causes of Health Disparities through Community Capacity Building. Retrieved on 1st October 2008 from; http://www. chc. ucsf. edu/pdf/Iton-Tackling%20The%20Root%20Causes%20of%20Health%20Disparities. pdf. Lee D. Demand and Supply the Freeman: Ideas on Liberty, 1998. Retrieved on 1st October 2008 from; http://www. commonsenseeconomics. com/Readings/Demand%20and%20Supply. CSE. pdf Natural Resources Defense Council. Issues: Global Warming, 2008. R