6.4 agri food industry and its unsustainability

course
SYSTEM DESIGN FOR SUSTAINABILITY

subject
6. Design exercise – sustainable system concept for eating in IIT
Delhi and Guwahati campuses

learning resource
6.4 AGRI-FOOD INDUSTRY AND ITS
(UN)SUSTAINABILITY
contributors:
fabrizio ceschin, carlo vezzoli, daniel metcalfe & hussain indorewala
Politecnico di Milano / Faculty of Design / INDACO Dpt. / Italy

LeNS, the Learning Network on Sustainability: Asian-European multi-polar network for curricula
development on Design for Sustainability focused on product service system innovation.
Funded by the Asia-Link Programme, EuroAid, European Commission.

Fabrizio Ceschin, Carlo Vezzoli, Daniel Metcalfe & Hussain Indorewala
Politecnico di Milano / Faculty of Design / INDACO Dept. / Italy

CONTENTS

1. THE FOOD PRODUCTION-CONSUMPTION CHAIN
2. MAIN ISSUES IN FOOD PRODUCTION-CONSUMPTION CHAIN
3. KEY SUSTAINABILITY ISSUES OF FOOD SYSTEM
4. SUSTAINABLE FOOD?

source available even on LeNS / OLEP
The presentation is based on the work did by TISCHNER, U. & KJAERNES, U.,
„Sustainable consumption and production in the agriculture and food domain‟,
in LAHLOU. S., EMMERT, S. (ed.), Proceedings: SCP cases in the field of food,
mobility and housing, Proceedings of the Sustainable Consumption Research
Exchange (Paris), June 2007, pp. 201-237
part of the SCORE! EU funded project


1. THE FOOD PRODUCTION & CONSUMPTION CHAIN


THE FOOD PRODUCTION & CONSUMPTION SYSTEM

LANDSCAPE
Societal, Economical and Technological trends

CONTEXT AND REGIME CONDITION
Influence of Policy, Research centres, Media, NGOs…

Production and supply of auxiliary materials, machines, packaging etc. by DIVERSE SUPPLIERS

FARMERS FOOD RETAILERS: COMMERCIAL CONSUMERS CONSUMERS
AND PROCESSORS: Different types of, CUSTOMERS: OR OTHER OR OTHERS,
CATTLEMEN: Several stages: also directly from Prepare food and offer to ORGANISATI MUNICIPALI
Crops and
cattle growing Refinement of farmer to consumer: consumers ONS: TY:
(raw food raw materials, Sell food to Remove and Final disposal/
production of commercial and PRIVATE CONSUMERS: reuse food composting of
production)
end products private customers Consume food with or leftovers food waste.
without own preparation

TRANSPORT AND PACKAGING between every production step and normally also at all different stages of
processing, retail and between commercial customers and private consumers.


FARMERS AND CATTLEMAN

INDUSTRIALISED FOOD AND GLOBALISATION OF ITS CHAIN

- food production has become an industry: additional processing steps
and intermediaries have been added between farmer and consumer
-conventional agriculture worldwide is still becoming more intensified
with a greater use of synthetic fertilisers, pesticides, and automated
technical devices
-farms are growing in average size
- food materials are being transported over large distances, being
processed in countries with low labor cost


FARMERS AND CATTLEMAN

FARMERS UNDER PRESSURE (LOOSING POWER IN THE FOOD CHAIN)

- industrial agriculture: farmers are increasing their dependency on
energy and synthetic fertilizer inputs; belong and complex marketing
chain of which they are a tiny part (with big food processors dictating
the prices)


FOOD PROCESSORS

POWER CONCENTRATION IN FEW HANDS

- most of the agricultural goods produced are transformed into food
industry products (e.g. in EU more than 70%)
- in food processing there are fewer and fewer companies sharing the
market, thus power is concentrated in fewer hands in the system


RETAILERS

POWER CONCENTRATION IN FEW HANDS

- fewer and fewer, larger and larger retail chains share the market and
fight mainly using low price policy
- small stores can only survive, if they have special quality products or
services and are innovative, or very much embedded in local culture
and traditions
- often big retailers can dictate prices to agricultural producers and
processors in the mainstream industrial system


CONSUMERS

CONSUMPTION TRENDS

- unhealthy diets (over-consumption of calories per capita in
industrialised contexts, and unbalanced and poor diets in emerging
and low-income contexts)
- consumption of highly processed food (fast and cheap food),
accompanied by a decreasing knowledge about food
- reduction of the average preparation time for meals
- increasing awareness on hunger and obesity/ health aspects of food
- declining trust in food safety


CONSUMERS

CONSUMPTION CONTRA-TRENDS

- slow food movement, to preserve and strengthen the cultural cuisine
and tradition, safeguard the local food plants and seeds, and small
local farmers and food producers (in industrialised contexts)
- increasing organic food consumption
- increasing awareness (in industrialised contexts) of fair trade
relationships with stakeholders in emerging and low-income contexts


CONSUMERS, MUNICIPALITY & OTHERS

DISPOSAL

- it depends from context to context; in industrialised contexts the
separate collection of rubbish (organic, plastic, metal, glass &
undifferentiated) is generally diffused and effective
- problem of food disposed because has not been consumed (food
remnants) or because it has gone out-of-date (high quantity in
industrialised contexts)


2. MAIN ISSUES IN AGRI-FOOD SECTOR


A. Moving towards cereal mono-culture crops

“If you are what you eat, and especially if you eat industrial food,
as 99% of Americans do, what you are is corn...” Michael Pollan

Cereals like corn and soya are crops that are easy to be
industrialized, and therefore are taking the place of many
traditional crops, reducing biodiversity.
The access of these cereals in industrial countries is diverted
towards the livestock industry (and later to the biodisel industry).
Industrial agriculture on mono cultures is highly dependent on
artificial fertilizers, insecticides, herbicides, pesticides which are
the main cause of water and soil Pollution.


A. Moving towards cereal mono-culture crops
cereal consumption 700-1000 Kg
(Kg of cereals consumed in one year per capita)
Industrial products
there is an over-production of
cereals, but each person cannot
Alcohol drinks
eat more than 150 kg in one
year.
for this reason cereals are used
to feed livestock (even if this is
not the natural feed for some 150 Kg
animals), produce industrial Animal products

drinks and other industrial food.
Direct consumption

Industrial

B. Fuel dependency
high quantity of liters of oil equivalents are expended annually to feed
each person (in a industrialised country (US) ~ 250.00 liters).

agricultural energy consumption is broken down as follows:

31% for the manufacture of inorganic fertilizer
19% for the operation of field machinery
16% for transportation
13% for irrigation
08% for raising livestock (not including livestock feed)
05% for crop drying
05% for pesticide production
08% miscellaneous

(energy costs for packaging, refrigeration, transportation to retail
outlets, and household cooking are not considered in these figures)


C. Meat industry and un-sustainability
“Meat production is the most important contributing factor to the un-
sustainability of food in Western countries. We have known for a long time
that in terms of using natural resources, a lot is lost by feeding animals with
food, which we could actually eat directly ourselves”.

Animal protein production requires more than 8 times as much fossil-
fuel energy than production of plant protein. Energy input to protein
output ratio of beef is 54:1, of lamb is 50:1, for eggs its 26:1, for
pork its 17:1, for milk protein 14:1, for turkey meat it is 13:1, and
finally chicken meat is 4:1.

Some data (industrialised comntexts):
Meat and dairy production account for 13.5% of total GHG emissions
in the EU25. Agriculture accounts for 80% and livestock production
alone consumes 50% of all water used in the U.S.


D. Genetic Modified Organism (GMO)
Corn and soya were the first crops to be genetically modified, and by
the year 2000 more then half of corn and soya grown in the US was
genetically modified.
Strong multinational companies lobby for GMO (farmers are
dependent from these companies because GMO plants often yeld
sterile seeds.
GMO seeds can contaminate regular crops.
There is also the possibility that GMOs could introduce new allergens
into foods, or contribute to the spread of antibiotic resistance.
The risk connected to the use of GMO seed, for environment and
human health, is however unclear. Nevertheless there should be the
adoption of the “precaution” principle.


4. KEY SUSTAINABILITY ISSUES OF FOOD SYSTEM


ENVIRONMENTAL PROFILE OF FOOD SYSTEM
(mainstream industrialised conventional food chain)

NOT ENOUGH LAND FOR FEEDING THE WORLD’S POPULATION

- it is expected that in 2050 9 billion people would require between
1.8 and 2.2 Earth-sized planets in order to sustain their
consumption of crops, meat, fish, and wood
- the problem here is not (only) the growing population but
(especially) the very unsustainable mainstream conventional
industrialised production and consumption system


ENVIRONMENTAL PROFILE OF FOOD SYSTEM
(mainstream industrialised conventional food chain)
- the main environmental impacts are determined by the PRIMARY
PRODUCTION STAGE (growing crops and cattle); these impacts are
due to land and pesticide use, over-fertilisation and energy
consumption for inputs such as agricultural equipment cattle fodder
- (for energy use) there are relevant contributions from: MEALS
PRODUCTION, STORAGE (cooling) and TRANSPORTATION
- (for energy use) PACKAGING generally contributes less than 5% to
the total energy consumption
- SEPARATE COLLECTION OF RUBBISH (organic, plastic, metal, glass
& undifferentiated) is generally diffused in industrialised contexts
- problem of FOOD LOSSES that are disposed because have not been
consumed (food remnants) or because it has gone out-of-date


Environmental dimension
BIODIVERSITY

- habitats and species are under increasing threat from intensive
agriculture due to the emphasis on increasing yields


Socio-ethical dimension
HAVING GOOD FOOD FOR ALL

- Having enough healthy food for all: this is a key problem both in
emerging and low industrialised contexts (where people often have
to little food and/or unbalanced diets), and in industrialised contexts
(where people often get diseases related to over-consumption and
unbalanced diets)


FAIR TRADING RELATIONSHIPS

Between the different stakeholders of the value chain.

- We have to consider the relations between farmers on one hand,
and food processing companies and supermarket chains on the
other

- Between the North and the South of the world the problem is
between small scale producers in the South and big multinational
corporate buyers from the North


CULTURAL DIVERSITY AND FOOD TRADITIONS

- Another issue to be considered is the continuing loss of cultural
diversity and food traditions, mainly caused by the one-dimensional
food offers determined all around the world by multinational food
producers


INFORMATION AND TRANSPARENCY IN RELATION TO THE FINAL
USER

- Sometimes the complexity of the food chain determines for
consumers the difficulty in gathering information on the involved
stakeholders, and so in having information (for example about
trading relationships with farmers in the South, animal conditions,
use of GMO, etc.). Therefore it is quite hard for consumers to take
responsibility of their choices and behavior.


4. SUSTAINABLE FOOD?


DEFINING SUSTAINABLE FOOD

“sustainable food consumption can be defined as access and use by
all present and future generations of the food necessary for an
active, healthy life, through means that are economically, socially
and environmentally sustainable.”

Lefin (2008)


DEFINING SUSTAINABLE FOOD

“Food consumption and its sustainability cannot be considered as
such, but in a broader system including the production, processing,
transportation, packaging, preparation, and disposal of food, each of
the various stages being possibly analyzed both in terms of their
impact on the environment and on human health.
The goal cannot be to reduce consumption of food as much as
possible, but to figure out which kinds of food, produced and
processed where and in what way, prepared how and by whom,
consumed, digested, with leftovers disposed off or even reused in
what way etc. are the most sustainable options for different regions
and cultures, different productions systems and consumers/
citizens.”

Tischner and Kjaernes (2007)


6.4 agri food industry and its unsustainability

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