The document discusses the concept of food sustainability. It introduces the idea of examining the full food chain from production to consumption and considering factors like resource use, environmental impacts, and social/economic effects. It provides examples of how various food items have large carbon footprints or water needs to be produced. The document advocates reducing food miles, waste, and resource intensity in food production to make it more sustainable.

1. Food & Sustainability
Ramesh Agarwal
Sameer Shisodia

2. Objective
 Familiarize you with your food chain
 Introduce you to the concept of sustainability
 Aspects of food that are linked with sustainability
 Get you thinking about your food
There is a deliberate attempt to keep money out of the discussion

3. Exercise – Know your Food
 List the items that you ate for lunch
 List the ingredients that you think/know are used to
make the same
 Pick your favorite item
◦ List the ingredients
◦ Grade them on the 3 param

4. Exercise - Guidelines
 Food Miles
◦ Distance travelled before it gets to your plate
 Processing Count
◦ Ranges from 1-5 (1 is for primary, 2 for first processing LOW, 3
for first processing HIGH, 4 for second processing , 5 for third
processing
 Resource Intensity
◦ Ranges from 1-5 (1 is the least resource intense and 5 being
the most resource intensive)
 Sustainability Index
◦ 1-5 (1 being the most sustainable and 5 being the least
sustainable)

5. What is Sustainable Food
 Sustainable food isn’t just about the food itself, it’s a
combination of factors including how it’s produced,
how it’s distributed and how it’s consumed.
 To many, food sustainability is often described by
food air miles, but it’s a whole lot more complicated
than that. The sustainability of food includes
consideration of resource usage, environmental impact,
agricultural practices, health considerations as well as
social and economic impact.

6. Why should you care

7. CONSUMPTION

8. Arable Land vs Population
LandUseforEdibleProteinofAnimalOrigin

9. Land use for food
Food group Vegetarians Non-vegetarians
(g/day)
(n = 2148)
(Median; IQR)
(n = 4407) (Median;
IQR)
Cereals 366.9 372.1*
Legumes 61 45.8**
Fruits 115.4 126.0**
Vegetables 241.8 199.6**
Roots tubers 47.3 28.7**
Spices 17.1 18.6**
Fish - 3.9
Meat & poultry - 20.3
Dairy 352.8 291.2**
Nuts 10.1 10
Eggs - 0.1
Fats & oils 43.4 44.2
Sugar 37 31.2**
Food group Non-vegetarians
Annual
Consumption
Approx Land
Use
(g/day)
(n = 4407) (Median;
IQR) (Kgs/year) Hecters
Cereals 372.1 135.8165 0.03665762
Legumes 45.8 16.717 0.02603083
Fruits 126 45.99 0.00744777
Vegetables 199.6 72.854 0.09217358
Roots tubers 28.7 10.4755 0
Spices 18.6 6.789 0
Fish 3.9 1.4235 0
Meat & poultry 20.3 7.4095 0.00667138
Dairy 291.2 106.288 0.02126664
Nuts 10 3.65 0
Eggs 0.1 0.0365 0
Fats & oils 44.2 16.133 0.02332707
Sugar 31.2 11.388
Total 0.2135749
profileofIndianvegetariandiets–theIndianMigrationStudy(IMS)-2014

10. Food Group intake – Rural vs Urban
Men Women
Rural Urban Rural Urban
Fruit (g) 101( 56, 178) 146( 82, 242) 89( 48, 162) 145( 86, 229)
Vegetables (g) 201(132, 287) 334(233, 430) 160(112, 231) 288(209, 388)
Legumes (g) 59( 34, 91) 60( 41, 87) 41( 26, 70) 51( 36, 71)
Sugars (g) 34( 22, 49) 43( 30, 60) 26( 16, 37) 35( 25, 48)
Dairy (g) 303(179, 471) 381(254, 540) 249(148, 384) 328(209, 471)
Meat (g)* 19( 9, 36) 28( 13, 50) 16( 7, 31) 20( 10, 39)
Fish (g)* 7( 2, 16) 6( 2, 15) 6( 2, 14) 4( 2, 12)
Dietary Intake and Rural-Urban Migration in India: A Cross-Sectional Study - 2011

11. Food Miles
 It refers to the distance food is transported from the
time of its production until it reaches the consumer.
 Food miles are one factor used when assessing the
environmental impact of food
 The concept of food miles originated in the early
1990s in UK

12. Food Miles

13. Food Miles
Product Average Miles Total Contribution Top Source
Apple 4,360 143,964,934 New Zealand, US
Banana 4,597 278,270,767 Costa Rica, Ecuador
Grapes 4,140 131,275,227 South Africa, Chile
Oranges 3,565 113,802,672 Spain, US
Rice 4,598 142,852,566 China, India
Mangoes 4,668 104,736,994 India, Brazil
Potatoes 2,476 038,902,988 Egypt, UK
Tomatoes 2132 058,405,780 Spain, Italy
Pizza 2,007 021,239,388 Italy, Germany

14. Food Miles - Country
Country Total Miles Average miles
Italy 233,652 1,963
Spain 221,819 1,573
India 359,408 3,865
China 723,031 4,576
Brazil 529,470 4995
USA 115,523 2,962
UK 114,743 2,049

15. Over comsumption??
0
500
1000
1500
2000
2500
3000
3500
4000
4500
1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009
K.Calories?Day
Calorie Consumption Trend in India, China and the U.S.
India China USA

16. Food expenditures according to the level of
processing, Rural India, 2004-05

17. Packaging
 Food packaging accounts for almost two-thirds of
total packaging waste by volume
 Food packaging is approximately 50% (by weight)
 Most of Food packaging is single use

18. Food Wastage
 Lot of good gets trimmed away during peeling,
slicing, boiling and sorting
 This is similar to dairy production, where milk is lost
during pasteurizing
 Food Wastage in long distance transport & storage
 Excess stress on physical appearance

19. Per capita food losses and waste

20. PRODUCTION

21. Sustainability wrt Production?
● Energy
● Water
● Health
● Waste
● Food Security & Economics
● Ecology

22. Food Production & Energy
● Fertilizers etc are a
huge component
● Farm-Meat is very
energy intensive
● Larger farms need
more energy

23. Energy Consumption -Comparison
S.
No.
Crop Energy/Hecter
(1000 x Kcal)
Yield
(Kgs)
1 Corn 8228 9400
2 Wheat 4182 2900
3 Rice 19346 7616
4 Soyabean 2524 2600
5 Potato 14817 44000
6 Tomato 20578 80000

24. Food Production & Water
● 90% fresh water used for agriculture in India.
● Livestock/meat have a higher footprint. Taking
nearly 1,800 gallons of water to produce one pound
of beef and 576 gallons for pork.
● 54% of the country faces high water stress
● Groundwater dependence is problematic
● Irrigation fed vs rain fed choices

25. Water use
Foodstuff Quantity Water consumption, litres
Chocolate 1 kg 17,196
Beef 1 kg 15,415
Sheep Meat 1 kg 10,412
Pork 1 kg 5,988
Butter 1 kg 5,553
Chicken meat 1 kg 4,325
Cheese 1 kg 3,178
Olives 1 kg 3,025
Rice 1 kg 2,497
Cotton 1 @ 250g 2,495
Pasta (dry) 1 kg 1,849
Bread 1 kg 1,608
Pizza 1 unit 1,239

26. Food Production & Health
● Huge nutritional loss
◦ Processing : upto 50%
◦ Soil quality : 15-80% since 1975
◦ Diversity loss
◦ Pesticides and other residues

27. Food Production & Waste
● 40-50% of all food is wasted!
● Food industry standards : look and feel
● Mechanized harvesting, larger farms
● Longer distances
● Oversupply, retail stocking, buying habits

28. Food Security & Economics
● 25% of world undernourished in India
● Distribution, not availablity. Net exporter.
● Small farms produce > 70% of our food!
● Grow to eat, then grow to sell. Food sovereignty, not
security.
● Local economies need local trade, skills.

29. Food Production & Ecology
● Energy, Water are huge impacts.
● Meat industry is responsible for 40% of green house
gas emissions
● Loss of forests, habitat, diversity.
● Soil loss.
● “Bad loops” set in motion.
● Chemicals in soil, water, air.
● The cancer train in Punjab!

30. Carbon Footprint Ranking of Food
Rank Food CO2 Kilos EquivalentCar Miles Equivalent
1 Lamb 39.2 91
2 Beef 27.0 63
3 Cheese 13.5 31
4 Pork 12.1 28
5 Turkey 10.9 25
6 Chicken 6.9 16
7 Tuna 6.1 14
8 Eggs 4.8 11
9 Potatoes 2.9 7
10 Rice 2.7 6
11 Nuts 2.3 5
12 Beans/tofu 2.0 4.5
13 Vegetables 2.0 4.5
14 Milk 1.9 4
15 Fruit 1.1 2.5
16 Lentils 0.9 2

32. CONCLUSION

33. What we can do
● Reduce Food Miles
● Farmer Markets, CSA
● Reduce Food Wastage
● Shaping Diet
● Processed vs Fresh
● Unpackaged/cottage industry
● Increase primary foods in diet

34. What we can do
● Reduce resource intensity
● Permaculture, ZBNF
● Farmer/producer Cooperatives
● Ethical Buyer Networks/Cooperatives

35. What we are doing
The Tamarind Valley
Collective/Beforest
 50 urban farmers’ coop
 Permaculture Farm
 Soil rejuvenation
 Diversity
 Grow to Eat, then Grow to
Sell

36. What we are doing
 Direct Market Access
 Producer mindset
 Food/water security
 Larger community
engagement
 Low footprint living

37. Useful links
 http://foodalliance.org/
 http://www.foodmiles.com
 https://www.globaljustice.org.uk/six-pillars-food-
sovereignty
 http://permacultureindia.org/

38. Co-ordinates
Ramesh Agarwal
+91 9886051931
ramesh@qafsc.com
notagarwal@gmail.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/
notagarwal/
Sameer Shisodia
+91-98451-80207
sameer@beforest.co
https://www.linkedin.com/in/
sameershisodia/

39. QUESTION & ANSWER