Aquatic food security:insights into challenges and solutions from an analysis of interactions between fisheries, aquaculture, food safety, human health, fish and human welfare, economy and environment

Fisheries and aquaculture production, imports, exports and equitability of distribution determine the supply of aquatic food to people. Aquatic food security is achieved when a food supply is sufficient, safe, sustainable, shockproof and sound: sufficient, to meet needs and preferences of people; safe, to provide nutritional benefit while posing minimal health risks; sustainable, to provide food now and for future generations; shock-proof, to provide resilience to shocks in production systems and supply chains; and sound, to meet legal and ethical standards for welfare of animals, people and environment. Here, we present an integrated assessment of these elements of the aquatic food system in the United Kingdom, a system linked to dynamic global networks of producers, processors and markets. Our assessment addresses sufficiency of supply from aquaculture, fisheries and trade; safety of supply given biological, chemical and radiation hazards; social, economic and environmental sustainability of production systems and supply chains; system resilience to social, economic and environmental shocks; welfare of fish, people and environment; and the authenticity of food. Conventionally, these aspects of the food system are not assessed collectively, so information supporting our assessment is widely dispersed. Our assessment reveals trade-offs and challenges in the food system that are easily overlooked in sectoral analyses of fisheries, aquaculture, health, medicine, human and fish welfare, safety and environment. We highlight potential benefits of an integrated, systematic and ongoing process to assess security of the aquatic food system and to predict impacts of social, economic and environmental change on food supply and demand

The applicability of industrial symbiosis praxis to improving the environmental sustainability of supply chains

The environmental impact of supply chains is a complex problem which involves interconnected and interdependent organisations from different industries, sectors and geographical areas. Finding ways of involving the parts of a supply chain system in synergistic relationships aimed at minimising the overall impact of the whole system on the environment is likely to achieve better results than each part trying to do its best in isolation. The adoption of sustainable practices in supply chains is a daunting task. Even when players in the supply system try to be consistent, it is very difficult to do it at a global level. This implies that to integrate sustainability in supply chains it is imperative to understand the mutual relationships among the players in the supply system. Moreover, the ecological paradigm for supply chain management demands extended integration of sustainability values, where responsible management is a key function. To delimit the discussion, the paper will focus upon the food supply chain. The environmental and social consequences of the food industry and its supply chain activities represent a global challenge which requires innovative sustainable practices that are effectively achievable to the organisations involved. The food sector as a whole faces considerable challenges imposed by the limited availability of arable land and natural resources for food production on the one hand, and the continuous increase of food consumption dictated by the exponential growth of populations and livestock on the other hand. In 2008, the Cabinet Office pointed out the pressures of climate change on food production and the impact of food chains on the environment as some of the major challenges which need to be addressed before long. In general, the paper will critically discuss and identify potential links that can integrate cross-industry processes through the application of industrial symbiosis concepts and practices. The managerial implications here addressed will consider how organisations involved in a food supply chain system can get engaged in symbiotic relationships that can potentially improve not only their own environmental sustainability performance, but also the performance of the supply chain system they are part of

Regimes and Resilience in the Modern Global Food System

Much public discourse surrounding the modern global food system operates on the assumption of the primary agency of individual consumers in ensuring an equitable and sustainable food supply. However, this approach fails to account for the larger structural forces of the system which frame the limits of how we interact with and are affected by our food system. Taking a closer look at the global economic, political, cultural, and environmental forces that have collectively shaped historical food regimes reveals the deeper structural patterns that currently determine how we produce, distribute, and consume food around the world. Due to the underlying structural processes of increasing distancing and standardization, we have become highly disembedded from our food system and will need to look for clues from past periods of transition between food regimes to better position ourselves to work towards a global restructuring of, and human reembedding in, the modern global food system

Food systems for sustainable development: Proposals for a profound four-part transformation

Evidence shows the importance of food systems for sustainable development: they are at the nexus that links food security, nutrition, and human health, the viability of ecosystems, climate change, and social justice. However, agricultural policies tend to focus on food supply, and sometimes, on mechanisms to address negative externalities. We propose an alternative. Our starting point is that agriculture and food systems' policies should be aligned to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. This calls for deep changes in comparison with the paradigms that prevailed when steering the agricultural change in the XXth century. We identify the comprehensive food systems transformation that is needed. It has four parts: first, food systems should enable all people to benefit from nutritious and healthy food. Second, they should reflect sustainable agricultural production and food value chains. Third, they should mitigate climate change and build resilience. Fourth, they should encourage a renaissance of rural territories. The implementation of the transformation relies on (i) suitable metrics to aid decision-making, (ii) synergy of policies through convergence of local and global priorities, and (iii) enhancement of development approaches that focus on territories. We build on the work of the “Milano Group,” an informal group of experts convened by the UN Secretary General in Milan in 2015. Backed by a literature review, what emerges is a strategic narrative linking climate, agriculture and food, and calling for a deep transformation of food systems at scale. This is critical for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Agreement. The narrative highlights the needed consistency between global actions for sustainable development and numerous local-level innovations. It emphasizes the challenge of designing differentiated paths for food systems transformation responding to local and national expectations. Scientific and operational challenges are associated with the alignment and arbitration of local action within the context of global priorities

Sustainable Consumer Behavior and Food Marketing

In light of the considerable impact of global food supply chains on climate change, more sustainable ways of producing, distributing, and consuming food appear critical for sustainable development. With the aim of contributing to this topic, this Special Issue on sustainable food consumption and food marketing addresses various relevant issues related to food consumption, including innovative and sustainable forms of food production and consumption, animal welfare and meat consumption, price transmission, social media communication, alternative food production, and organic agriculture, among others. As such, this Special Issue sheds light on more sustainable and carbon-friendly food production and consumption systems from various angles. It delivers valuable scientific evidence for the transformation of current carbon-based food supply chains to more eco-friendly, fair, and future-oriented food supply chains

Eating Oil

The food system is now even more based on cheap crude oil. Every time we eat, we are all essentially ‘eating oil’. Virtually all of the processes in the modern food system are now dependent upon this finite resource which is nearing its depletion phase. Moreover, at a time when we should be making massive cuts in the emissions of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere in order to reduce the threat posed by climate change, the food system is lengthening its supply chains and increasing emissions to the point where it is a significant contributor to global warming. The organic sector should be leading the development of a sustainable food system. Direct environmental and ecological impacts of agriculture ‘on the farm’ are certainly reduced in organic systems. However, global trade and distribution of organic products fritter away those benefits and undermine its leadership role. Not only is the contemporary food system inherently unsustainable, increasingly it is damaging the environment. A different approach - focussed on localization not globalisation - needs to be developed in order to ensure “food supply in a changing climate”

Common People’s Sustainability: Connectivity within a Food System Rhizome

They say that sustainable development has been around for about 20 years and not very much progress has been achieved. However, this view may refer to difficulties in identifying sustainable developments in everyday business activities without particularly visible publicity. Currently, new serious activity towards sustainable food systems, starting from retailing, processing industries and farmers as well as other food system actors seem to strive to connect the supply chains for sustainable food. This paper makes use of the notion of ‘social rhizomes’ structured as different networks to identify sustainable developments in actors’ lived experience. Furthermore, the notion of connectivity, as the ability to activate heterogenous ideas, persons, materials and spaces for sustainability within a ’social rhizome’ is used to explain the progress towards sustainability within local, national and global food system. Empirically, the paper is based on two presentations given on the Finnish Organic Conference 2008. The presentations were analysed for the progress towards sustainability within social rhizomes structured as chanceworks, meshworks, strategic networks and socially overlaid networks. Results suggest, that connectivity between different networks leads to transformations between the networks towards more shared economic, environmental and socio-cultural benefits, which can be identified as common people’s sustainability

Food chain inefficiency (FCI) : accounting conversion efficiencies across entire food supply chains to re-define food loss and waste

Achieving global food security requires a new approach that integrates not only all aspects of the growing, harvesting and processing of food (necessary to ensure sufficient affordable and sustainable production to alleviate hunger) but also the complexities associated with food consumption including deterring unhealthy overconsumption. Inefficiencies occur at various points along the agri-food supply chain but at present they are inadequately conceptualized via separate accounts of food loss, food waste, supply chain management, and public health. Here we re-define food loss and waste through the concept of conversion efficiency applied to the entire system, an approach up to now only applied to the primary processes of crop productivity. Nine conversion efficiencies are defined: sunlight capture efficiency; photosynthesis use efficiency; biomass allocation efficiency; harvesting efficiency; storage and distribution efficiency; processing efficiency; retailing efficiency; consumption efficiency; and dietary efficiency. Using the production and consumption of bread in the UK as an example, we demonstrate how efficiencies may be estimated and thus where the main inefficiencies lie, so indicating where the most significant improvements could be made. We suggest that our approach, which introduces the term Food Chain Inefficiency (FCI) to re-define food loss and waste, provides a rational and effective way to devise the practical interventions and policies needed to deliver a sustainable agri-food system

Food Sustainability in the Age of Complex, Global Supply Chains

Food production has become more complex over time. Moreover, we are producing food in an increasingly global, rather than local, manner. How can demands for sustainability be reinforced in this age of complex, global supply chains? This essay focuses on three key features of the modern food supply chain: the variety of components, the complexity of the chain itself, and diversity of “enforcement” mechanisms in food production supply chains. These features suggest that traditional governmental tools (such as command and control measures) and contractual tools (such as performance standards) may not be sufficient to ensure sustainable production methods

Revisiting the Global Food Architecture: Lessons from the 2008 Food Crisis

The 2008 episode of food price explosion, political turmoil, and human suffering revealed important flaws in the current global food architecture. This paper argues that to safeguard the strengths of the current system, four failures in market functioning and policymaking must be addressed. First, governments must reinvest in agriculture with a focus on public goods and subject to increased public accountability to re-ensure the global food supply. Second, the policy-induced link between food and fuel prices must be broken through a revision of EU and US agro-fuel policies. Third, better sharing of information on food stocks, stricter WTO regulation of export restrictions, and some form of globally managed buffer stock will be minimum requirements to prevent the resurgence of inefficient national food self-sufficiency policies. Fourth, a market-based food security system is only sustainable given well functioning national social safety nets.agriculture, agro-fuels, food crisis, food security