{"id":207,"date":"2021-02-06T19:13:45","date_gmt":"2021-02-06T19:13:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/lec101blog\/?p=207"},"modified":"2021-02-06T19:13:45","modified_gmt":"2021-02-06T19:13:45","slug":"transforming-our-food-production-system","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/lec101blog\/2021\/02\/06\/transforming-our-food-production-system\/","title":{"rendered":"Transforming our food production system"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Jaya Patel –\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Our current agricultural system is unsustainable. Food production releases at least 25% of greenhouse gases1<\/sup><\/strong>, contributing to climate change \u2013 an issue which threatens global food security. Not only do our diets harm the environment, but also human health. An article published in \u201cTrends in Plant Science\u201d explores how to approach these issues using a range of solutions2<\/sup>.<\/p>\n

Plant-based foods have a smaller environmental impact than animal products2<\/sup>. <\/strong>The article describes how shifting diets away from animal-source foods will reduce both our resource consumption and carbon footprint. For example, greenhouse gas emissions approximately half when comparing the diet of a medium meat eater to one which includes no animal products3<\/sup>. In addition, this shift would benefit human health, potentially reducing global mortality by 6-10%4<\/sup>. However, in order to do this, we need government policies that encourage healthy and sustainable diets.<\/p>\n

Another area of food security the article considers is nutrition – micronutrient deficiency is a global problem5<\/sup><\/strong>. Modern food production has focused on high yield crops, leading to a decline in agricultural (and dietary) diversity. Currently, 95% of the world\u2019s calories come from only 30 species5<\/sup>. Therefore, it is important to promote crop biodiversity and micronutrient enhancement (which involves breeding crops with the best nutritional quality). One example of this is quality protein maize (QPM), which is used in countries across Africa, South America and Asia. Evidence shows that the rate of growth in height in malnourished young children increased by 9% as a result of QPM consumption6<\/sup>. The use of enhanced crops could be an effective way of tackling malnourishment- however, there are some issues restricting this which must be addressed, such as a lack of seed availability and public awareness2<\/sup>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The article also outlines how agriculture can deal with climate change and improve food security. Evolutionary breeding is a technique which helps increase crop diversity through natural selection7<\/sup>.<\/strong> Only the plants best adapted to the climatic conditions will survive, creating a resilient evolutionary population (EP) able to cope with extreme weather that may occur. This approach could even have wider benefits, as it has been reported that EPs have produced high yields and been less affected by disease and insect damage, meaning less pesticide is required (Salimi et al, 2014 cited in Sangam et al, 2017). A more advanced technique, called genomic assisted breeding, allows the selection of specific traits in the development of stress-resilient crops2<\/sup>. One example of this is submergence- and salt- tolerant rice used across Asia8 <\/sup>(see fig 1). However, the multinational companies producing such crops can restrict farmers access to seeds2<\/sup>, so strengthening food security must also involve improving seed accessibility.<\/p>\n

The key idea presented in the article is that agriculture, human health, and nutrition are interconnected, so they must be approached together. Diversifying our food system should be prioritised, to improve both food security and human health, alongside various plant breeding programmes to improve crop resilience as the climate changes.<\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

References<\/strong><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Tilman, D., Clark, M (2014). Global diets link environmental sustainability and human health.\u00a0Nature<\/em>, 515,518\u2013522.<\/li>\n
  2. Sangam, D., et al. (2017). Diversifying Food Systems in the Pursuit of Sustainable Food Production and Healthy Diets. Trends in Plant Science<\/em>, 22, 842-856.<\/li>\n
  3. Scarborough, P., et al. (2014). Dietary greenhouse gas emissions of meat-eaters, fish-eaters, vegetarians and vegans in the UK. Climatic Change<\/em>, 125, 179-192.<\/li>\n
  4. Springmann, M., et al. (2016). Analysis and valuation of the health and climate change cobenefits of dietary change. PNAS, <\/em>113, 4146-4151.<\/li>\n
  5. Romanelli, C., et al. (2015). Connecting global priorities: biodiversity and human health: a state of knowledge review. <\/em>Geneva: WHO.<\/li>\n
  6. Gunaratna, N., et al. (2010). A meta-analysis of community-based studies on quality protein maize. Food Policy<\/em>, 35, 202-210.<\/li>\n
  7. D\u00f6ring, T., et al. (2011). Evolutionary Plant Breeding in Cereals\u2014Into a New Era. Sustainability, 3, 1944-1971.<\/li>\n
  8. Bailey-Serres, J., et al. (2010). Submergence Tolerant Rice:\u00a0SUB1<\/em>\u2019s Journey from Landrace to Modern Cultivar. Springer Open, <\/em>3, 138\u2013147.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    by Jaya Patel –\u00a0 Our current agricultural system is unsustainable. Food production releases at least 25% of greenhouse gases1, contributing to climate change \u2013 an issue which threatens global food security. Not only do our diets harm the environment, but also human health. An article published in \u201cTrends in Plant Science\u201d explores how to approach…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1374,"featured_media":208,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[19,26,16,4,18],"class_list":["post-207","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-food-security","tag-agriculture","tag-climate-change","tag-food-security","tag-health-and-wellbeing","tag-nutrition"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/lec101blog\/files\/2021\/02\/share-of-population-with-moderate-or-severe-food-insecurity-1.png?fit=850%2C600","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/lec101blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/lec101blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/lec101blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/lec101blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1374"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/lec101blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=207"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/lec101blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":209,"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/lec101blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207\/revisions\/209"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/lec101blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/208"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/lec101blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=207"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/lec101blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=207"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/lec101blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=207"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}