Good Lifestyle

Sustainability is a hot topic these days. More Americans are jumping on board with the notion of using reusable materials and reducing waste to preserve the earth's resources for future generations. Sustainable efforts can be implemented in many ways of life, such as buying used clothing, buying reusable bags instead of plastic and limit food waste. Although we can actively make progress in each of these departments every day, the average person can not consider, however, is what the future may hold for our food supply if farming practices do not improve. And this is where the challenge of sustainable food arrives.

Thanks to a new report of 564 pages "Create a sustainable food future"Recently published by the non-global research-profit organizationWorld Resources InstituteYou can understand exactly what should happen to the systematic level so that agriculture can meet the demands of the world population growing rapidly. Although it was not a traditional challenge you to do it yourself, it's good to be aware of what needs to happen on a deeper level. Maybe you can even advocate these problems in your home state.

What is the challenge of sustainable food?

The report predicts the global population of 7 billion in 2010 to $ 9.8 billion by 2050. With more mouths to feed, global food demand is expected to increase by over 50%. Even more alarming is the demand for foods that require more resources to produce, such as meat and dairy products, which are expected to increase by about 70%.

That being said, the world will come together to not only make conscious efforts to support agriculture, but also increase production.

"Millions of farmers, businesses, consumers and governments all over the world will have to make changes to meet the challenge of global food", "Andrew Steer, President and CEO of the World Institute resources World Washington saidNew food business. "At all levels, the food system must be linked to climate strategies and the ecosystem protection and economic prosperity."

The challenge is to support a system that produces more food to date also delay the increase in demand, particularly for foods such as beef requires a high amount of resources, including land, water and hay.

The report, which explores opportunities and policies that prevent exacerbating the projected demand for food, the use of land to grow these foods and gas emissions resulting greenhouse effect, proposes to close three gaps to achieve a sustainable food system.

1. 1. Food gap. The difference between the amount of food produced in 2010 and the amount needed to meet projected demand in 2050 is 56%.
   2. The terrestrial gap.The difference between the world's agricultural land area in 2010 compared to the area of ​​land that will be required to grow crops to meet food demand is 593 million hectares. For perspective, that is twice the size of India.
   3. The gap mitigation of greenhouse gases.The difference between the level of annual GHG emissions (greenhouse) of agricultural production from 2010 to 2050, while respectingThe Paris Agreement is11 Gitagons (Gt).

The report offers a menu of 22 points to reach a sustainable food future, each of them being divided between five separate courses.

Also known as the first course, this part of the report provides an idea of ​​how we can work together to reduce the demand for food and other agricultural products. Reduce the amount of food wasted each day is at the heart of this course. According to the report, about 56% of total food loss and waste occur in parts of the developed regions of the world, including North America, Europe, Oceania and even industrialized nations in China, Japan and South Korea.

In the USA,The National Council of the Resources Resourcessays that up to 40% of food is not going yet and again42 million Americans to stayInsecurity food or lack of access to fresh fruits and vegetables.

Overall, 33% of all foods produced forHuman consumption is lost or lost.

There are many ways to recover food and prevent it from being launched, including reducing the size of portions in restaurants.

"On average, American conversators do not finish 17% of the foods they buy in restaurants and leave 55% of these remains behind," as shown in the report.

Eliminate confusion behind "Sell ​​by, "" Use by "and" better before "the dates would also reduce food waste. How many times have you threw up this cup ofyogurtIn the Recycle Bin because you saw that it was after the sale by date? But in reality, it was probably still well to eat.

Race 2 is difficult - How are we going to toll the amount of food produced without accumulating more land space in agriculture? One of the four proposed possibilities is the genetic modification, which refers to the insertion of specific genes (often of a different species) into the genome of a plant, to improve crop farming and increase returns without having to expand land. The genetic modification is already used to cultivate mass quantities of two of the most widely used crops in our food-soy and corn system.

However, the debate here is where or notgenetic modification can constitute a threat to human health andenvironment. The report indicates: "At present, there is no evidence that genetically modified crops have harmed human health" and adds that these genetic modification critics are against insufficient research on its risks.

At the global level, agriculture passes from north to South-South-While cultivated land has declined in Europe and North America between 1961 and 2013, it has increased significantly in Asia, Africa, Latin America and Oceania .

This course calls for the active restoration of abandoned or unused land as well as the protection of forests at risk of deforestation due to the growing demand for specific food to be cultivated in this particular region.

Overfishing remains a global problem, stagnant global wild fish catches since its peak in the 1990s. Fish are an essential part of the food system, mainly in underdeveloped countries where populations lack nutrients. Fish, as we know, contains various vitamins, minerals and healthy fats, including omega-3 fatty acids, zinc, iron and vitamin A.

According to the report, "the World Bank suggests that the global fishing effort needs to decline 5% per year over a period of 10 years, which would allow fishing to rebuild an ideal level over three decades."

Although this approach calls for a drop in short-term fish catches, it will allow fish stocks to bounce so that sustainable fish catches can occur in the long run.

RELATED: Your guide on theanti-inflammatory regime that cures your intestine, slows the signs of aging and helps you lose weight.

This dense course, however, the species that currently has the biggest negative impact on climate change is livestock (mainly cattle) that emit greenhouse gases such asmethane by burning. This is just one of the reasons why theGreat processing of food Encourages the global consumption of red meat to cut in half. A United Nations report found that 15% of global greenhouse gas emissions are attributable to livestock.

In order to increase our food supply, climates must be regulated so that crops can grow in their respective seasons, but with livestock affecting climate change, this potentially prohibits growth.