Global Food Futures

Future Foods: Global Trends, Opportunities, and Sustainability Challenges highlights trends and sustainability challenges along the entire agri-food supply chain. Using an interdisciplinary approach, this book addresses innovations, technological developments, state-of-the-art based research, value chain analysis, and a summary of future sustainability challenges. The book is written for food scientists, researchers, engineers, producers, and policy makers and will be a welcomed reference. Provides practical solutions for overcoming recurring sustainability challenges along the entire agri-food supply chain Highlights potential industrial opportunities and supports circular economy concepts Proposes novel concepts to address various sustainability challenges that can affect and have an impact on the future generations

First Published in 2011. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Global Food Futures presents a highly accessible account of the global food situation up to 2050, tackling the widespread assumption that world agriculture will fail to feed a projected population of 9 billion.

This book seeks to resolve the disconnections in research and governance by breaking down interdisciplinary barriers to develop innovatory food security solutions.

By 2050 the world will be faced with the enormous challenge of feeding 9 billion people despite being affected by climate change, rising energy costs and pressure on food growing land and other major resources. How will the world produce 70% more food by 2050 to feed a projected extra 2.3 billion people? What will be the impact of food shortages and high prices on areas in crisis such as sub-Sahara Africa? Where will future production growth come from? And how do we balance the need for environmental protection with sustainable agricultural production methods? This is the first text to present a scholarly, balanced approach to the contentious area of food production and supply up to 2050 - offering a readable and well-informed account which tackles the global food situation in all its totality, from agricultural production, technological advance, dietary concerns, population changes, income trends, environmental issues, government food and agriculture policy, trade, financial markets, macroeconomics and food security. Highly accessible and written by a specialist author with experience as an agricultural analyst, policy advisor and researcher, Global Food Futures synthesises the key issues in one volume.

It's not easy to eat well. To choose food wisely, you need to know where it comes from and how it's produced. As consumers, most of us don't know what we're getting and eating in our supermarkets and restaurants. When rumours and food scares circulate in the media, we panic. Since most of us know very little about the real state of agriculture today and the ways in which the global agricultural industry produces the foods that end up on our plates, we have no basis on which to make informed judgements. In this important new book, José Bové and François Dufour – two men from modest farming backgrounds who have become international icons of the resistance to global capitalism – unveil the workings of the agricultural industry today and lay down the principles for the creation of a new agriculture for the twenty-first century. Following on from their international bestseller The World is not For Sale, Bové and Dufour have joined forces again to build a constructive programme for the food of the future. They seek to make available to every citizen the facts they need in order to understand the crisis of agriculture today and to see how we can move beyond it. Presenting a positive agenda for a new kind of agriculture, they lay the foundations for a renewal of trust between farmers and citizen-consumers in a way that would bring food – and the production of food – back into the heart of modern society.

Securing sustainable food for everyone is one of the world's most pressing challenges, but research, policy, and programmes remain fragmented, and effective solutions have been slow to emerge. This book takes on these challenges by proposing a range of solutions that can advance pathways towards sustainable food futures. Complete with recipes, this book is structured so that readers are taken in a logical progression through discussions of solutions, highlighting the need to recognise the importance of place and the importance of participation, and to challenge dominant descriptions of markets, through to re-designing food systems. The solutions presented in this book are based on real-world cases, but discussions remain deliberately broad to encourage thinking in new ways. Cases are drawn from Africa, Asia, Europe, and North and South America. The book is of relevance to those interested in sustainable food futures, and can serve as a supplementary textbook for a wide range of courses in food studies and related disciplines.

Publisher description

The Global Food Economy examines the human and ecological cost of what we eat. The current food economy is characterized by immense contradictions. Surplus 'food mountains', bountiful supermarkets, and rising levels of obesity stand in stark contrast to widespread hunger and malnutrition. Transnational companies dominate the market in food and benefit from subsidies, whilst farmers in developing countries remain impoverished. Food miles, mounting toxicity and the 'ecological hoofprint' of livestock mean that the global food economy rests on increasingly shaky environmental foundations. This book looks at how such a system came about, and how it is being enforced by the WTO. Ultimately, Weis considers how we can find a way of building socially just, ecologically rational and humane food economies.

If we are to better understand and negotiate current and future problems in the food supply chain, it will be essential to pay more attention to the role and position of professionals involved. 'Professionals in food chains' addresses questions as: What are the main ethical challenges for professionals in the food supply chain? Who within this complex field holds responsibility for what? What does it mean for the food-related professions to operate in an atmosphere of immense social tension and high expectations? Which virtues are required to do a 'good' job? In brief: What can be said about the roles, responsibilities, and ethics of professionals across this dynamic field? Topics covered include general issues on professional roles and responsibility, sustainable food supply chains, novel approaches in food production systems, current food politics, the ethics of consumption, veterinary ethics, pedagogical/educational and research ethics, as well as aquacultural, agricultural, animal, and food ethics.