Sustainable food value chains

(Mains GS3 : Food processing and related industries in India- scope and significance, location, upstream and downstream requirements, supply chain management.)

Context:

• With the world population estimated to grow to 9.7 billion by 2050, food security and sustainability are imperative to overcome hunger and reduce the impact of climate change.

Hunger and nutrition:

• As per the 2022 State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World, “the world is moving in the wrong direction on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) targets to end hunger, food insecurity, and all forms of malnutrition”.
• The pandemic saw a rise in hunger with 828 million affected, 46 million more than 2020 and 150 million more than 2019. Food insecurity impacted nearly 924 million people in 2021, a nearly 207 million increase from 2019.
• According to the joint child malnutrition estimate 2021, 149 million children under-five are stunted, 45 million are wasted, and 39 million are overweight.
• The Ukraine conflict has further aggravated the challenge by pushing 95 million people into extreme poverty.

Ensuring low carbon footprint:

• Various factors determine the way food is produced, distributed, and consumed, namely poverty, malnutrition, land degradation, water scarcity, social inequalities, and climate change.
• To fulfil the nutritional demands of the world’s population and ensure food security by 2050, food output will have to increase by 70 percent.
• Thus, meeting this goal raises questions regarding the ecological effect of food systems and food production, both of which contribute considerably to the human-caused carbon footprint and environmental degradation.

Little wastage:

• The idea of sustainable and inclusive food value chains tackles the challenge of improving food security by addressing sustainability issues encompassing food availability, accessibility, consumption and wastage.
• The sustainability of the food system depends on ensuring that food produced and consumed leads to as little wastage as is possible.
• This will not only protect the environment from the impact of unsustainable food systems, but will increase food security for people across the globe.

Interconnectedness:

• An interconnection of economic, environment, and social aspects is required to ensure social sustainability in the food value chain.
• With a growing population, understanding consumer trends, social conventions, behaviour, and lifestyles requires a multidisciplinary approach, which involves the interdependency of economic, social and environmental factors.
• This method aids in the development of acceptable transitions to decrease waste, reduce ecological footprints, and cut carbon emissions to establish food ecosystems for sustainable urbanisation. 

Conclusion:

• Unsustainable practices as well as wastages inside the food supply chain highlight areas where further attention may be required to achieve sustainable food supply networks.
• The circular economy plays a role in tackling the challenges of climate change, biodiversity loss, food waste and pollution and is crucial for achieving sustainability across the food supply chain.