Ecosystems and Well-being

Small farmers can feed the world, help protect the environment and also provide livelihoods to millions of families who manage them. In addition, they produce valuable farm commodities for market and add value local and global economy. Future of agriculture is in protecting, supporting and improving small farms and the families who manage them.  There are about 500 million small farms that provide direct and indirect employment to about 2 billion people. Small farms also generate valuable social capital by creating numerous opportunities for local community. They provide fresh produce to local shops, butchers, abattoirs, and support many cafes and restaurants that offer local cuisine, which is not possible without local and fresh produce. Local community depends on the viability of small farm and farming community, which are also source of employment for local population.  They act as a fabric spread over the landscape and enhance both social and natural capi...

Growing food to meet the demand of diverse types of nutritional requirements for increasing human population, in a way that is not detrimental to human health and the environment, is one of the top agendas around the world. One solution to achieve this is to integrate nature’s values into social and economic system in the context of agriculture and food systems. The global development goals of the United Nations, widely knowns as Sustainable Development Goals include eradication of hunger, poverty alleviation and achievement of health and well-being among other goals, for all by 2030. However, there is large gap in our understanding about the ways in which nutritional food can be produced in sufficient amount and distributed to the needy, without harming nature and human health. Therefore, an alternative approach is required to address the issue of food production, distribution (food and nutritional security) and consumption, by including all positive and negative ext...

Ecosystem Functions and Management: Theory and Practice Healthy and functioning ecosystems are necessary for the survival of human beings as they provide life supporting goods and services. These goods and services are often called as ecosystem services. As well as underpinning life on Earth, they provide major inputs to many sectors of the economy, and support our lifestyles. They include such processes as biological control of pests, weeds and diseases, pollination of crops, amelioration of flooding and wind erosion, provision of food (including fisheries), the hydro-geochemical cycle, capture of carbon dioxide by plants and carbon by soil, maintaining tourism revenues etc. Their value been demonstrated to be worth US$ 33,000 billion each year – more than three times that of the world’s largest economy (USA), and equal to global GDP in the year 2000. In other words, mankind cannot survive without healthy and functioning ecosystems. However, ecosystems and thei...

Current agricultural production systems have been calibrated to maximise return on investment, and utilises large amounts of inputs in terms of agrochemicals and energy. However, such production systems often ignore, (i) the contribution of ecosystem functions and services to the production systems, (ii) social aspects of farming, and (iii) the impact of intensive practices on public and environmental health. Thus these systems are increasing financial capital at the expense of both social and natural capital. Moreover, current economic and policy environment also supports such systems by subsidising agriculture with the costs to public and environment health. At the same time, these systems can appear to be more profitable than some of the sustainable alternatives due to their unrecognised and unaccounted costs associated with the above-mentioned damage that they are not being charged for.  Therefore, there is need to recalibrate current agricultural systems by un...

How do we measure the true costs of food production? by  Sustainable Food Trust  on  3 June, 2016  in  Business and Food ,  Videos https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Cphtn5j8dA How do we measure the true costs of food and put a price on the positive and negative impacts that food production has on the environment, society and public health? This session examines different frameworks and methods for quantifying and monetising these costs and looks at how these can influence farmers, policymakers and investors. There is a strong consensus that working towards a common framework for assessing sustainability will be critically important in undertaking meaningful comparisons between the sustainability of different food and farming systems. Chaired by Alexander Müller, Study Leader, TEEBAgFood, the speakers in this session present their different approaches and findings and explain how governments, companies and researchers are tackling the chall...

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/hidden-costs-of-american-food-revealed-300254196.html The hidden cost of seemingly cheap food production is damaging the planet, driving human disease and jeopardizing food workers exposed to toxins every day. Experts who gathered at the  True Cost of American Food  conference in San Francisco this past weekend said for every dollar American consumers pay for food, the country is spending up to two dollars to fight diseases linked to poor food production, worker abuse and environmental harms. "The bill consumers pay at the grocery checkout does not reflect the true cost Americans are actually paying for food," said Patrick Holden, chief executive of the Sustainable Food Trust. "We have to recognize this before we can do a better job growing our food, educating society to make informed decisions and incentivizing farmers and sustainable practices – and thereby save both lives and money." One promising soluti...