C H A P T E R S I X

FOOD SUSTAINABILITY AND LONG-TERM FOOD SECURITY

LOCAL AFFAIR TO COMPLEX SUPPLY CHAIN

• Top view of European village (1789): visibly see 95% of the food to sustain a village• 150 years later (World War Two): 96% of

the food consumed was from a local or regional source• 70 years later (Vancouver Island, 2009):

only 5% of the food consumed by the 750, 000 inhabitants, was produced on the island. The balance was transported else where

FOOD AND OIL: THE ENTANGLEMENT AND THE ENVIRONMENT

• Humans have been replaced by cheap oil. In the 1950’s labor accounted for 40% of the value in resources used in farming and in 1993, that number had dropped to 9.5%.• In a contrasting view, machinery and chemicals

used in agriculture increased from 25-43% in the same time period. • Oil is used for manufacturing, machinery,

irrigation schemes, processing, transport, plastic packaging etc.

FOOD PRICE=OIL PRICE

SMALL SCALE FARMING

AGRICULTURAL EMISSIONS

• Nitrogen fertilizers are heavily used and have extensive damage to our water supplies through runoff.• Greenhouse gases are heavily emitted through

agriculture and in a 2006 report from the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization, the meat and livestock industry contributed to 9 percent of total carbon dioxide, 37% of methane and 65% of nitrous oxide

CLIMATE CHANGE

RESILIENCE

•How can we shorten the food supply chain, decrease fossil fuel dependency, conserve water, and reduce our carbon footprint in the current food system?

JAPAN’S SEIKATSU CONSUMER COOPERATIVE

• Concerns of the women: increase in imported foods, loss of farmland to development, migration of farmers to cities, and quality of food• Proposal: receive quality food at a fair price from a local farmer (farmer agreed if there was a large enough group)

THE “HAN”

• Ideally a han consists of seven to ten neighboring households.

• The responsibilities of the han include gathering orders from individual members, passing on the orders to the local center, receiving products from the delivery truck, and distributing them to members of the han.

• Since the food is coming directly from the producer, it is extremely fresh. The han system eliminates the need for storage and thus also the need for artificial methods of preservation, such as chemical preservatives or irradiation.

8 STANDARD RETURNABLE BOTTLES

• Returnable bottles reduce the price of packaging, and raises efficiency of collection, sorting and washing• Online stats (2007): 5700 t of bottles were

retrieved= reduction of 2100 t of CO2

SEIKATSU

• “We refuse to handle products of they are detrimental to the health of our members or the health of the environment” –Seikatsu• Every stage of the food value chain is reviewed,

evaluated, scrutinized and open to regular adjustment• Consumers can be assured their demand for high

quality food is met and producers can be assured a fair price for their food

COMMUNITY SUPPORTED AGRICULTURE

BENEFITS OF A CSA