Creating a Sustainable Food Supply

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How to Create Sustainable Food Supplies?

Organic farming, permaculture, urban farming, sustainable sources of meat and fish, eating seasonal foods and reducing waste are all ways of improving food security and ensuring the sustainability of food supplies.

Organic farming

Organic foods are grown without using certain pesticides or chemicals to accelerate the food's growth or to kill off insects.
This increases the health of the soil and reduces the risk of water pollution via surface runoff.
Consumers usually pay higher prices for organic food, but it is usually from a sustainable and more environmentally-friendly source.

Urban farming initiatives

Urban farming initiatives include building vertical farming warehouses in cities and growing crops in small green spaces in cities.
Businesses like Farmdrop and Oddbox try to connect consumers with local farmers to buy fresh, local produce. Farmers' markets allow farmers to sell their own produce. This reduces the number of food miles by connecting local consumers with nearby producers.
Encouraging local producers, instead of importing produce should increase a nation's food security.

Reducing waste

1.3 billion tonnes of food (one-third of all food produced) is wasted each year according to the UN.
Businesses like Oddbox sell people 'disfigured' or 'ugly' vegetables which supermarkets won't stock or sell. This helps to reduce food waste, as realistically, how a carrot or aubergine looks doesn't really matter once eaten.
Other awareness campaigns like 'Love Food Hate Waste' try to decrease food waste.

Eating seasonal foods

Thanet Earth produces 12% of the UK's tomatoes and produces tomatoes all year round. This reduces food miles, by reducing food imports.
We could ensure that people eat more seasonal food by:
- Changing the food that people eat throughout the year.
- Changing the seasons when we can grow crops locally using GM or projects like Thanet Earth. This is likely to be easier than changing people's behaviour.
Eating seasonal produce that is grown locally is a good way to reduce food miles and the carbon dioxide emissions caused by the transportation of food.

Sustainable sources of meat and fish

Over-fishing can harm fish populations in the long-term (a bit like how overgrazing and overfarming can lead to soil erosion).
Grain-fed beef (cows eating grain) have a lower carbon footprint than grass-fed beef because grass-fed cows are killed at an older age but at a lighter weight.
However, cows grazing on grasslands improves soil quality.
Businesses like Impossible Foods and Memphis Meats are trying to grow artificial meat in laboratories.

Permaculture

Permaculture is a way of thinking, behaving, and designing systems in farming and livestock rearing.
It involves thinking about growing your own food, the sustainability of different products and encouraging local food sourcing.
The movement behind veganism and reducing people's meat consumption is linked to permaculture.
Permaculture focuses on building on existing ecosystems and farming premises, rather than disrupting them completely.