IFT addresses sustainability challenge

Feeding an estimated nine billion people by the year 2050 will require a sustainable food system that makes the most of limited resources while protecting the world’s fragile ecosystem, according to a symposium at the 2011 Institute of Food Technologists (IFT) Annual Meeting & Food Expo.

“What we do in the next 10 years will set the stage for the next 50 years,” said Andrew Henderson, professor and area director, Centre for Agriculture and Rural Sustainability at the University of Arkansas.

Among the challenges to a sustainable world food system include limited land availability, soil health, water scarcity, an uncertain supply and dependence on energy, climate change and greenhouse gas emissions.

“We’re going to have to produce 50 to 100 per cent more fuel, food and fibre from the same land over the next 50 years,” he added. “And we need to do this while preserving the world’s biodiversity. If not, our very system of being will be endangered.”

Meanwhile, Jennifer Wilkins, from the division of nutritional sciences at Cornell University, said ‘a whole diet approach’ to sustainability would look at how much land is required to produce food based on different dietary scenarios. Communities, she said, would consider their ‘foodprint’ – the amount of land required to support one person on a specific diet in a specific geographic region for one year. Local food systems, she said, are more economically viable, requiring less transportation and energy.

“A sustainable food system considers which foods are essential, which foods are luxuries, and how food is transported, processed and packaged,” she told the symposium. “A sustainable food system limits waste and optimises land usage. Vegetarian diets, and those with limited meat and dairy, can feed most people.”

“Sustainable diets must be high in nutrition, socially acceptable and not deplete the planet’s resources,” added Adam Drewnowski, from the University of Washington Centre for Obesity Research.