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DuALIne was triggered by the fact that the current food systems in industrialized countries are not sustainable. Through the diets they are associated with, these systems generate new food-based pathologies, despite unequalled access to a wide range of products of good health quality. The generalisation of these systems to the whole planet will use up resources and accentuate adverse effects on biodiversity and the environment, through pollution or greenhouse gas emissions, among other things. In short, half a century of increasingly rapid and global development of the agrifood sector has failed to stave off the return of severe food crises. In this context, what is meant by sustainable food supplies? Researchers define the concept in terms of a multi-functional diet, which guarantees health, pleasure, social interaction and identity. It is also founded on a resilient economic sector that favours universal dietary wellbeing, creates jobs and reduces social inequality. A sustainable food supply system also respects the environment and biological and cultural diversity. In other words, it is a system, or a combination of systems, which are socially desirable and do not penalize future generations.
Sustainable food supplies, a new research field encompassing many issues
How can current food supply systems be made more sustainable, both in industrialized countries and in the South? Over an 18-month period, the researchers involved (some 100 experts in all) broke down this major question into a range of research issues. How can we best recount the multiplicity of factors that determine food security? How can we measure the effects of the industrialization of agrifood processing on the biodiversity of the agricultural raw materials used? What tools should be used to measure the effects of the development of supermarkets on social equity? What are the innovations that could contribute to increased food security? What proportion of the food produced is lost or wasted, and at what point in the food chain? How can we cut those losses? What sanitary standards might take account of concerns about both health and social equity? How could we manage a combination of varied food supply systems? In particular, how can we take informal food supply systems into account more effectively in studies? How can we influence consumer behaviour so as to reduce the adverse effects on the environment and on their health? How can we boost the resilience of food supply systems and their ability to withstand economic or health crises? How can we design logistical processes which are more economical in resources? Where should activities be located in relation to production and consumption sites, what interaction with the production of products for more sustainable chemistry and energy? How can we assess public interventions or policies aimed at making these systems more sustainable?
Specific issues in the South
These questions apply to every country with an industrial agrifood sector. In the South, where the different countries vary significantly in terms of their food supply systems, they sometimes need to be adapted to a specific context. In these countries, the recent rise in living standards is now leading to increased food consumption, while physical activity is dropping. Researchers have also observed an increase in the consumption of foodstuffs of animal origin, while in the richest countries in the North, such excessive consumption is now in the hot seat due to its effects on health and the environment. In the South, countries are currently undergoing a phase of very rapid nutritional transition, whereas a few years ago, there were deficiencies. Indeed, in many cases, there still are. In particular, these countries have to manage the coexistence, within a given population, of under-nutrition and obesity, what we might call a "nutritional double whammy". In view of this, taking account of new sustainability concerns when industrializing such countries raises specific governance issues. Those issues are exacerbated by the speed at which change is occurring. The urbanization rate in these countries is twice that in the North. Moreover, State withdrawal following a period of rapid liberalization, and the increased role of the multinational private sector, are also raising new issues in terms of food sovereignty issues.
On the whole, the exercise served to highlight a clear lack of data, notably regarding dietary habits, the range of players involved in food processing and distribution in the South, and their effects on the sustainability of food supply systems or their ability to withstand crises.
This joint CIRAD-INRA study has thus opened up a new research field as regards sustainable food supplies. It has highlighted certain common factors, and also the diversity of the current issues in this field. The results of the study will now have to be pursued by the research teams and developed on an international level. A book, which is currently being compiled, will present the results of the exercise.
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Written by :
INRA - CIRAD
Contacts :
Catherine Esnouf, deputy scientific director, Food and Nutrition, INRA and Nicolas Bricas, Environments and Societies Department, CIRAD
Label for the news :
Foresight study
Date for the news :
2011.05.03
Date of creation : 05/05/2011
Date of last update : 09/06/2011
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