Food Sustainability in the U.S. Essay Example

Introduction

Food sustainability refers to the dynamic process through which the food and nutrition security is achieved for the present generation and the future generation. Sustainability of food must be based on the social, economic, and environmental perspectives. Thus, for a sustainable food system to be developed, the practices and policies in place must take into account every stage of the food system which includes agricultural production, processing, retailing, and consumption. This paper will look into the existing policies and practices by the United States that affect her food sustainability.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Save 25%

The achievement of a sustainable food system requires the implementation of smart solutions which are geared towards the increase of agricultural productivity. The practices also need to enhance climate resilience while reducing the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions for agriculture. Sustainability must also focus on practices such as the transformation of crops, vegetables, and fruits to increase the access to nutritious food for individuals which will, in turn, bring a balance to the micronutrients and the calories leading to food and nutrition security.

The United States has had one of the best food systems across the globe in the past. However, today, this seems not to be the case even though every wealthy country across the world ought to have the capabilities of ensuring that every citizen has access to nutritious and balanced diets. According to the latest reports by FSI (2018), the country seems to be struggling. The report places the United States at the 21st position among the 34 countries assessed regarding their overall food sustainability. Meaning, the United States is significantly underperforming as compared to other higher income countries in the top of the list such as France, Japan, and Germany respectively (Martin 1).

According to Jennings (2017), the American food system has become under increased public criticism and scrutiny. There have been a growing public concern on the food safety and the diet-related health problems. Some of the best-selling books such as the Omnivore's Dilemma and the Fast Food Nation have helped in creating awareness in the public domain on the existing problems in the production, processing, and marketing of food in the United States. Documentaries focusing on the looming crisis has also been produced to create awareness of the negative impacts the existing industrial food system within the United States and the threats they have to the future of the humanity (Kim 3166). These sources put across the same information criticizing the existing food system due to its lack of social, ecological, and economic integrity.

Nonetheless, most Americans still believe that the modern food system is a reflection of the natural evolution that is common with every free-market economy. Every market provides what is always on demand by the consumers. Contrary to this, today's American economy is not a reflection of the free-market economy. The quality, quantity, and variety of food available in the markets cannot accommodate the evolving needs of consumers regarding taste and preferences. Instead, the market, as well as the food corporations, have focused on maximizing the values for the stakeholders instead of focusing on the consumers, producers, and the society.

Policies affecting food sustainability in the US today

The challenges facing food sustainability can be grouped to natural and human factors. The natural and human factors interact within the food system to ensure availability of food. For example, human actions are responsible for availing water and land that are vital in the production of food, while the existing conditions of the environment dictate the choices of these requirements (Clapp 337). Thus, there is a need to create a conducive environment by the government to achieve a more sustainable food system. The creation of such conducive environments requires a system based approach by the government, which will take into account the range as well as the complexity of the interactions that exist in the production, distribution, and consumption of food within the country.

The interactions between these major stages within the food system are affected by the socio-economic, biophysical as well as the institutional elements that are in place and under the control of the government. These factors are responsible for the quality, the quantity and the affordability of food within the country. Thus, it is important for the government to ensure that the existing policy measure in place is geared towards achieving sustainability in the food system in a gender-sensitive, a multidimensional, and an integrated approach in every stage inclusive of the transportation, the storage, the processing, the wholesale and the retail, the consumption, and in the waste management channels.

Changes in the dietary practices such as the increased consumption of animal-based and processed products such as cheese, milk, and butter can lead to higher demand for resources and a consequent increase in the emission of greenhouse gas (Lazarides, Harris and Athanasia 59). The government also need to ensure fairness, equitability, and inclusivity of the market mechanisms at every market level to ensure there economic viability or every existing livelihood in its jurisdiction. For this reason, the government has put in place various policies to ensure food sustainability in the United States.

The first policy is the expansion of access to seeds, land, fertilizer, and irrigation while emphasizing on gender equality in the access to these resources. In line with this policy, the government also looks to expand the extension services, training and credit to the farmers as well as the social entrepreneurs. The second policy focuses on the storage facilities, transportation networks, food processing, procurement, distribution, and transportation of emergency food aid. The third policy by the government of the United States aims at the expansion of the markets for the private sector, addressing the land tenure within the states, streamlining the existing business regulations, and supporting the formation of local organizations which will, in turn, increase the participation of the citizens in the decision making processes.

The fourth policy focuses on the development of the regional markets which will, in turn, lower the trade barriers to develop food safety standards. The elimination of the existing barriers leads to an improvement in the market information and communication systems which in turn opens up the access to finances for the agricultural trade and the development of agribusiness (Eakin et al. 758). The fifth policy focuses on the adaptation of services and training in line with the needs of women while increasing their access to financial services, credits, land ownership, and education. The involvement of women will also lead to the improvement of child nutrition through the various school feeding programs that exist.

The sixth policy is based on the promotion of sustainable agricultural practices and adaptation of agriculture to climate change. While the seventh policy focuses on the support for CGIAR to facilitate the public-private partnerships and other collaborative partnerships that exist between the United States universities and other universities across the globe to create a competitive fund that will be aimed at supporting food sustainability research, these policies rely on the development of plans by the government focused on bringing the stakeholders together and coordinate multilateral support from the global institutions such as the United Nations to ensure food sustainability.

Practices affecting food sustainability in the US today

Today, the existing food sustainability systems have embraced the interconnectedness of the food-related activities as well as the environments within which these activities take place in the United States. The channels which include the production, distribution, and consumption within the food system is regarded as a complicated process, and it involves various inputs, outputs as well as the active participation of the stakeholders. Thus, to achieve a sustainable food system, United States need to get actively involved in the reduction of the greenhouse gas emissions, improvement of climate resilience, and to increase their agricultural productions. The existing food systems within the country overlap and operate within the local, regional, national and international levels. At these levels, the food systems are diverse with multiple objectives and therefore, lacks a specific model with which food sustainability can be achieved.

Nonetheless, these levels consist of an active set of principles which can be implemented to ensure that food sustainability is realized. Thus, the United States should develop approaches which can be used to accelerate the shift from the existing sets of principles to realize food sustainability (Wen et al. 1712). In order to realize this, the country needs to assist in the creation of policies that would promote multi-stakeholder dialogue to ensure efficient coordination at the national level on issues to do with food security to realize positive outcomes.

The United States which has a history as an agrarian society that had struggled to provide foods to meet the population needs had been hyper-dependent on rain-fed agriculture which proved to be challenging, variable, and difficult. However, the country learned from this and developed strategies to reduce the dependence on rain-fed farming through the construction and adoption of the irrigation systems. The country also adopted the land-grant university system under the leadership of President Abraham Lincoln in the 1860s which encourages systematic investment in agriculture (Eakin et al. 765). With the system in place, extension services have been created throughout the country facilitating information delivery to the farmers.

The basic extension services have been availed throughout the country as a means of developing the content of the public sector to reach the farmers within the communities. Programs such as 4-H have facilitated service delivery to every individual child in the American communities. The integration of the research and extension services in the United States have helped to increase productivity across the country. The country have also thrived to develop a structured market by improving the existing market over time to the phytosanitary standards which have allowed the trading of the commodities in an open manner that allows the interactions between the buyers and sellers in a manner that buyers understand the products they are buying while the sellers understand the products they are selling.

Conclusion

The creation of a sustainable food system in any country requires the active participation of all the stakeholders. Availability of the enabling conditions for a sustainable food system is vital in hunger eradication. Thus, a country that thrives to attain a sustainable food system must put in place a system based approach that takes into consideration the complexity of interactions between all the stages of a food system that includes production, distribution, and consumption. These complexities have adverse effects to the quality, quantity, the affordability of the foodstuffs as well as to the health of the American citizens. The creation of the enabling policies at the national level is vital to secure support for the implementation of these policies at the lower levels to ensure that a more sustainable food system is achieved. The creation of the enabling policies at the national level will also oversee the implementation of policies that would support interdisciplinary thinking, consensus building, mapping and assessment, interc...