When we frame the food crisis as a "system failure", it simultaneously obviates the guilt-tripping about what we eat and also points to near-term solutions we're gonna need to implement.
Something like a "fundamental rethink" of our food system, says Tim Lang of Britain's Food Council (via bbcnews).
A food system designed in the 1940s to capture cheap energy and ignore "astronomic" ecosystem costs cannot be patched-up, says Lang. It must be built on a series of "new fundamentals." This is doubly urgent, says Lang, since "growth in food production per capita is dropping off” just as human population is exploding.
So, we can't even meet the vaunted productivity goals of this failing system.
According to Lang, we need a new food system that is:
- far less energy-intensive
- has a much smaller ‘water footprint’
- promotes biodiversity
- fits in an increasingly urban landscape
Seen a food system like that lying around? Nope? Guess we’re gonna need to re-invent one…