Universidad Pública de Navarra - Nafarroako Univertsitate Publikoa

Module/Subject matter

Optative

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Contents

Food production is essential to human life, health and wellbeing. It has important roles in economy and culture as food systems are a major source of livelihoods through the world. But it also has significant environmental impacts and it is considered among one of the largest drivers of global environmental change by contributing to climate change, biodiversity loss, water use, interference with the global biogeochemical cycles, soil degradation and land-system change.

Ecological pressure related to anthropization and deforestation derives in altered landscapes and generates highly diverse environments in the vicinity of human populations, which are believed to be in the origin of some zoonotic diseases (caused by microorganims transmitted from animals to humans). On the other side, predictions indicate that extreme weather events such as droughts and floods are to become more frequent, putting at risk food production.

The environmental impacts, ecological changes and climatic phenomenon to which food systems contribute are related to where and how the food is produced but also to the consumption habits and patterns.

On the other hand, about 820 million people in the world suffer from hunger and food insecurity is a reality that burdens the life of millions of people. At the same time, many more consume low-quality diets that contribute to the incidence of diseases such as obesity. To round up the picture, about a third of all food produced is wasted.

Then, providing the world growing global population with healthy diets from sustainable food systems is an urgent challenge. There is a wide consensus about the need of changing the food production methods to minimize negative impacts on the environment while allowing food security and production of sufficient and nutritious food for a growing population. Current know-how can contribute to those changes by implementing technologies aiming to obtain an efficient use of natural resources (land, water, energy); the protection of the quality of the natural resources by reducing pollution, emissions or increasing biodiversity etc.; reducing food waste and waste production etc. The changes nevertheless should come not only from technology, but from different paradigms as well, taking into account that human health is connected to animal health and to the environment (¿One Health¿ concept).

The course will cover aspect related to food production systems and their impacts on the environment, technology aiming to mitigate environmental impacts, indicators and evaluation of sustainability of food production and consumption, relationship between sustainable food production, food safety, food security and healthy and sustainable diets.

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General proficiencies

CG1    The capacity to work in the field of agrifood and innovation in a socially and ethically responsible manner, and with a commitment to sustainability.

CT3    The ability to manage information. To identify information needs and be familiar with the sources, bibliographical resources and services available in order to perform basic research in the field of study. To classify information according to relevancy and analyse it critically.

CT5    A capacity for self-reliant learning. To apply the knowledge acquired to the performance of tasks, deciding on the most effective way to perform them and the time to devote to them, selecting the most suitable sources of information.

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Specific proficiencies

CE19  To know how to apply the bases of sustainability to food processing. Development and implementation of environmentally-friendly food processes. Use and optimisation of water and energy in agrifood processes. The capacity to use methods to assess and correct environmental impact.

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Learning outcomes

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Methodology

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Evaluation

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Agenda

Syllabus

Lesson 1.- From the Brundtland report to the Sustainable Development Goals and what ¿sustainability¿ really means. Food Production Systems: system thinking and sustainability; conventional and intensive systems; low input agriculture; local and smallholder agriculture.

Lesson 2.- Impacts of Food Production. Technology towards a more sustainability food production and consumption: adaptation to climate change and reduction of emissions; soil, land and water management for mitigation of environmental impacts.

Lesson 3.- Can sustainability be measured? Indicators and evaluation of Sustainability: assessment of sustainability; methodology and sustainability indicators for agriculture and food production

Lesson 4.- Food safety, food security, nutrition and the role of sustainable agriculture. Environmental and ecosystems health; Healthy diets, sustainable diets: consumption as a driver for food production systems.

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Bibliography

Access the bibliography that your professor has requested from the Library.

Basic

Alexandratos, N. (2006). World Agriculture: Towards 2030/2050. FAO, Rome.

Altieri, M.A. (1995). Agroecology: The Science of Sustainable Agriculture. Westview Press, Boulder.

CCAFS (2009). Climate change, agriculture and food security. CCAFS Report n°1.

Duchin F (2005) Sustainable consumption of food: a framework for analyzing scenarios about changes in diets. J Industrial Ecology 9, 99¿114.

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) (2014). Building a common vision for sustainable food and agriculture: principles and approaches. Rome, Italy: FAO.

NRC (2010). Towards Sustainable Systems of Agriculture in the 21st Century. Committee on Twenty-First Century Agriculture, Systems and Board on Agriculture and Natural Resources, National Research Council (NRC). The National Academies Press, Washington, D.C.

Tilman D, Balzer C, Hill J et al. (2011) Global food demand and the sustainable intensification of agriculture. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 108, 20260-20264

Supplementary

Audsley E, Brander M, Chatterton J et al. (2010) How Low Can We Go? An Assessment of Greenhouse Gas Emissions from the UK Food System and the Scope for Reducing Them by 2050. Godalming, UK: FCRN and WWF-UK.

Barling, D., Lang, T., Rayner, G. (2009). Current trends in food retailing and consumption and key choices facing society. In: Rabbinge, R., Linnemann, A. (eds.). European Food Systems in a Changing World. ESF-COST Forward Look. COST, Brussels and ESF, Strasbourg.

Godfray HCJ, Beddington JR, Crute IR et al. (2010) Food security: the challenge of feeding 9 billion people. Science 327, 812¿818.

Hazell, P., Wood, S. (2008). Drivers of change in global agriculture. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B 363: 495¿515.

IPCC, 2007: Cambio climático 2007: Informe de síntesis. Contribución de los Grupos de trabajo I, II y III al Cuarto Informe de evaluación del Grupo Intergubernamental de Expertos sobre el Cambio Climático [Equipo de redacción principal: Pachauri, R.K. y Reisinger, A. (directores de la publicación)]. IPCC, Ginebra, Suiza.

Kearney, J. (2010). Food consumption trends and drivers. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B 365: 2793-2807.

Macdiarmid JI, Kyle J, Horgan GW et al. (2012) Sustainable diets for the future: can we contribute to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by eating a healthy diet? Am J Clin Nutr 96, 632-639.

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Languages

English

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