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This website talks about climate change and how that affects our food systems

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The recent UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report was not only the bleakest warning to date of the inevitable and catastrophic impact of climate change, but it was also the clearest recognition that "food systems" are key to our collective survival.

With some 240 mentions throughout the report, the world's top climate scientists made clear that the transformation of global food systems would be instrumental in meeting global goals for human rights, equality and climate change.

As a result of last year's UN Food Systems Summit, more than 110 countries have new national pathways to transform how we produce, process, consume and waste food to contend with and slow down climate change. Governments now have a matter of months until the next climate talks in Egypt to align their strategies and set the course to leverage food systems both to reduce emissions and to support the people and sectors worst affected to successfully adapt.

It is no surprise that some of the regions facing the greatest impacts of climate change are also those that announced common regional positions at the Food Systems Summit to reinforce each other's action. The economic importance of agriculture to Africa, Latin America and the Pacific Islands, coupled with their high exposure to climate risk, make adaptation through food systems a matter of life and death. But these countries cannot act alone even though they are the most impacted; in fact, they need all countries to act together globally for us to stay on course for limiting temperature rises to 1.5 degrees Celsius to avoid the worst impacts of climate change.

Therefore, all countries, rich and poor; emitters and non-emitters; resilient and vulnerable are out options. We must now take up the challenge of integrating a food systems approach across all government departments to effectively turn these national pathways into real results on the ground for people, planet and prosperity.

As a former government minister, I urge ministers and secretaries of state around the world to resist the temptation to work in isolation and become entrenched solely in their own discrete portfolios.

Foreign and environment ministers tend to do much of the negotiating around these global issues on climate, but the platforms for inter-ministerial engagement used by the UN Food Systems Summit must continue to allow this topic to become a common issue across all ministries.

The cabinets that get this right will make the most progress and access the most support for their priorities, from agriculture and environment to trade and health, as well as treasuries and finance ministries in particular. Agricultural losses to drought between 1983 and 2009 amounted to $166 billion, according to the IPCC, yet transforming food systems can help unlock $4.5 trillion in new business opportunities every year and mobilize smart capital for greater investment in more sustainable food systems.

With greater collaboration across issues, agencies and departments, governments can begin implementing comprehensive packages of measures that make good on their commitments, recognizing that it might take a while to get things right - all the more reason to start sooner rather than later.

At the UN climate summit COP26 in Glasgow last year, a number of partnerships came together from Regen10, to AIM for Climate, to the AFR100 restoration initiative and many more, all bringing together policymakers as well as businesses, non-profits, international agencies and farmers. When combined with the commitments coming out of the Food Systems Summit, they offer potential to impact key players on the frontline of food systems.

Take Regen10, for example. The plan is to work with more than 500 million farmers to adopt regenerative production methods and transform agricultural systems, while also ensuring around $60 billion per year is deployed to finance the transition.

By fostering greater collaboration at a national level, governments are also likely to treat international forums like the COP climate talks and the Food Systems Summit - which has its first biennial stock-take at the end of next year - as part of the same process to address our shared global challenges. The world will neither cope with nor address climate change without also rethinking food systems, making the two issues intrinsically linked.

As the IPCC sets out, adapting to climate change becomes harder with every fraction of a degree of warming, binding successful adaptation to global efforts to reduce emissions. The report is clear that the poorer countries, the small island states and the already vulnerable among us will suffer the most. Through food systems, countries have an opportunity to advance adaptation while reducing emissions, but the window for effective action is narrowing.

By uniting and maximizing the solutions to multiple existential threats, governments - and the ministers in their cabinets - could make this year the turning point in the survival of the planet.
Agnes Kalibata, Ph.D., is the former special envoy of the UN Secretary-General for the 2021 Food Systems Summit, as well as President of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA).

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Climate change: Food systems are key to our collective survival

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The recent UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report was not only the bleakest warning to date of the inevitable and catastrophic impact of climate change, but it was also the clearest recognition that "food systems" are key to our collective survival.

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This website goes in depth of the stages of a doos stystem

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This website talks about what food systems are and gives examples of them

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The term food system describes the interconnected systems and processes that influence nutrition, food, health, community development and agriculture. A food system includes all processes and infrastructure involved in feeding a population: growing, harvesting, processing, packaging, transporting, marketing, consumption, distribution and disposal of food and food-related items. It also includes the inputs needed and outputs generated at each of these steps. Food systems fall within agrifood systems, which encompass the entire range of actors and their interlinked value-adding activities in the primary production of food and non-food agricultural products, as well as in food storage, aggregation, post-harvest handling, transportation, processing, distribution, marketing, disposal and consumption. A food system operates within and is influenced by social, political, economic, and environmental contexts. It also requires human resources that provide labor, research and education. Food systems are either conventional or alternative according to their model of food lifespan from origin to plate.

According to the IPCC, the global food system, including all of the various industries involved in sustainable and conventional food systems, provide employment for 1 billion people. This global food system is facing a number of challenges created by impeding global food security issues created by climate change and non-climate change stresses on the system. About 34% of total greenhouse gas emissions are attributable to the global food system, and in 2020 an EU evidence review found that this is on course to increase by 30-40% by 2050 due to population growth and dietary change.According to FAO, it is crucial to build the resilience of agrifood systems so that they have the capacity over time, in the face of any disruption, to sustainably ensure availability of and access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food for all, and sustain the livelihoods of agrifood systems' actors.

Transitioning to sustainable food systems is critical for addressing global challenges such as climate change, hunger, biodiversity loss, and deforestation. Addressing issues at each stage in the system, can have system-wide effects for 30-40 percent of food produced is lost from post-harvest up to retail and the consumer. Reducing food waste then reduces the environmental impacts of agriculture, such as land use impacts, and reducing food prices or preventing shortages. International policy has increasingly approached policy from a food systems perspective: Sustainable Development Goal 2: Zero Hunger and Sustainable Development Goal 12: "responsible consumption and production" focus on sustainable food systems and Sustainable and in September 2021 the United Nations hosted the first Food Systems Summit.

Conventional food systems operate on economies of scale. These food systems are geared towards a production model that requires maximizing efficiency in order to lower consumer costs and increase overall production, and they utilize economic models such as vertical integration, economic specialization, and global trade.The growing soil quality degradation, climate change and growing world population put pressure on agricultural land, leading to innovations to increase agricultural productivity on the limited available land and urban space. Though conventional farming practices have increased crop yield through use of climate-smart agriculture (CSA), smallholder farming systems and limited knowledge of CSA remains constraints for enjoying economies of scale and sustainable crop production and food security.

The term "conventional" when describing food systems is in large part due to comparisons made to it by proponents of other food systems, collectively known as alternative food systems.

The development of food systems can be traced back to the origins of in-situ agriculture and the production of food surpluses. These surpluses enabled the development of settled areas and contributed to the development of ancient civilizations, particularly those in the Fertile Crescent. The system of trade associated with the exchange of foodstuffs also emerged in East Asia, North America, South America, and Subsaharan Africa with common commodities of exchange such as salt, spices, fish, grains, etc. Through events in world history such as the conquests of Alexander the Great, the Crusades, the expansion of Islam, the journeys of Marco Polo, and the exploration and colonization of the Americas by Europeans led to the introduction and redistribution of new foods to the world at large, and food systems began to intermingle on a global scale. After World War II, the advent of industrialized agriculture and more robust global trade mechanisms have evolved into the models of food production, presentation, delivery, and disposal that characterizes conventional food systems today.

Lower food costs and greater food variety can be directly attributed to the evolution of conventional food systems. Agronomic efficiency is driven by the necessity to constantly lower production expenses, and those savings can then be passed on to the consumer. Also, the advent of industrial agriculture and the infrastructure built around conventional food systems has enabled the world population to expand beyond the " Malthusian catastrophe" limitations. According to the IPCC, food supply per capita has increased by more than 30% since 1961.

However, conventional food systems are largely based on the availability of inexpensive fossil fuels, which is necessary for mechanized agriculture, the manufacture or collection of chemical fertilizers, the processing of food products, and the packaging of the foods. The increase in availability of food since 1961 has largely been driven by an 800% increase in use of nitrogen fertilizers (which are fossil fuel dependent) and high water usage (an increase of over 100% since 1961).

The impacts of these resource intense processes are many a varied: food processing began when the number of consumers started growing rapidly. The demand for cheap and efficient calories climbed resulting in nutrition decline; and industrialized agriculture, due to its reliance on economies of scale to reduce production costs, often leads to the compromising of local, regional, or even global ecosystems through fertilizer runoff, nonpoint source pollution, and greenhouse gas emission.

The need to reduce production costs in an increasingly global market can cause production of foods to be moved to areas where economic costs (labor, taxes, etc.) are lower or environmental regulations are more lax, which are usually further from consumer markets. For example, the majority of salmon sold in the United States is raised off the coast of Chile, due in large part to less stringent Chilean standards regarding fish feed and regardless of the fact that salmon are not indigenous in Chilean coastal waters. The globalization of food production can result in the loss of traditional food systems in less developed countries, and have negative impacts on the population health, ecosystems, and cultures in those countries. As a result of these forces, 2018 estimates suggest that 821 million people are currently undernourished, and 2 billion adults are overweight and obese.

The issue of having minimal access to food, or access to primarily unhealthy food, are often described in terms of food security. The 1996 World Food Summit defined food security as a state in which "all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life. " Many groups argue that food security is largely determined by a given person's socioeconomic status, race, ethnicity, or other socially defined category, making food access a social justice issue. This has given rise to numerous social movements whose goal is to increase access to healthy and culturally appropriate foods, among a wide variety of groups. These movements are often described as belonging to a larger food justice movement.

Scientists estimated the extensive pesticide pollution risks risks worldwide with a new environmental model and found that a third of global agricultural land is at high risk for such pollution of which a third are high-biodiversity regions.

Alternative food systems are those that fall outside the scope of conventional agriculture, typically in order to create sustainable food systems.

Local food systems are networks of food production and consumption that aim to be geographically and economically accessible and direct. They contrast to industrial food systems by operating with reduced food transportation and more direct marketing, leading to fewer people between the farmer and the consumer. As a result, relationships that are developed in local food systems emerge from face-to-face interactions, potentially leading to a stronger sense of trust and social connectedness between actors. In addition to this, consumers can also encourage farmers to be environmentally friendly by teaching them about practices such as organic farming. As a result, some scholars suggest that local food systems are a good way to revitalize a community. The decreased distance of food transportation has also been promoted for its environmental benefits. Also, farmers can enjoy a better quality of life because producing healthier food will allow them to be paid more, and not live under the poverty line.

Both proponents and critics of local food systems warn that they can lead to narrow inward-looking attitudes or 'local food patriotism', and that price premiums and local food cultures can be elitist and exclusive. In contrast, many food sovereignty activists argue that local production of food is essential to achieving food security, especially among indigenous communities, and thus are crucial to the public health of those communities.

Examples of local food systems include community-supported agriculture, farmers markets and farm to school programs. They have been associated with the 100 Mile Diet and Low Carbon Diet, as well as the slow food movement. The food sovereignty movement is also related to local food production. Food sovereignty activists argue that local communities should not only have access to nutritious and culturally appropriate foods, but that those communities should also be able to define the means by which their food is produced. Various forms of urban agriculture locate food production in densely populated areas not traditionally associated with farming. Garden sharing, where urban and suburban homeowners offer land access to food growers in exchange for a share of the harvest, is a relatively new trend, at the extreme end of direct local food production.

An FAO study on food transport networks of 90 countries finds that where food is transported more locally and where the network is denser - such as in high-income countries and densely populated countries like China, India, Nigeria and Pakistan -, systematic disturbances (i.e., adverse events), have a much lower impact on increases in travel time and food costs than where food is transported further distances.

Organic food systems are characterized by a reduced dependence on chemical inputs and an increased concern for transparency and information. Organic produce is grown without the chemical pesticides and fertilizers of industrial food systems, and livestock is reared without the use of antibiotics or growth hormones. The reduced inputs of organic agriculture can also lead to a greater reliance on local knowledge, creating a stronger knowledge community amongst farmers. The transparency of food information is vital for organic food systems as a means through which consumers are able to identify organic food. As a result, a variety of certification bodies have emerged in organic food systems that set the standards for organic identification. Organic agriculture is promoted for the ecological benefits of reduced chemical application, the health benefits of lower chemical consumption, the economic benefits that accrue to farmers through a price premium, and the social benefits of increased transparency in the food system.

Like local food systems, organic food systems have been criticized for being elitist and inaccessible. Critics have also suggested that organic agriculture has been conventionalized such that it mimics industrial food systems using pesticides and fertilizers that are organically derived

Cooperatives can exist both at the farmer end of food production and the consumer end. Farming cooperatives refer to arrangements where farmers pool resources, either to cultivate their crops or get their crops to market. Consumer cooperatives often refer to food cooperatives where members buy a share in the store. Co-operative grocery stores, unlike corporate grocery stores, are socially owned and thus surpluses cannot be taken from the store as profit. As a result, food co-ops do not work for profit, potentially keeping prices more cost representative. Other forms of cooperatives that have developed more recently include community-supported agriculture, where community members buy a share in a farm's harvest, and may also be engaged in farm labour, operating at both the consumer and producer end of food systems. Garden sharing pairs individual landowners and food growers, while variations on this approach organize groups of food gardeners for mutual assistance.

Producer associations and cooperatives reinforce small-scale agricultural producers' livelihoods by allowing the pooling of resources to achieve scale, facilitating access to productive resources, enhancing marketing power. Coordination with other actors is also key to managing market risks. Mutual benefits can be achieved, for example, through forward contracts: farmers receive guaranteed prices for their outputs regardless of market conditions, while processors and distributors receive products of a desired quality. For farming cooperatives that share resources, the burden of investment is disbursed to all members, rather than being concentrated in a single individual. A criticism of cooperatives is that reduced competition can reduce efficiency

Fair trade has emerged in global food systems to create a greater balance between the price of food and the cost of producing it. It is defined largely by more direct trading and communication systems whereby producers have greater control over the conditions of trade and garner a greater fraction of the sale price. The main goal of Fair Trade is to "change international commercial relations in such a way that disadvantaged producers can increase their control over their own future, have a fair and just return for their work, continuity of income and decent working and living conditions through sustainable development" Like organic food systems, fair trade relies on transparency and the flow of information. Well-known examples of fair trade commodities are coffee and cocoa.

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Vertical farms, automation, solar energy production, novel alternatives to pesticides, online food delivery ICTs, and other technologies may allow to localize or modify food production alongside policies such as eco-tariffs, targeted subsidies and meat taxes.[citation needed ]

The IPCC Special Report on Climate Change and Land describes the current global food system as potentially having major food security risks due to changes created by climate change, including changing local weather conditions, socioeconomic effects of climate change, vulnerability of certain types of agriculture (such as pastoral) and changes in diets due to availability.

The food system is one of the largest sources of greenhouse gas emissions, attributable for between 21 and 37% of global emissions. In 2020, an evidence review for the European Union's Scientific Advice Mechanism found that, without significant change, emissions would increase by 30-40% by 2050 due to population growth and changing consumption patterns, and concluded that "the combined environmental cost of food production is estimated to amount to some $12 trillion per year, increasing to $16 trillion by 2050". Another 2020 study concluded that reducing emissions from the global food system to be essential for achieving the Paris Agreement's climate goals.

The IPCC's and the EU's reports concluded that adapting the food system to reduce greenhouse gas emissions impacts and food security concerns, while shifting towards a sustainable diet, is feasible .

The European Union's Scientific Advice Mechanism has published a systematic review of all European policies related to sustainable food systems, and their analyses in the academic literature.

In September 2019, the EU's Chief Scientific Advisors stated that adapting the European food system for the future should be a high priority for the EU:

Although availability of food is not perceived as an immediate, major concern in Europe, the challenge to ensure a long-term, safe, nutritious and affordable supply of food, from both land and the oceans, remains. A portfolio of coordinated strategies is called for to address this challenge.

In January 2020, the EU put improvements to the food system at the core of the European Green Deal. The European Commission's 'Farm to Fork strategy for a sustainable food system', due to be published in spring 2020, is expected to lay out how European countries will reduce greenhouse gas emissions, protect biodiversity, reduce food waste and chemical pesticide use, and contribute to a circular economy.

In April 2020, the EU's Scientific Advice Mechanism delivered to European Commissioners a Scientific Opinion on how to transition to a sustainable food system, informed by an evidence review report undertaken by European academies.

Transparency within food systems refers to full disclosure of information about rules, procedures and practices at all levels within a food production and supply chain. Transparency ensures that consumers have detailed information about production of a given food item. Traceability, by contrast, is the ability to trace to their origins all components in a food production and marketing chain, whether processed or unprocessed (e.g., meat, vegetables) foods. Concerns about transparency and traceability have been heightened with food safety scares such as bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) and Escherichia coli ( E. coli), but do not exclusively refer to food safety. Transparency is also important in identifying foods that possess extrinsic qualities that do not affect the nature of the food per se, but affect its production, such as animal welfare, social justice issues and environmental concerns.

One of the primary ways transparency is achieved is through certification and/or use of food labels. In the United States, some certification originates in the public sector, such as the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Organic label. Others have their origin in private sector certification (e.g., Humanely Raised, Certified Humane). There are also labels which do not rely on certification, such as the USDA's Country of Origin Label (COOL).

Participation in local food systems such as Community Supported Agriculture (CSA), Farmers Markets, food cooperatives and farmer cooperatives also enhances transparency, and there are diverse programs promoting purchase of locally grown and marketed foods.

Organic (USA) - The USDA Organic label indicates that the product has been produced in accordance with the USDA's Federal Organic Standard, part of the National Organic Program federal regulatory framework. This label is applied to fruits, vegetables, meat, eggs and dairy products. Some states, such as California, have their own organic label. Organic labelling is prominent internationally as well.

Fair Trade - Indicates that the product has been grown and marketed in accordance with Fair Trade standards. This is an independent certification, awarded by FLO-CERT and overseen by FLO International. Major food items that are marketed under Fair Trade are coffee, tea and chocolate. Many items other than food are sold with a Fair Trade label.

Food Alliance Certified - Food Alliance is a nonprofit organization that certifies farms, ranches, and food processors and distributors for safe and fair working conditions, humane treatment of animals, and good environmental stewardship. Food Alliance Certified products come from farms, ranches and food processors that have met meaningful standards for social and environmental responsibility, as determined through an independent third-party audit. Food Alliance does not certify genetically modified crops or livestock. Meat or dairy products come from animals that are not treated with antibiotics or growth hormones. Food Alliance Certified foods never contain artificial colors, flavors, or preservatives.[49]

Country of Origin - This label was created by enactment of the 2002 Farm Bill. The US Department of Agriculture is responsible for its implementation, which began 30 September 2008. The bill mandates country of origin labeling for several products, including beef, lamb, pork, fish, chicken, perishable agricultural commodities and some nuts. USDA rules provide specifics as to documentation, timetables and definitions.[50] There is not one specific label to indicate the country of origin; they will vary by country.

American Humane Certified - This certification is provided by the American Humane Association, and ensures that farm animals are raised according to welfare standards that provide for adequate housing, feed, healthcare and behavior expression. Antibiotics are not used except for therapeutic reasons; growth promoters are not used. Other issues including transport, processing and biosecurity are addressed as well. Species covered are poultry, cattle and swine.[51]

Certified Humane Raised & Handled - This label ensures that production meets the Humane Farm Animal Care Program standards, which addresses housing, diet (excluding routine use of hormones or antibiotics) and natural behavior. Additionally, producers must comply with food safety and environmental protection regulations. They must meet standards set by the American Meat Institute, that are more stringent than those laid out in the Federal Humane Slaughter Act. Certification has been applied to beef, poultry and eggs, pork, lamb, goat, turkey, veal, dairy products and wool.[52]

This article incorporates text from a free content work. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 License statement/permission. Text taken from The State of Food and Agriculture 2019. Moving forward on food loss and waste reduction, In brief, 24, FAO, FAO.

This article incorporates text from a free content work. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 License statement/permission. Text taken from The State of Food and Agriculture 2021. Making agrifood systems more resilient to shocks and stresses, In brief, FAO, FAO.

This article incorporates text from a free content work. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 License statement/permission. Text taken from Robust transport networks support agrifood systems' resilience, FAO, FAO.

1. ^ The State of Food and Agriculture 2021. Making agrifood systems more resilient to shocks and stresses, In brief. Rome: FAO. 2021. ISBN 978-92-5-135208-3.

2. ^ "A Primer on Community Food Systems: Linking Food, Nutrition and Agriculture" (PDF). Farmland Information Center. n.d. all processes involved in keeping us fed: growing, harvesting, processing (or transforming or changing), packaging, transporting, marketing, consuming and disposing of food and food packages.

3. ^ Ericksen, Polly J. (February 2008). "Conceptualizing food systems for global environmental change research" (PDF). Global Environmental Change. 18 (1): 234-245. doi:10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2007.09.002.

4. ^ Mbow, C.; Rosenzweig, C.; Barioni, L. G.; Benton, T.; et al. (2019). "Chapter 5: Food Security" (PDF). IPCC SRCCL 2019. pp. 439-442.

5. ^ Crippa, M.; Solazzo, E.; Guizzardi, D.; Monforti-Ferrario, F.; Tubiello, F. N.; Leip, A. (March 2021). "Food systems are responsible for a third of global anthropogenic GHG emissions". Nature Food. 2 (3): 198-209. doi:10.1038/s43016-021-00225-9. ISSN 2662-1355.

6. ^ Science Advice for Policy by European Academies (2020). A sustainable food system for the European Union (PDF). Berlin: SAPEA. p. 39. doi:10.26356/sustainablefood. ISBN 978-3-9820301-7-3.

7. ^ Nestle, Marion. (2013). Food Politics: How the Food Industry Influences Nutrition and Health." Los Angeles, California: University of California Press. ISBN 978-0520275966

8. ^ Tang, Fiona H. M.; Lenzen, Manfred; McBratney, Alexander; Maggi, Federico (April 2021). "Risk of pesticide pollution at the global scale". Nature Geoscience. 14 (4): 206-210. Bibcode:2021NatGe..14..206T. doi:10.1038/s41561-021-00712-5. ISSN 1752-0908.

9. cf. Andreas Wieland, Carl Marcus Wallenburg (2011): ^ Supply-Chain-Management in stürmischen Zeiten. Berlin.

10. ^ Science Advice for Policy by European Academies (2020). A sustainable food system for the European Union (PDF). Berlin: SAPEA. p. 39. doi:10.26356/sustainablefood. ISBN 978-3-9820301-7-3.

11. ^ Clark, Michael A.; Domingo, Nina G. G.; Colgan, Kimberly; Thakrar, Sumil K.; Tilman, David; Lynch, John; Azevedo, Inês L.; Hill, Jason D. (6 November 2020). "Global food system emissions could preclude achieving the 1.5° and 2°C climate change targets". Science. 370 (6517): 705-708. Bibcode:2020Sci...370..705C. doi:10.1126/science.aba7357. ISSN 0036-8075. PMID 33154139. S2CID 226254942.

12. ^ Science Advice for Policy by European Academies (2020). A sustainable food system for the European Union: A systematic review of the European policy ecosystem (PDF). Berlin: SAPEA. doi:10.26356/sustainablefoodreview. ISBN 978-3-9820301-7-3.

13. ^ Group of Chief Scientific Advisors (25 September 2019). "Scoping paper: Towards an EU Sustainable Food System" (PDF). EU Scientific Advice Mechanism.

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The term food system describes the interconnected systems and processes that influence nutrition, food, health, community development and agriculture. A food system includes all processes and infrastructure involved in feeding a population: growing, harvesting, processing, packaging, transporting, marketing, consumption, distribution and disposal of food and food-related items. It also includes the inputs needed and outputs generated at each of these steps.

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This video talks about GMO crops and how farmers use them and why.

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Feed Your Mind Main Page en Español (Spanish) Download in PDF
Most of the GMO crops grown today were developed to help farmers prevent crop and food loss and control weeds.

The three most common traits found in GMO crops are:

1. Resistance to certain damaging insects

2. Tolerance of certain herbicides used to control weeds

3. Resistance to certain plant viruses

Farmers can use less spray pesticides when they plant GMO crops. This saves farmers money and reduces the amount of pesticides that end up on crops.

When farmers use herbicide-tolerant crops, they reduce the need to till the soil to control weeds. No-till planting helps to improve soil health, reduce soil erosion, lower fuel and labor use, and reduce the amount of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere.

Growing virus-resistant crops can also help farmers produce a sustainable, safe food supply while increasing the stability of their livelihoods.

Studies have shown positive economic and environmental impacts of growing GMO crops.

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Why Do Farmers in the U.S. Grow GMO Crops?

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Most of the GMO crops grown today were developed to help farmers prevent crop and food loss and control weeds.

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the video explains climate resistance in food systems

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IIRR: International Institute of Rural Reconstruction

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How Do We Get Our Food? | Farming Industry | Science For Kids | Grade 5 | Periwinkle

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ag food systems explanation

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Of the three female craft sake brewers in the U.S., two make up the mother-daughter team at Sequoia Sake in San Francisco. Working with California rice farmers, they're bringing the nearly 2,000-year-old national drink of Japan to more Americans.

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Of the three female craft sake brewers in the U.S., two make up the mother-daughter team at Sequoia Sake in San Francisco. Working with California rice farmers, they're bringing the nearly 2,000-year-old national drink of Japan to more Americans.

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This video describes sustainable food systems in depth

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food systems

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Beth Hoffman's stories. I write about the changing food system.

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This video talks about how our food is grown

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How Do We Get Our Food? | Farming Industry | Science For Kids | Grade 5 | Periwinkle

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This video is a simple overview of food systems.

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This video talks about what farmers grow and how they do so.

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Food for Thought - What do America's Farmers grow?

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Here's a simple question - what do America's Farmers grow? We know America's farm families grow the meals we sit down to, the clothes we put on every morning, and the fuel that gets us from point A to point B, but is that all they grow?

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Two in three children between the ages of 6 months and two years are not getting the nutrients and food they need for healthy growth and development. Sadly, there has been no progress in improving children's diets in the last decade.

The poor quality of young children's diets is the major driver of all forms of malnutrition - stunting, wasting, micronutrient deficiencies, overweight and obesity - and one of the greatest obstacles to ensure children not only survive, but thrive. Yet, change is possible with the right commitments and investments.
Read UNICEF's latest global report on nutrition: 'Fed to fail: The crisis of diets in early childhood'
At the centre of this challenge is a broken food system that fails to provide children with the diets they need to grow healthy and that is badly impacting the planet. But what exactly do we mean when we talk about 'food systems'? Why do they matter for children? And what needs to change?

Food systems are the public policy decisions; the national and global systems and supply chains; and the individuals and groups - public and private - that influence what we eat.

They are important for two key reasons:

1. What we eat - our diets - is one of the biggest drivers of health and well-being. This is especially the case for children. Good nutrition at every stage of a child's life is vital to ensure they grow, develop, and learn to reach their full potential.

2. Current food systems - including production, farming, processing and global supply chains - have an enormous impact on our planet, driving climate change and threatening the environment.

Why do food systems need reform?

A staggering two in three children between the ages of 6 months and two years are not getting the diverse diets they need to grow up well, putting them at risk of malnutrition. Food systems are one of the major drivers of this.

Too often driven by profit over purpose, decisions about what food is produced and how that food is processed, packaged, and promoted undermine the quality of what children eat. The most nutritious food is often expensive, putting it out of reach for many households, while unhealthy alternatives are readily available and heavily marketed.

Conflict, climate change, environmental crises and emergencies are also making food systems fragile. As a result, millions of children do not have safe and regular access to nutritious food to the extent that famine - which should be consigned to history - looms again.

Food systems are threatening the health of our planet. Industrial food production contributes a third of greenhouse gas emissions globally, and its heavy use of fresh water, fertilizers, and pesticides has an immense ecological impact. This creates a vicious cycle of environmental degradation that further harms children's access to safe, healthy and nutritious food.

By better understanding the significance of food systems, and joining forces with children and young people, we can deliver good nutrition and a healthier planet for every child.

Making change happen

Action on food systems can transform this situation - progress is possible. For example, over the past two decades, the number of undernourished children has fallen by one-third.

We know we can continue this progress through collective action to:

1. Improve the quality of what children eat. This includes mandatory quality standards for children's food, public policies that promote healthy diets, and supply-chain interventions to fortify staple foods for young children.

2. Improve the quality of children's food environments - where they live, learn and eat. This includes ending unhealthy food marketing that targets children, serving better food in schools, and improving food labeling.

3. Improve feeding practices - especially in early childhood. This includes protecting, promoting and supporting breastfeeding and encouraging healthy food practices through health, education and social protection systems.

It is also vital that action is taken to minimize the environmental damage of food systems and to reduce their carbon footprint. This has a critical role to play on the road to COP 26 - the 2021 UN climate conference. Healthy diets must be nutritious, affordable and sustainable.

The Food Systems Summit 2021

This is a critical moment to listen to the voices of children and young people. Not only does their future depend on a radical overhaul of our food systems, but they also have some of the best and brightest ideas about how these systems can better serve people and our planet.

The UN Food Systems Summit, held during the UN General Assembly in New York in September 2021, was an important opportunity to demonstrate UNICEF's commitment to support for food systems transformations. By building on the Summit commitments UNICEF will work alongside partners and drive concrete action to:

Increase the availability and affordability of nutritious foods - including fruits, vegetables, eggs, fish meat and fortified foods - by incentivizing their production, distribution, and retailing.

Implementing national standards and legislation to protect young children from unhealthy processed and ultra-processed foods and beverages and to end harmful marketing practices targeting children and families.

Increase the desirability of nutritious and safe foods through multiple communication channels including digital media to reach parents and children with easy to understand, coherent information.

Just as the drivers of poor diets are multifaceted, so are the solutions. To deliver nutritious, safe, and affordable diets to every child, governments, donors, civil society organizations and development actors must work hand-in-hand to transform food, health and social protection systems by leading ten key actions.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Food Systems: What they are, why they matter

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Two in three children between the ages of 6 months and two years are not getting the nutrients and food they need for healthy growth and development. Sadly, there has been no progress in improving children's diets in the last decade.

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This video talks about what are food systems and why they matter

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Two in three children between the ages of 6 months and two years are not getting the nutrients and food they need for healthy growth and development. Sadly, there has been no progress in improving children's diets in the last decade.

The poor quality of young children's diets is the major driver of all forms of malnutrition - stunting, wasting, micronutrient deficiencies, overweight and obesity - and one of the greatest obstacles to ensure children not only survive, but thrive. Yet, change is possible with the right commitments and investments.
Read UNICEF's latest global report on nutrition: 'Fed to fail: The crisis of diets in early childhood'
At the centre of this challenge is a broken food system that fails to provide children with the diets they need to grow healthy and that is badly impacting the planet. But what exactly do we mean when we talk about 'food systems'? Why do they matter for children? And what needs to change?

Food systems are the public policy decisions; the national and global systems and supply chains; and the individuals and groups - public and private - that influence what we eat.

They are important for two key reasons:

1. What we eat - our diets - is one of the biggest drivers of health and well-being. This is especially the case for children. Good nutrition at every stage of a child's life is vital to ensure they grow, develop, and learn to reach their full potential.

2. Current food systems - including production, farming, processing and global supply chains - have an enormous impact on our planet, driving climate change and threatening the environment.

Why do food systems need reform?

A staggering two in three children between the ages of 6 months and two years are not getting the diverse diets they need to grow up well, putting them at risk of malnutrition. Food systems are one of the major drivers of this.

Too often driven by profit over purpose, decisions about what food is produced and how that food is processed, packaged, and promoted undermine the quality of what children eat. The most nutritious food is often expensive, putting it out of reach for many households, while unhealthy alternatives are readily available and heavily marketed.

Conflict, climate change, environmental crises and emergencies are also making food systems fragile. As a result, millions of children do not have safe and regular access to nutritious food to the extent that famine - which should be consigned to history - looms again.

Food systems are threatening the health of our planet. Industrial food production contributes a third of greenhouse gas emissions globally, and its heavy use of fresh water, fertilizers, and pesticides has an immense ecological impact. This creates a vicious cycle of environmental degradation that further harms children's access to safe, healthy and nutritious food.

By better understanding the significance of food systems, and joining forces with children and young people, we can deliver good nutrition and a healthier planet for every child.

Making change happen

Action on food systems can transform this situation - progress is possible. For example, over the past two decades, the number of undernourished children has fallen by one-third.

We know we can continue this progress through collective action to:

1. Improve the quality of what children eat. This includes mandatory quality standards for children's food, public policies that promote healthy diets, and supply-chain interventions to fortify staple foods for young children.

2. Improve the quality of children's food environments - where they live, learn and eat. This includes ending unhealthy food marketing that targets children, serving better food in schools, and improving food labeling.

3. Improve feeding practices - especially in early childhood. This includes protecting, promoting and supporting breastfeeding and encouraging healthy food practices through health, education and social protection systems.

It is also vital that action is taken to minimize the environmental damage of food systems and to reduce their carbon footprint. This has a critical role to play on the road to COP 26 - the 2021 UN climate conference. Healthy diets must be nutritious, affordable and sustainable.

The Food Systems Summit 2021

This is a critical moment to listen to the voices of children and young people. Not only does their future depend on a radical overhaul of our food systems, but they also have some of the best and brightest ideas about how these systems can better serve people and our planet.

The UN Food Systems Summit, held during the UN General Assembly in New York in September 2021, was an important opportunity to demonstrate UNICEF's commitment to support for food systems transformations. By building on the Summit commitments UNICEF will work alongside partners and drive concrete action to:

Increase the availability and affordability of nutritious foods - including fruits, vegetables, eggs, fish meat and fortified foods - by incentivizing their production, distribution, and retailing.

Implementing national standards and legislation to protect young children from unhealthy processed and ultra-processed foods and beverages and to end harmful marketing practices targeting children and families.

Increase the desirability of nutritious and safe foods through multiple communication channels including digital media to reach parents and children with easy to understand, coherent information.

Just as the drivers of poor diets are multifaceted, so are the solutions. To deliver nutritious, safe, and affordable diets to every child, governments, donors, civil society organizations and development actors must work hand-in-hand to transform food, health and social protection systems by leading ten key actions.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Food Systems: What they are, why they matter

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Two in three children between the ages of 6 months and two years are not getting the nutrients and food they need for healthy growth and development. Sadly, there has been no progress in improving children's diets in the last decade.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Two in three children between the ages of 6 months and two years are not getting the nutrients and food they need for healthy growth and development. Sadly, there has been no progress in improving children's diets in the last decade.

The poor quality of young children's diets is the major driver of all forms of malnutrition - stunting, wasting, micronutrient deficiencies, overweight and obesity - and one of the greatest obstacles to ensure children not only survive, but thrive. Yet, change is possible with the right commitments and investments.
Read UNICEF's latest global report on nutrition: 'Fed to fail: The crisis of diets in early childhood'
At the centre of this challenge is a broken food system that fails to provide children with the diets they need to grow healthy and that is badly impacting the planet. But what exactly do we mean when we talk about 'food systems'? Why do they matter for children? And what needs to change?

Food systems are the public policy decisions; the national and global systems and supply chains; and the individuals and groups - public and private - that influence what we eat.

They are important for two key reasons:

1. What we eat - our diets - is one of the biggest drivers of health and well-being. This is especially the case for children. Good nutrition at every stage of a child's life is vital to ensure they grow, develop, and learn to reach their full potential.

2. Current food systems - including production, farming, processing and global supply chains - have an enormous impact on our planet, driving climate change and threatening the environment.

Why do food systems need reform?

A staggering two in three children between the ages of 6 months and two years are not getting the diverse diets they need to grow up well, putting them at risk of malnutrition. Food systems are one of the major drivers of this.

Too often driven by profit over purpose, decisions about what food is produced and how that food is processed, packaged, and promoted undermine the quality of what children eat. The most nutritious food is often expensive, putting it out of reach for many households, while unhealthy alternatives are readily available and heavily marketed.

Conflict, climate change, environmental crises and emergencies are also making food systems fragile. As a result, millions of children do not have safe and regular access to nutritious food to the extent that famine - which should be consigned to history - looms again.

Food systems are threatening the health of our planet. Industrial food production contributes a third of greenhouse gas emissions globally, and its heavy use of fresh water, fertilizers, and pesticides has an immense ecological impact. This creates a vicious cycle of environmental degradation that further harms children's access to safe, healthy and nutritious food.

By better understanding the significance of food systems, and joining forces with children and young people, we can deliver good nutrition and a healthier planet for every child.

Making change happen

Action on food systems can transform this situation - progress is possible. For example, over the past two decades, the number of undernourished children has fallen by one-third.

We know we can continue this progress through collective action to:

1. Improve the quality of what children eat. This includes mandatory quality standards for children's food, public policies that promote healthy diets, and supply-chain interventions to fortify staple foods for young children.

2. Improve the quality of children's food environments - where they live, learn and eat. This includes ending unhealthy food marketing that targets children, serving better food in schools, and improving food labeling.

3. Improve feeding practices - especially in early childhood. This includes protecting, promoting and supporting breastfeeding and encouraging healthy food practices through health, education and social protection systems.

It is also vital that action is taken to minimize the environmental damage of food systems and to reduce their carbon footprint. This has a critical role to play on the road to COP 26 - the 2021 UN climate conference. Healthy diets must be nutritious, affordable and sustainable.

The Food Systems Summit 2021

This is a critical moment to listen to the voices of children and young people. Not only does their future depend on a radical overhaul of our food systems, but they also have some of the best and brightest ideas about how these systems can better serve people and our planet.

The UN Food Systems Summit, held during the UN General Assembly in New York in September 2021, was an important opportunity to demonstrate UNICEF's commitment to support for food systems transformations. By building on the Summit commitments UNICEF will work alongside partners and drive concrete action to:

Increase the availability and affordability of nutritious foods - including fruits, vegetables, eggs, fish meat and fortified foods - by incentivizing their production, distribution, and retailing.

Implementing national standards and legislation to protect young children from unhealthy processed and ultra-processed foods and beverages and to end harmful marketing practices targeting children and families.

Increase the desirability of nutritious and safe foods through multiple communication channels including digital media to reach parents and children with easy to understand, coherent information.

Just as the drivers of poor diets are multifaceted, so are the solutions. To deliver nutritious, safe, and affordable diets to every child, governments, donors, civil society organizations and development actors must work hand-in-hand to transform food, health and social protection systems by leading ten key actions.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Food Systems: What they are, why they matter

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Two in three children between the ages of 6 months and two years are not getting the nutrients and food they need for healthy growth and development. Sadly, there has been no progress in improving children's diets in the last decade.

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Food Systems: Our food, our health, our future

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FoodSpan | Johns Hopkins | Center for a Livable Future

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This free, downloadable curriculum provides high school students with a deep understanding of critical food system issues, empowers them to make healthy and responsible food choices, and encourages them to become advocates for food system change.

What is the Food System?

The food system spans the activities, people and resources involved in getting food from field to plate. Along the way, it intersects with aspects of public health, equity and the environment.

Why Teach the Food System?

The public has shown a growing concern for food system issues. Widespread problems such as chronic illness, infectious disease, social inequality, animal welfare harms, environmental degradation, and the concentration of economic power have ties to the food system. Recognizing these connections can empower young people to become not only informed consumers, but also food citizens who can engage in many facets of the food system, from growing their own food to advocating for policies.

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FoodSpan | Johns Hopkins | Center for a Livable Future

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Teaching the Food System from Farm to Fork

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Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

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Food's journey
Click images for captions
On Sunday afternoon, Ashley sits down to a snack in her Des Moines, Iowa, apartment: an eight-ounce container of strawberry yogurt. What steps were involved in getting Ashley's yogurt to her refrigerator?

The milk used in the yogurt (93 percent of its weight) is from one of Iowa's larger dairy operations, where over 500 cows are milked several times daily by robotic systems. 1,2 The strawberries were grown in Florida and California, and harvested by seasonal farm workers from Mexico and Central America. The yogurt was sweetened with sugar from beets grown in North Dakota. All of these ingredients were then shipped by truck and rail to a processing plant in Iowa where active yogurt cultures were added and the final product was sealed in plastic cups. Cases of the yogurt were delivered to a distribution warehouse near Des Moines, then to a supermarket near Ashley's apartment.

Food takes a complex journey from farms, ranches, and waterways to our plates. The journey begins with natural capital, such as soil, freshwater, and the countless organisms that contribute to our food supply. Along the way, it may pass through the hands of food safety inspectors, warehouse managers, grocery store owners, and many others involved in food supply chains. The route to our plates is further influenced by the decisions of businesses, scientists, policymakers, and consumers. The people, activities, inputs, outputs, and outcomes involved in getting Ashley's meals onto her plate are all part of the food system.

While Ashley is fictional, her yogurt's journey is based on actual scenarios. 3

Food and the environment

Click images for captions

How we eat determines, to a considerable extent, how the world is used.

- Wendell Berry ²⁸

James is concerned about the environment, and believes human activity is responsible for the current period of rapid climate change. James' view on climate change is consistent with the overwhelming body of scientific evidence, ⁴ even though it is shared by less than half of his fellow U.S. citizens. ⁵ He follows a whole-food, plant-based diet for most days of the week, and frequently shops at a farmers' market so he can support farmers who follow agroecological principles. He values supporting his local economy, but also recognizes that what he eats, and how it is produced, is more important for the environment than how far his food travels. ⁶ He is careful not to purchase more than he can eat, and when food waste is unavoidable, he composts it rather than letting it go to a landfill.

James is fictional, but following his example could produce real benefits. Our food choices (along with policy, technology, culture, and other influences) drive agricultural practices that affect air, water, soil, biodiversity, and other threatened natural resources. More than just environmental concerns, these are concerns for public health, not least because human civilizations and the long-term viability of our food supply depend on natural capital and a stable climate.

Food and health
Click images for captions

People are fed by the food industry, which pays no attention to health, and are healed by the health industry, which pays no attention to food.

- Wendell Berry ⁸

Brian lives in Southwest Baltimore. He earns a little over minimum wage working as a custodian. He has nerve damage in his foot, a complication of type 2 diabetes, making walking difficult. Like many residents in his neighborhood, he doesn't own a vehicle, and the nearest supermarket is over a half mile away. ⁹ Public transit is unreliable, so he usually shops for food at the closest corner store, which doesn't carry any fresh produce or whole wheat bread. ¹⁰ When he is able to carpool to the supermarket, Brian uses his monthly SNAP benefits (food stamps) to stock up on canned goods, soda, and other non-perishable, low-cost items.

Brian's cousin, D'Anne, lives with her family in North Carolina and faces a different kind of struggle. Four years ago, a 14,000-head swine operation-typical in size for large hog farms in the state ¹-was built within a mile of their home. The odors from the operation are so strong that she has to keep the windows closed. ¹¹

Sharon, a fifth-generation hog farmer, runs the operation near D'Anne's home. Sharon is regularly exposed to hydrogen sulfide, animal dander, and other airborne contaminants. She often experiences wheezing and chest tightness. ¹² In her occupation, one in four workers have some form of respiratory illness. ¹³ Several years ago, Sharon suffered a cut on her leg that became infected with an antibiotic-resistant strain of streptococcus bacteria. The infection was nearly fatal, requiring multiple doses of different drugs to treat. ¹⁴

Brian, D'Anne, and Sharon are fictional, but their experiences are based on actual events and evidence. These scenarios illustrate problems of food insecurity, the impact of industrial livestock operations on communities, and occupational hazards-a few of the many public health challenges in the food system.

Why study the food system?
Click images for captions
Learning about the food system often begins with personal interests, such as wanting to know where our food comes from, whether what we are eating is safe or healthy, or how to preserve a batch of tomatoes. But the food system also has ties to widespread global challenges, such as climate change, chronic illness, infectious disease, social inequality, animal welfare harms, environmental degradation, and the concentration of economic power.

Addressing these challenges requires system thinking - recognizing, for example, how changing one part of the system affects the others. The heavy use of certain pesticides was born of a desire to control pests, but has led to problems of pesticide-resistance 16,17 and harmful effects on humans and wildlife. ¹⁸⁻²⁷ Understanding the complex, dynamic relationships among food, health, society, and ecosystems is critical to avoiding these kinds of problems.

Learning about these connections can empower people to become "food citizens" who make informed food choices (" voting with their forks "), advocate for policy, and even grow and process some of their own food. Some may additionally pursue careers in agriculture, nutrition, public health, ecology, public policy, education, and other fields that offer powerful opportunities for food system change. Fostering a healthy, just, and sustainable food system requires people with expertise across many disciplines.

Resources

The following list of suggested resources is intended as a starting point for further exploration, and is not in any way comprehensive. Some materials may not reflect the views of the Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future.
For teachers Reports and websites Academic journal articles Film
References
1. USDA. 2012 U.S. Census of Agriculture. 2014.
2. Iowa State University Extension and Outreach. Iowa Dairy Farm Survey. 2012.
3. Pirog R, Benjamin A. Calculating Food Miles for a Multiple Ingredient Food Product. Ames, Iowa: Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture; 2005.
4. IPCC. Summary for policymakers. In: Field CB, Barros VR, Dokken DJ, et al., eds. Climate Change 2014: Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability. Part A: Global and Sectoral Aspects. Contribution of Working Group II to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Cambridge, United Kingdom and New York, NY, USA: Cambridge University Press; 2014.
5. Pew Research Center. Climate Change: Key Data Points from Pew Research. 2014.
6. Weber CL, Matthews HS. Food-miles and the relative climate impacts of food choices in the United States. Environ Sci Technol. 2008;42(10):3508-3513.
7. USDA Economic Research Service. Loss-Adjusted Food Availability. 2014.
8. Berry W. Sex, Economy, Freedom & Community: Eight Essays. New York: Pantheon Books; 1993.
9. Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future. Maryland Food System Map. 2014.
10. Franco M, Diez Roux A V, Glass T a, Caballero B, Brancati FL. Neighborhood characteristics and availability of healthy foods in Baltimore. Am J Prev Med. 2008;35(6):561-567.
11. Environmental Defense Fund. Hogwatch Testimonials. 1998.
12. Dosman JA, Lawson JA, Kirychuk SP, Cormier Y, Biem J, Koehncke N. Occupational asthma in newly employed workers in intensive swine confinement facilities. Eur Respir J. 2004;24(4):698-702.
13. Donham KJ, Wing S, Osterberg D, et al. Community health and socioeconomic issues surrounding concentrated animal feeding operations. Environ Health Perspect. 2007;115(2):317-320.
14. Kremer R. From Superbugs to Sustainability: a Fifth-Generation Producer's Mission to Raise Pigs without Antibiotics. Huffingt Post. April 2013.
15. Food Chain Workers Alliance. The Hands That Feed Us: Challenges and Opportunities for Workers along the Food Chain. 2012.
16. Van Den Bosch R. Public health advantages of biological insect controls. Environ Health Perspect. 1976;14:161-163.
17. Kirschenmann FL. Cultivating an Ecological Conscience: Essays from a Farmer Philosopher. Lexington, KY: The University Press of Kentucky; 2010.
18. Hayes TB, Khoury V, Narayan A, et al. Atrazine induces complete feminization and chemical castration in male African clawed frogs (Xenopus laevis). Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2010;107(10):4612-7.
19. Horrigan L, Walker P, Lawrence RS. How sustainable agriculture can address the environmental and public health harms of industrial agriculture. Environ Health Perspect. 2002;110(5).
20. Devine GJ, Furlong MJ. Insecticide use: contexts and ecological consequences. Agric Human Values. 2007;24:281-306.
21. Brittain C, Potts SG. The potential impacts of insecticides on the life-history traits of bees and the consequences for pollination. Basic Appl Ecol. 2011;12(4):321-331.
22. Henry M, Béguin M, Requier F, et al. A Common Pesticide Decreases Foraging Success and Survival in Honey Bees. Science. 2012;336(6079):348-350.
23. Whitehorn PR, O'Connor S, Wackers FL, Goulson D. Neonicotinoid Pesticide Reduces Bumble Bee Colony Growth and Queen Production. Science. 2012;336(6079):351-352.
24. Chensheng LU, Archol KMW, Allahan RAC. Sub-lethal exposure to neonicotinoids impaired honey bees winterization before proceeding to colony collapse disorder. Bull Insectology. 2014;67(1):125-130.
25. vanEngelsdorp D, Evans JD, Saegerman C, Mullin C, Haubruge E. Colony Collapse Disorder: A Descriptive Study. PLoS One. 2009;4(8).
26. Spivak M, Mader E, Vaughan M, Euliss NH. The Plight of the Bees. Environ Sci Technol. 2011;45:34-38.
27. beeinformed.org. 2014.
28. Berry W. The Pleasures of Eating. In: What Are People For? New York: North Point Press; 1990.

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Click images for captions On Sunday afternoon, Ashley sits down to a snack in her Des Moines, Iowa, apartment: an eight-ounce container of strawberry yogurt. What steps were involved in getting Ashley's yogurt to her refrigerator?

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The food system therefore includes not only the basic elements of how we get our food from farm to fork, but also all of the processes and infrastructure involved in feeding a population.

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photo that shows the basic process of food systems

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video about how food is grown

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Where Does Our Food Come From | How is it Made | Made by Red Cat Reading

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Food systems, food supply chain.

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It's Not Food, It's the Food System | Samina Raja | TEDxUniversityatBuffalo

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This video/website talks about what are regenerative food systems

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Food & Water Stories

Guatemala Water Fund Workers clear undergrowth with machetes in shade-grown coffee crops on San Agustín Las Minas coffee plantation. © Jason Houston

Food is more than something we eat to survive-it's a part of how we thrive. And yet the way we produce food today threatens both people and nature, degrading our land and water, accelerating climate change and species loss, and making our farms, fields and fisheries less productive over time.

Fortunately, the solutions are in our reach. We can shift to a regenerative food system, producing food on land and at sea in ways that work in partnership with the world around us. Together we can turn one of today's biggest challenges into our greatest opportunity-a food system that goes beyond sustainable and creates positive growth for communities, economies and the planet.

We have to create new solutions and find smarter ways to produce more with less input, while keeping in mind that there are no healthy foods without a healthy environment.

Dr. Qu Dongyu UN Food and Agriculture Organization Director-General

Our Perspective

The vast scale of our food system means it can be one of the greatest levers for positive change.

Food production has altered our planet more than any other human activity. It accounts for a quarter of greenhouse gas emissions and 70 percent of all freshwater usage; it is perhaps the single greatest cause of biodiversity loss. But it also provides livelihoods for more than a third of the world's population. The next decade will be critical to making a global shift to producing food in ways that restore nature and support thriving communities. A regenerative food system takes us beyond mere sustainability toward positive growth that benefits our planet and the billions of farmers, fishers, ranchers and others who work to provide our food-without sacrificing the health and dignity of rural people and communities of color.

By developing smart strategies in partnership with producers, we do more than make farms and fisheries more productive; we restore habitats, protect clean drinking water, increase biodiversity, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions all while securing the food supply for a rapidly growing population.

A truly regenerative approach marries long-held wisdom with system-wide change.

Black, Indigenous and other communities of color have led the way on regenerative food production for millenia, developing ways of growing food in harmony with the natural environment. Their deep knowledge of the land and water they work can guide our shift to a regenerative system on a global scale, but the burden of change cannot fall to them alone. Governments, corporations and NGOs like The Nature Conservancy need to make major investments and facilitate system-wide structural change. We can start by redirecting the $500 billion governments spend annually on the most harmful agricultural subsidies toward regenerative practices; shifting markets to recognize sustainable practices; leveraging technological innovation; and making direct investments to support resource-poor producers in making the transition.

How can producers serve a growing population of consumers even as the very foundation of a productive food system-healthy lands and clean water-are disappearing at alarming rates?

Food demand is expected to increase by 50 percent-and protein demand by more than 70 percent-before we reach 2050. We are at a pivotal moment in history: there has never been a more important time to make changes across the food producing sectors. Transitioning to nature-positive production practices will allow producers to ramp up food supplies while generating long-term returns for themselves and the planet.

With more than half of Earth's habitable lands currently used for agriculture, farmers and ranchers are some of the most important stewards of the world's lands and water resources.

Stewarding land resources starts with stewarding soil. Healthy soils have huge potential for carbon storage, and are the foundation for rich biodiversity, clean waterways, and productive farms and ranches. By not plowing up grasslands to plant crops in Montana and the Dakotas, for instance, we can protect native plants and birds while supporting ranchers' livelihoods as land stewards. In Kenya and Mongolia, better-managed grazing lands can store carbon in soil across large areas, sustain local livelihoods and protect biodiversity while also providing climate mitigation. In Brazil and Colombia, restoring degraded pastures to return hectares to soy production and diversifying revenue streams for farmers can ensure native forests are not converted for agricultural use.

We can restore the health of our ocean and inland waters and protect sensitive species and habitats by transforming the way we interact with our ocean, lakes and rivers.

Fish and other seafood products provide vital nutrients for more than three billion people around the globe and supply an income for 10 to 12 percent of the world's population. The health of our ocean and inland waters and the livelihoods of millions of people all depend on well-managed fisheries and sustainable aquaculture.

Our food system is an orchestra of life in which all players depend on each other.

The challenge of the next decade will be to catalyze a massive global shift to food systems that go beyond sustainable to regenerative, working in partnership with nature to drive changes that restore the health and function of entire foodscapes-and the planet. Together we can grow positive.

In The Spotlight

Foodscapes: Toward Food System Transition

Understanding the diversity that underpins our global food systems is crucial if we are going to change it-and change is needed. But global transformation starts with local change. The foodscapes concept and underpinning science detailed in the new report, Foodscapes: Toward Food System Transition, can help build bridges between global ambition and local implementation.

The Nature Conservancy, together with the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) and SYSTEMIQ, introduces the first analysis, classification and mapping of the world's foodscapes. This spatially explicit approach enables new ways of envisioning, managing and implementing the transitions that are, and will continue to be, necessary for the full-scale transformation of our global food systems. Download the report >

Event

Farmers & Foodscapes: Listening to Farmers as we Transform Global Food Systems

The Nature Conservancy (TNC) and the Farmers' Forum, India (Bharat Krishak Samaj) co-hosted a discussion to elevate one of the most important, and unfortunately most often overlooked, voices in the food system: farmers. The farmer-first session included farmer perspectives from Argentina, Kenya, Mexico and the U.S. Leading food systems actors then reacted to the farmer lessons and discussed the pivot toward implementing a global food system transformation for the betterment of people and the planet.

The session also marked the official launch of TNC's flagship science report, Foodscapes: Toward Food System Transition. This spatially explicit approach enables new ways of envisioning, managing and implementing the transitions that are, and will continue to be, necessary for the full-scale transformation of our global food systems.
The event is also available to view in Spanish, Portuguese and Mandarin.

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Food & Water Stories Food is more than something we eat to survive-it's a part of how we thrive. And yet the way we produce food today threatens both people and nature, degrading our land and water, accelerating climate change and species loss, and making our farms, fields and fisheries less productive over time.

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video about where your food is grown

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Gives off the history of food systems aswell as when it was introduced.

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Agriculture, also known as farming, is the production of food, fiber, animal feed, and other goods by means of growing and harvesting plants and animals. Agriculture is practiced throughout the world. We use many agricultural products every day, from the clothes we put on in the morning to the sheets we sleep under at night. When you think of agriculture, think of the five F's: food, fabric, forestry, farming, and flowers.

The history of agriculture begins in the Fertile Crescent. This area of Western Asia comprises the regions of Mesopotamia and the Levant, and is confined by the Syrian Desert to the south and the Anatolian Plateau to the north. University of Chicago archaeologist James Henry Breasted coined the term "Fertile Crescent" in the early 1900s to describe this location's role as the birthplace of agriculture. It has often been called the "Cradle of Civilization" as well, since both the wheel and writing first appeared there. Turkey, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Jordan, and the Palestinian territories all include some land within the Fertile Crescent.

Humans invented agriculture during the Neolithic era, or the New Stone Age, which occurred between 7,000 and 10,000 years ago. There were eight Neolithic crops: emmer wheat, einkorn wheat, peas, lentils, bitter vetch, hulled barley, chick peas, and flax. The Neolithic era ended with the development of metal tools.

Evidence suggests that irrigation first appeared in Egypt and Mesopotamia in the sixth millennium B.C. Various people groups began digging and repairing canal networks, which helped to regulate the flow of rivers, such as the Nile River in Egypt. Floods caused by the yearly inundation of the Nile would have had disastrous effects for ancient farmers, washing away dikes and swamping fields. Conversely, when the waters were low the land dried up, killing crops. The canal networks eventually developed into sophisticated irrigation systems. The oldest method of irrigation, which made use of man-made underground streams called qanats, is still being used in parts of the Middle East.

During the Bronze Age and the eras that followed, civilizations all over the world gradually invented or acquired advanced metalworking techniques, creating ever-stronger farming implements. Humans continued domesticating animals and plants to serve as food sources or sources of other useful products. During the Middle Ages, European farmers began using complex irrigation systems such as dams, reservoirs, and water-raising machines. They also developed the three-field system of crop rotation and the moldboard plow. These inventions greatly increased the efficiency of agriculture.

Between the 17th century and the 19th century Britain experienced a dramatic increase in agricultural productivity known as the British Agricultural Revolution. This "revolution" consisted of a variety of improvements to agricultural methods, which took place more or less simultaneously. Farmers developed new methods of crop rotation, began cultivating land that had been marshy or forested, and planted new crops such as the turnip.

The technology of agriculture has continued to evolve over the years. Plows and other farming implements improved, and the mechanical combine harvester-a machine that harvests grain-was invented in the 1830s. In the early 1900s the horse-drawn plow finally gave way to machinery. The first tractors were steam-powered engines designed to haul agricultural equipment, and were too expensive for most farmers to afford. The gasoline-powered tractor was invented in 1892.

The last century has seen a host of changes in the way farming is carried out-and in the way farm produce shows up on our tables. In 1938, a trucking executive complained during a round of golf about how the summer heat was spoiling much of the food shipped by his company. His companion, Joseph Numero, jokingly suggested refrigerating the trailers. The idea stuck, and Numero went on to start a refrigerated transport company with the help of inventor Frederick Jones.

Meanwhile, the development of hybrid seed -particularly hybrid corn-revolutionized agriculture. Hybrids improve the results of planting, and often produce plants and fruits that are hardier and more uniform. Hybrid seeds contributed to the increased agriculture output of the second half of the 20th century.

The changes have not all come quietly. During the past 10 years, a huge controversy has raged over the use of chemical pesticides and fertilizers on farms. Growing awareness of how chemicals impact human health and the environment has led to calls for increased government regulation of the agricultural industry.

The history of agriculture has played a huge role in human civilization. The majority of the human population once worked in agriculture, and even today, few-if any-humans could survive without it.

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Agriculture, also known as farming, is the production of food, fiber, animal feed, and other goods by means of growing and harvesting plants and animals. Agriculture is practiced throughout the world. We use many agricultural products every day, from the clothes we put on in the morning to the sheets we sleep under at night.

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food video

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How Do We Get Our Food? | Farming Industry | Science For Kids | Grade 5 | Periwinkle

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This is an article about industrial agriculture and why it is beneficial money wise however the crops are significantly worse than the naturally grow crops. It talks about the same things that both videos we watched talks about.

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Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

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Background
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In the early 1900s, more than half of Americans were either farmers or lived in rural communities. ¹ Most U.S. farms were diversified, meaning they produced a variety of crops and animal species together on the same farm, in complementary ways. ² Farmers were skilled in a wide range of trades and had autonomy over how to manage their crops and animals. Animals were typically raised with access to the outdoors. Most of the work on the farm was done by human or animal labor.

Although conditions like these still exist, the industrialization of agriculture radically transformed how the vast majority of food is produced in the U.S. and many other parts of the world. Over the brief span of the 20 th century, agriculture underwent greater change than it had since it was first adopted some 13,000 years ago. Modern U.S. agriculture has been described as "the most efficient in the world, at least in terms of the dollar and cent costs of production." ¹ The public health and ecological costs of industrialization, however, are not reflected in the prices of food.

Specialization
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Specialization aims to increase efficiency by narrowing the range of tasks and roles involved in production. A diversified farmer, for example, might need to manage and care for many different vegetable crops, a composting operation, a flock of egg-laying hens, a sow, and her litter of piglets. Specialized farmers, by contrast, can focus all their knowledge, skills, and equipment on one or two enterprises, such as growing corn and soy, or fattening beef cattle. Over the course of industrialization, specialization was applied to nearly all facets of food production.

Diversified farms gave way to genetically uniform monocultures-fields planted with just one crop species at a time, such as corn, wheat, or soy, over a very large area. Meat, milk, and egg production became largely separated from crop production and involved facilities that housed a single breed of animal, during a particular period of its lifespan, for a single purpose (e.g., breeding, feeding, or slaughter). Farmers, once skilled in a breadth of trades, fell into more specialized roles.

Specialization was also applied to animal genetics, as selective breeding produced animals designed for a single outcome-large breast meat, for example, or increased milk production. Compared to chickens of the 1930s, today's chickens bred for meat ("broilers") grow to almost twice the weight, in less than half the time, using less than half as much feed. ⁵ Genetic selection for these exaggerated traits has often come at the expense of the animals' health, including increased risks for heart failure in broilers and udder infections in dairy cows bred for higher milk production. ⁶

Mechanization
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Like work on an assembly line, specialized labor often involves repetitive tasks that can be performed by machines. This meant routine jobs like sowing seeds, harvesting crops, milking cows, and feeding and slaughtering animals could be mechanized, reducing (and in some cases eliminating) the need for human and animal labor. Between 1900 and 2000, the share of the U.S. workforce involved in agriculture declined from 41 percent to 2 percent. ⁷

In some cases, mechanization brought tremendous gains in efficiency. Grain and bean crops, such as corn, wheat, rice, and soy, must be cut from the fields (reaped) and removed from the inedible parts of the plant (threshed). Doing this by hand involves an enormous amount of time and effort. By hand, a person can thresh roughly 15 to 40 kg of grain per hour, usually by beating the harvested crop against a hard surface to shake the grain loose from the inedible chaff that surrounds it. In the same amount of time, a mechanized thresher can process 450 to 600 kg of rice, sorghum, or beans, or 1,500 to 2,000 kg of corn. ⁸

Chemical and pharmaceutical inputs
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The early 1900s saw the introduction of synthetic fertilizers and chemical pesticides, innovations that have become a hallmark of industrial crop production. In just 12 years, between 1964 and 1976, synthetic and mineral fertilizer applications on U.S. crops nearly doubled, while pesticide use on major U.S. crops increased by 143 percent. ¹⁰ The shift to specialized monocultures increased farmers' reliance on these chemicals, in part because crop diversity can help suppress weeds and other pests. 11,12

Chemical and pharmaceutical use also became commonplace in newly industrialized models of meat, milk, and egg production. Antibiotics, for example, were introduced to swine, poultry, and cattle feed after a series of experiments in the 1940s and 1950s found that feeding the drugs to animals caused them to gain weight faster and on less feed. ¹³ By 2009, 80 percent of the antibiotic drugs sold in the U.S. were used not for human medicine but for livestock production. ¹⁴

As with other trends in industrialization, the use of chemical and pharmaceutical inputs in agriculture offered gains in productivity, but not without health and ecological consequences.

Consolidation
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Consolidation in agriculture is the shift toward fewer and larger farms, usually as a result of large farms getting larger and smaller farms going out of business. In the late 1950s, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Ezra Taft Benson exemplified government pressure to consolidate when he called on farmers to "get big or get out." ¹⁵

Between 1950 and 1997, the average U.S. farm more than doubled in size, and less than half the farms remained. ¹⁶ In meat, dairy, and egg production, the number of animals on each farm rose dramatically, while the number of small farms declined. Many other industries in the food system, including animal slaughtering and processing, also underwent major consolidation.

What drove the push to consolidate? New technology, including chemicals and larger tractors, allowed farmers to work larger areas of land with less labor. ² Government policies encouraged farmers to scale up their operations. Farmers were also motivated by economies of scale-the economic advantage of producing larger numbers of products. A chicken farmer, for example, might turn a greater profit on each bird by housing a larger number of birds (up to a point).

Largely as a result of consolidation, most food production in the U.S. now takes place on massive-scale operations. Half of all U.S. cropland is on farms with at least 1,000 acres (over 1.5 square miles). ² The vast majority of U.S. poultry and pork products comes from facilities that each produce over 200,000 chickens or 5,000 pigs in a single year, while most egg-laying hens are confined in facilities that house over 100,000 birds at a time. ¹⁷

Market concentration
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Decisions about who produces our food, what food is produced, how it is produced, and who gets to eat that food have been steadily moving from ... households and governments to ... corporation boardrooms.

- Mary Hendrickson and Harvey S. James Jr. ¹⁸

Market share is the proportion of an industry's sales earned by one company. In the U.S. market for salty snacks, for example, 64 percent of sales are earned by PepsiCo. ¹⁹

When a small number of companies have a large market share of an industry, the market for that industry is said to be concentrated. Markets become more concentrated when companies take over, or merge with, their competitors.

Over the course of industrialization, markets for food and agricultural products have become increasingly concentrated. In the U.S. beef slaughtering and processing industry, for example, the four largest companies earn 82 percent of the sales. ²⁰ In the supermarket industry, four companies earn at least 42 percent of the sales. ²¹

Vertical integration is a type of market concentration that occurs when companies gain control of multiple industries involved in the same products. Smithfield Foods, for example, is involved in the breeding, production, slaughter, processing, and marketing of hogs and pork products. ²² A small number of powerful corporations have similar control over poultry industries.

What does market concentration mean for farmers and consumers? In some cases, market concentration can lower prices for consumers and increase sales. ²³ On the other hand, with fewer competitors in a concentrated market, dominant companies may gain greater power to influence prices in their favor. ²³ They may also dictate how foods are produced, leaving farmers with little choice over how to grow crops or raise animals. ¹⁸ Many highly concentrated corporations also have a strong presence in government agencies, where they can influence policies in their favor. ²⁴

Resources

The following list of suggested resources is intended as a starting point for further exploration, and is not in any way comprehensive. Some materials may not reflect the views of the Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future.

For teachers

Reports

Academic journal articles

Books

References
1. Ikerd JE. Sustaining the profitability of agriculture. In: Economist's Role in the Agricultural Sustainability Paradigm. San Antonio, TX: University of Missouri; 1996.
2. MacDonald J, Korb P, Hoppe R. Farm Size and the Organization of U.S. Crop Farming. 2013.
3. Rifkin J. Beyond Beef: The Rise and Fall of the Cattle Culture. New York, New York: Plume; 1993.
4. Ikerd JE. Sustaining the Profitability of Agriculture. In: Economist's Role in the Agricultural Sustainability Paradigm. San Antonio, TX: University of Missouri; 1996.
5. Striffler S. Chicken: The Dangerous Transformation of America`s Favorite Food. New Haven: Yale University Press; 2005.
6. Rauw WM, Kanis E, Noordhuizen-Stassen E., Grommers F. Undesirable side effects of selection for high production efficiency in farm animals: a review. Livest Prod Sci. 1998;56(1):15-33.
7. Dimitri C, Effland A, Conklin N. The 20th Century Transformation of U.S. Agriculture and Farm Policy. USDA ERS. 2006.
8. M. de Lucia, Assennato D. Agricultural Engineering in Development: Post-Harvest Operations and Management of Foodgrains. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations; 1994.
9. USDA Economic Research Service. Agricultural Productivity in the United States. 2014.
10. Lin B-H, Padgitt M, Bull L, Delvo H, Shank D, Taylor H. Pesticide and Fertilizer Use and Trends in U.S. Agriculture. 1995.
11. Liebman M, Davis AS. Integration of soil, crop and weed management in low-external-input farming systems. Weed Res. 2000;40:27-47.
12. Kirschenmann FL. Potential for a new generation of biodiversity in agroecosystems of the future. Agron J. 2007;99(2):373-376.
13. Gustafson RH, Bowen RE. Antibiotic use in animal agriculture. J Appl Microbiol. 1997;83(5):531-41.
14. U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Letter to The Honorable Louise M. Slaughter: Sales of Antibacterial Drugs in Kilograms. Washington D.C.; 2010.
15. Zimdahl RR. Agriculture's Ethical Horizon. 2nd ed. Waltham, MA: Elsevier; 2012.
16. Hoppe RA, Banker DE. Structure and Finances of U.S. Farms: 2005 Family Farm Report. Vol Economic I. USDA Economic Research Service; 2006.
17. USDA. 2012 U.S. Census of Agriculture. 2014.
18. Hendrickson MK, James HS. The Ethics of Constrained Choice: How the Industrialization of Agriculture Impacts Farming and Farmer Behavior. J Agric Environ Ethics. 2005;18(3):269-291.
19. Cooper T. This Company Seeks to Dominate Snacks. The Motley Fool. 2013.
20. James HS, Hendrickson MK, Howard PH. Networks, Power, and Dependency in the Agrifood Industry. In: James HS, ed. The Ethics and Economics of Agrifood Competition. Dordrecht: Springer Science-Business Media Press; 2013:99-126.
21. Hendrickson M, Heffernan W. Concentration of Agricultural Markets. 2007.
22. Martinez SW. Vertical Coordination in the Pork and Broiler Industries: Implications for Pork and Chicken Products. 1999.
23. Shields DA. Consolidation and Concentration in the U.S. Dairy Industry. 2010.
24. Ikerd JE. Crisis & Opportunity: Sustainability in American Agriculture. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press; 2008.
25. Heffernan WD, Douglas HC. Concentration of Agricultural Markets. 1990.

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Click images for captions In the early 1900s, more than half of Americans were either farmers or lived in rural communities. 1 Most U.S. farms were diversified, meaning they produced a variety of crops and animal species together on the same farm, in complementary ways.

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Feed Your Mind Main Page en Español (Spanish)
Am I eating foods that come from GMO crops?

It is very likely you are eating foods and food products that are made with ingredients that come from GMO crops. Many GMO crops are used to make ingredients that Americans eat such as cornstarch, corn syrup, corn oil, soybean oil, canola oil, or granulated sugar. A few fresh fruit and vegetables are available in GMO varieties, including potatoes, summer squash, apples, papayas, and pink pineapples. Although GMOs are in a lot of the foods we eat, most of the GMO crops grown in the United States are used for animal food.

To make it easier for consumers to know if the foods they eat contain GMO ingredients, the U.S. Department of Agriculture maintains a list of bioengineered foods available throughout the world. Additionally, you will start seeing the "bioengineered" label on some of the foods we eat because of the new National Bioengineered Food Disclosure Standard.

GMOs, Farm to Table

What GMO crops are in the United States?
Corn:
Corn is the most commonly grown crop in the United States, and most of it is GMO. Most GMO corn is created to resist insect pests or tolerate herbicides. Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) corn is a GMO corn that produces proteins that are toxic to certain insect pests but not to humans, pets, livestock, or other animals. These are the same types of proteins that organic farmers use to control insect pests, and they do not harm beneficial insects, such as ladybugs. GMO Bt corn reduces the need for spraying insecticides while still preventing insect damage. While a lot of GMO corn goes into processed foods and drinks, most of it is used to feed livestock, like cows, and poultry, like chickens.
Soybean:
Most soy grown in the United States is GMO soy. Most GMO soy is used for food for animals, predominantly poultry and livestock, and making soybean oil. It is also used as ingredients (lecithin, emulsifiers, and proteins) in processed foods.
Cotton:
GMO cotton was created to be resistant to bollworms and helped revive the Alabama cotton industry. GMO cotton not only provides a reliable source of cotton for the textile industry, it is also used to make cottonseed oil, which is used in packaged foods and in many restaurants for frying. GMO cottonseed meal and hulls are also used in food for animals.
Potato:
Some GMO potatoes were developed to resist insect pests and disease. In addition, some GMO potato varieties have been developed to resist bruising and browning that can occur when potatoes are packaged, stored, and transported, or even cut in your kitchen. While browning does not change the quality of the potato, it often leads to food being unnecessarily thrown away because people mistakenly believe browned food is spoiled.
Papaya:
By the 1990s, ringspot virus disease had nearly wiped out Hawaii's papaya crop, and in the process almost destroyed the papaya industry in Hawaii. A GMO papaya, named the Rainbow papaya, was created to resist ringspot virus. This GMO saved papaya farming on the Hawaiian Islands.
Summer Squash:
GMO summer squash is resistant to some plant viruses. Squash was one of the first GMOs on the market, but it is not widely grown.
Canola:
GMO canola is used mostly to make cooking oil and margarine. Canola seed meal can also be used in food for animals. Canola oil is used in many packaged foods to improve food consistency. Most GMO canola is resistant to herbicides and helps farmers to more easily control weeds in their fields.
Alfalfa:
GMO alfalfa is primarily used to feed cattle-mostly dairy cows. Most GMO alfalfa is resistant to herbicides, allowing farmers to spray the crops to protect them against destructive weeds that can reduce alfalfa production and lower the nutritional quality of the hay.
Apple:
A few varieties of GMO apples were developed to resist browning after being cut. This helps cut down on food waste, as many consumers think brown apples are spoiled.
Sugar Beet:
Sugar beets are used to make granulated sugar. More than half the granulated sugar packaged for grocery store shelves is made from GMO sugar beets. Because GMO sugar beets are resistant to herbicides, growing GMO sugar beets helps farmers control weeds in their fields.
Pink Pineapple:
The GMO pink pineapple was developed to have pink flesh by increasing the levels of lycopene. Lycopene is naturally found in pineapples, and it is the pigment that makes tomatoes red and watermelons pink.

What about animals that eat food made from GMO crops?

Similarly, the DNA from GMO animal food does not make it into the meat, eggs, or milk from the animal. Research shows that foods like eggs, dairy products, and meat that come from animals that eat GMO food are equal in nutritional value, safety, and quality to foods made from animals that eat only non-GMO food.

Learn more about GMO Crops and Food for Animals.

Who makes sure animal food is safe?

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is the primary regulatory agency responsible for ensuring the safety of GMO and non-GMO food for animals. The FDA Center for Veterinary Medicine manages this responsibility. FDA requires that all food for animals, like food for human foods, be safe for animals to eat, be produced under clean conditions, contain no harmful substances, and be accurately labeled.

Are there GMO animals in the food supply?

Yes. FDA has approved an application allowing the sale of the AquAdvantage Salmon to consumers. The AquAdvantage Salmon has been genetically modified to reach an important growth point faster. FDA has also approved an alteration in the GalSafe pig for human food consumption and potential therapeutic uses. The GalSafe pig was developed to be free of detectable alpha-gal sugar on its cell surfaces. People with Alpha-gal syndrome (AGS) may have allergic reactions to alpha-gal sugar found in red meat (e.g., beef, pork, and lamb). FDA has determined that food from the AquAdvantage Salmon and the GalSafe pig are as safe and nutritious to eat as food from non-GMO salmon and pigs.

Are GMOs used to make anything besides food?

When you hear the term "GMO" you probably think of food. However, techniques used to create GMOs are important in creating some medicines as well. In fact, genetic engineering, which is the process used to create GMOs, was first used to make human insulin, a medicine used to treat diabetes. Medicines developed through genetic engineering go through an in-depth FDA approval process. All medicines must be proven to be safe and effective before they are approved for human use. GMOs are also used in the textile industry. Some GMO cotton plants are used to create cotton fiber that is then used to make fabric for clothing and other materials.
How GMOs Are Regulated in the United States

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Many GMO crops are used to make ingredients that Americans eat such as cornstarch, corn syrup, corn oil, soybean oil, canola oil, or granulated sugar.

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The term "food systems" is used to describe something that is large, happening all around us, and easy to take for granted. A food system is simply the connection between growing, transporting, selling, and consuming food. It integrates fields such as agriculture, economics, marketing, retail, and nutrition.

A Brief History of Food Systems

About 11,000 years ago, mankind went from being hunter-gatherers to understanding how to grow and harvest wheat, corn, spelt, kamut and other grains. This is known as the agricultural revolution or the first agricultural revolution. Due to the ability to grow and eventually store food, man developed surpluses. When certain groups had too much food, they could trade it for food grown by other populations or could trade it for other goods.

Such early commercial transactions led to the spice trade, which connected various countries and eventually developed into the global trade system of today. Our modern food system involves various crops being grown and animals reared in different parts of the world, then warehoused or shipped hundreds or thousands of miles to consumers in distant markets. This approach would be what some call the "standard food system" or "basic food system." It has been prevalent throughout the second half of the 20th century and to some extent in the 21st.

Standard vs. Alternative Food Systems

But many experts are raising serious questions about the sustainability of this food system. One crucial issue is that it is terrible for the environment. One of the major problems with the global distribution of food relates to the carbon emissions and greenhouse gases it generates. The major culprit here is the transportation needed; however, cooking the food and the CO2 generation associated with the production and logistics of wasted food is also a significant concern.

Further, there may be equity issues with the current approach to food distribution. Massive quantities of food are generated by small segments of the population. It is shipped to consumers with the wealth to buy it, as well as to support the modern logistics infrastructure required to keep it fresh while moving it regionally or even globally. As the population grows, it is not clear that the existing approach will meet the needs of the hungry to keep them fed where incomes are low and logistics systems are inadequate.

One way to address these various problems is to think of other models for producing or obtaining nutrition. We will now compare the various food systems, including some newer and developing ones.

Organic Food Systems

Food, either meat or vegetables, can be designated organic if it is grown or raised without chemical pesticides or other chemicals, or without growth hormones. These traits show the main motives for people choosing organic foods: a desire to avoid these things and to feel that their food remains closer to its natural origins.

In terms of sustainability, an organic food system can contribute by maintaining the sustainability of the soil, since the non-chemical methods do not contribute to soil erosion or degradation. This, in turn, can have some positive impacts on climate change: to put it briefly, soil erosion and decomposition ultimately produce CO2. By recycling organic matter and maintaining soil quality, organic farm systems can contribute positively in this manner.

Up to this point, organic food production has generally been on a small scale, meaning that it may have a hard time playing a large role in the world's food consumption. Because food made organically is more expensive than non-organic, it occupies a niche market.

Local Food Systems

Farm-to-Retail

There are a couple of main categories of local food systems. One is a farm-to-retail model through which farmers and livestock raisers have markets (often within about a hundred miles) for their products in the form of grocery stores, institutions like schools or government agencies, and restaurants. Because the food can travel outside of a town or an immediate area, this model can sometimes be referred to as "regional."

Farm-to-Consumer

If you live in a small village and you buy various vegetables from a few different farmers, plus meat from someone who raises goats or chickens, you are living in a farm-to-consumer model. In industrialized nations, this can take the form of farmers' markets or co-ops in which people receive bundles of produce from farms in exchange for doing tasks on the farm or paying subscriptions.

One of the chief motives behind local food systems is in reducing carbon emissions by transporting the food over very short distances. While this is true, research seems mixed as to whether local food systems are more efficient than standard food systems in reducing CO2. Issues surrounding the inefficiencies of smaller scale local operations and distribution cloud the issue. Increasingly, however, as the minimum efficient scale of food production decreases, and as such trends as indoor vertical farming become more mature, the advantages of local production will become solidified. There have also been efforts by some major players to improve the efficiency of local food distribution, such as by Amazon Fresh.

Fair trade practices are made up of webs of systems meant to ensure the dignity and ability to make a livelihood of the producers. Distributors and retailers of, for example, fair trade coffee, may not pay the lowest prices for the coffee beans but are instead in an agreement wherein the prices they pay the producers to correspond with the price of growth and help ensure the ongoing viability of agricultural communities.

Tracking and Transparency of Food Systems

In recent years, there has been an increasing urgency to improve the traceability of food systems. Such visibility into the food system enables retailers and customers to better understand the provenance of the food they are receiving. Issues such as animal welfare, social justice, and environmental impacts are of increasing interest to consumers, as is concern about food safety.

Certification programs are increasingly being used to help customers better understand the products they are purchasing. Examples of such initiatives include the USDA Organic label, or USDA's Country of Origin Label (COOL) or various other certifications such as Fair Trade or Dolphin Safe.

Major retailers also employ their own tracking systems and contract with third-party auditing services to ensure compliance with their food safety and Corporate Social Responsibility programs. Product tracking technologies are also improving. Such measures help to provide further transparency, and can help expedite more efficient food recalls when needed. The introduction of blockchain is being looked at enthusiastically as an important technology for better verifying the authenticity and movement of goods through the supply chain.

I started this piece by saying that the food system is something that is large, happening all around us, and easy to take for granted. Don't do it. There are too many crucial issues at stake in terms of human health, social equity, and environmental impacts to not take the time to understand the issues and act accordingly.

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How Food Systems Can Be Measured for Their Sustainability

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The term "food systems" is used to describe something that is large, happening all around us, and easy to take for granted. A food system is simply the connection between growing, transporting, selling, and consuming food. It integrates fields such as agriculture, economics, marketing, retail, and nutrition.

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Organic agriculture, which is governed by strict government standards, requires that products bearing the organic label are produced without the use of toxic and persistent pesticides and synthetic nitrogen fertilizers, antibiotics, synthetic hormones, genetic engineering or other excluded practices, sewage sludge, or irradiation. Guided by these and other standards, organic

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A local food system is a collaborative network that integrates sustainable food production, processing, distribution, consumption, and waste management in order to enhance the environmental, economic, and social health of a particular area. Increasingly, communities are organizing "food hubs" around co-ops or other community wealth building enterprises to anchor local food systems. The USDA defines a food hub as a "centrally located facility with a business management structure facilitating the aggregation, storage, processing, distribution, and/or marketing of locally/regionally produced food products." Food hubs help provide wider access to markets for small to mid-sized producers, and increased access to fresh healthy food for consumers, including underserved areas and food deserts, as illustrated below.

Food is big business and localizing the food system can have major community wealth building benefits. For example, a 2010 study of the 16-county Northeast Ohio (NEO) region found that shifting 25 percent of agriculture to local production could create 27,664 new jobs, providing work for about one in eight unemployed residents, generating $4.2 billion in economic activity and $126 million in state and local taxes, while increasing food security, improving public health, and lowering the region's carbon footprint.

Urban agriculture-the process of cultivating, processing, and distributing food or livestock within an urban environment-is part of these efforts, particularly in urban communities such as Detroit and Cleveland that have been strongly hit by deindustrialization and disinvestment.

History

Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) programs are often important parts of local food systems. CSAs directly link residents and nearby farmers: participants pay before the growing season, and then receive a weekly (or other regular) share of the harvest. The model was first developed in Japan in 1965 and referred to as teikei-"food with the farmer's face on it." The first U.S.-based CSA was established in 1985 in Massachusetts at Indian Line Farm. The model quickly took off-growing to about 60 CSAs in 1990, 1,700 in 2004, and more than 4,000 today.

Local food systems play a critical role in building community wealth for several key reasons:

Growing, processing, and distributing food locally creates and sustains community-based jobs.

Direct marketing channels between farmers and consumers (e.g., through farmers markets) boosts local farmers' incomes.

In contrast to large, industrial farms, small family farms are more likely to spend their dollars in the community on farm-related inputs (e.g., machinery, seeds, farm supplies, etc.) and engage in farming practices that do not harm their community's physical environment.

Farmers markets and food cooperatives not only help ensure dollars remain and circulate within localities but also create more vibrant communities.

Urban agriculture projects turn vacant tracts into productive, income-generating spaces and often include job training or employment opportunities for low-income youth and other urban residents.

Community-wealth.org houses an extensive collection of resources focused on Local Food Systems and this model's role in community wealth building. Below is a glimpse of the rich array of materials you will find as you explore our site:
Our Support Organizations section features major organizations working to advance local food systems. One such group is the Institute for Food and Development Policy (aka Food First), an Oakland-based nonprofit committed to ending global hunger that carries out research, analysis, advocacy, and education to help develop democratically controlled, sustainable, local food systems.

Key Facts and Figures

Our Best Practices section showcases exemplary organizations working in the local food systems field. For instance, Fifth Season Cooperative is a multi-stakeholder cooperative that includes producers, producer groups, food processors, distributors, and buyers in South Central and Southwest Wisconsin, Southeast Minnesota, and Northwest Iowa. Founded in 2010, Fifth Season links local small and organic growers to anchor institutions, including hospitals, universities, and public schools.

Our Research Resources section highlights web-based resources focused on local food systems. For example, UC Davis' Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program 's (SAREP) website includes a wealth of materials relating to local food systems including a downloadable bibliography of over 2,000 articles and the results of several food system assessments, which examine the connections between and impact of food production, distribution, consumption and waste disposal.

Our Articles and Publications section includes links to a diverse selection of articles, reports, papers, and books focused on local food systems. One such paper is PolicyLink's Economic and Community Development Outcomes of Healthy Food Retail (2013), which highlights the economic development benefits of improving healthy food access.

Lastly, our features practical resources designed to help those working or interested in the local food systems field. For example, the USDA's Regional Food Hub Resource Guide(2012) aims to help food entrepreneurs, current food hub operators, and their supporters by defining and describing regional food hubs, and highlighting their impacts, strategies to boost their growth and success, and financial resources that could support them.

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A local food system is a collaborative network that integrates sustainable food production, processing, distribution, consumption, and waste management in order to enhance the environmental, economic, and social health of a particular area.

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Modern farming does its utmost to guarantee quality and safety in food production - thus addressing concerns that are uppermost in consumers' minds today.

Food Origins

The origins of most food products such as bread, milk, meat, fruit, vegetables, sugar, etc. are in agriculture. They are either produced directly on farms or based on food coming from farms. Farmers grow food, which they harvest, store and transport to markets or to processing plants for preservation and transformation into a variety of food products.

In ancient times, man's food came from the wild. About ten thousand years ago, he began to select and promote specific plants and animals for domestic cultivation and husbanding. This was the beginning of farming. Since then, farming has undergone dramatic changes. In this century alone, new technologies and methods have been developed which have greatly increased the variety of agricultural inputs available to farmers and also enhanced the productivity of farming. As a result, today's rapidly growing world population is being fed by a constantly declining population of farmers.

What is Farming?

Modern farming relies on the use of machinery to improve operating efficiency, and on natural and synthetic chemicals both to fight pests and diseases and to enhance crop growth. These technologies not only affect the food farmers grow, but they also impact the environment. Consequently, farmers have a dual responsibility: to supply primary agricultural products with acceptable levels of man-made chemicals, in large enough quantities at affordable prices, and minimise any damage caused to the environment.

Farming entails the use of natural resources, land and water to produce food for human and animal consumption. This basic concept of farming has remained a constant ever since man started to select and grow plants and to raise animals for his personal use, to exchange his farm products for other goods and to sell them for money.

Farmers, in selecting and growing plants and raising animals, protect them against a range of threats from other plants and predators as well as organisms such as fungi, bacteria and parasites. All of these potential hazards can deprive plants and animals of essential nutrients and affect the wholesomeness of food before it ever reaches the consumer.

Farming, therefore, is a highly complex enterprise that requires various elements, including adequate soil and water, efficient machinery to plough and plant the crops, as well as to harvest and transport them. It needs fertilisers to supplement natural soil nutrients, antibiotics to prevent animal diseases and pesticides to protect crops against animals, insects, weeds and various micro-organisms.

And lastly it requires capital to finance all of these operations, and favourable weather conditions.

Farming Practices

Farming practices vary widely according to soil and climatic conditions, the potential marketability of specific farm products and the economic objectives of the farmer.

For these reasons, farming practices vary between regions and even between individual farms within the same region:

Some farms produce field crops - cereals, fruit and vegetables

Some produce milk

Others raise animals for meat, milk or egg production

Many farms produce combinations of crops and livestock

Increasing numbers "farm" fish, shellfish and crustaceans as demand for seafood outstrips supply in the wild

Regardless which combination of these basic objectives a farmer pursues, his key activities year in and year out will include:

Preparing and maintaining the land (or water) for growing the desired crops, ploughing, seeding, fertilising and applying selected chemicals to prevent disease and weeds

Providing animals with adequate feed via home production or purchase

Protecting animals' safety and health to ensure they will gain weight, give birth, produce milk or lay eggs

Harvesting crops for animal or human consumption

Milking animals and collecting eggs

Storing crops, housing animals and transporting both to protect them against pests and disease

Selling crops and animals directly for human consumption or to be used as raw materials or ingredients in the food processing industry.

Farming and Food Quality

Some farmers have elected to practice "organic" or "biological" farming, which they say produces more "natural" food. Since certain toxins, chemicals and micro-organisms occur naturally in many farm products, organic farming does not necessarily mean food is healthier.

Until quite recently, the primary objective of food production in Europe was to produce sufficient quantities of food at affordable prices. As the productivity of farming improved exponentially, the consumer increasingly took quantity and affordability for granted and began to focus more attention on the quality and safety of food and the way in which it was produced.

The quality of farm products begins with the genetic potential of the plants grown or the animals raised. This, however, is just the beginning, since farmers must provide an environment in which plants and animals can develop their full genetic potential. This involves matching animals and plants to the natural environment, providing plants with nutrients, and animals with the food necessary to ensure optimal growth.

The genetic potential of an apple, for instance, is responsible for its size, its colour, taste and smell and the nutritional value the consumer has come to expect. To achieve this potential, the farmer cares for the apple tree constantly. He supplements natural soil nutrients when needed and protects the tree and the fruit against insects and disease. As a result of this care and attention on the part of the farmer, the consumer is supplied with fruits that are insect- or fungi-free, and whose appearance and taste meet the consumer's expectation.

Farming and Food Safety

It is easy for the consumer to determine the taste, smell, appearance and consistency of food, but wholesomeness and safety are often difficult or impossible to judge. Spoilage, which can be a sign of unsafe food, may be noted, but even here appearances can be deceiving, for what is a spoiled food for some may be a delicacy for others.

In general, two types of food safety can be distinguished: the absence of chemicals at levels which may be harmful to health (either acute or long-term), and the absence of micro-organisms and their toxins in amounts which may cause illness. Chemicals may be naturally occurring toxins in the farm product itself or come from external sources as a result of farming practices or chemicals in the soil.

Micro-organisms include bacteria (Salmonella, Campylobacter and Listeria), parasites (bandworms and Cryptosporidia) and viruses (Hepatitis A).

An important priority for farmers is to ensure that their products - whether vegetable or animal in origin - are produced in a safe manner. To comply with this, they are assisted by a wide variety of scientists and farm advisory services. They receive advice on the correct use of fertilisers, pesticides, antibiotics and other products in crop and animal husbandry.

Sensitive products such as pesticides or products used in animal health are subject to strict regulations. They undergo rigid testing procedures before they are accepted for registration by European or national authorities for a specific use. This testing must prove that the product:

Has real value and will work as intended

Will have no negative side effects in humans, either during use on the farm or from residues that may remain in food

Will have no negative environmental effects

The procedure for establishing if a new product merits registration is complex and expensive. It requires many toxicity and efficacy studies before initial field tests can be carried out. It also includes tests on the behaviour of the product and its decomposition products in the plant and in the environment. A product should benefit the plant or animal it is intended to help with no negative effect on other species, and should not leave any harmful residues in the soil or water.

Evaluation of a product does not stop with registration. As science progresses, new knowledge is being constantly acquired which can change the way certain products are viewed. A good case in point is DDT. After many years of use, it was determined that DDT had negative side effects and for this reason its use was banned.

Animal Diseases and the Consumer

Certain micro-organisms can contaminate crops, cause harm to animals and may even be detrimental to man himself. Before tuberculosis was eradicated in animals, milk was boiled or pasteurised to protect humans against the possibility of contracting the disease. During slaughter, animals were inspected in an effort to prevent the TB bacterium from reaching the consumer.

Unfortunately, animals may carry micro-organisms which can cause disease in humans without any evidence of their existence showing during the animal's life cycle or even after its slaughter. Salmonella, Listeria, some strains of E.coli and Campylobacter are examples. Animals may acquire these micro-organisms from their feed or water, from the environment (through insects, birds or rodents), from each other and even from humans. Similarly, disease-causing micro-organisms from humans can infect insects, birds and other animals who, in turn, can transmit them to farm animals.

A new threat to human health emerged in the eighties when cattle started showing symptoms of BSE (Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy), the so-called "mad cow disease". The nature of the causative agent was unknown at that time. Neither could it be determined whether the disease was transmittable to man or not. Regardless of this, all kinds of preventive measures were taken to avoid the spread of the disease, and to exclude certain animal tissues from human consumption.

These measures were further enforced when a possible link was established between BSE and a new variant of a rare disease, CJD (Creutzfeld-Jakob Disease), in humans. Presently, scientific evidence seems to indicate that the preventive measures taken are becoming effective in controlling the animal disease and in preventing further cases of contagion in humans.

To limit as far as possible the spread of micro-organisms to their animals, farmers observe strict hygienic practices on the farm, during transport and at slaughter. Similarly, care by the consumer or professional food-handler is essential in the form of adequate cooking, pasteurising, sterilising, appropriate storage, etc., particularly if there is any doubt about a product's safety. Fresh vegetables should be thoroughly washed to reduce any possibility of contamination (particularly if vegetables have been irrigated with contaminated water). Salmonella, which may exist in chickens and eggs, can be eliminated through adequate cooking.

Farming and the Environment

Inevitably, farming has an impact on the environment. Through farming, land is physically and chemically transformed. Since farmers use the land for generations, it is in their best interests to ensure their land remains healthy and productive. One of their priorities should be the protection of their land and, by extension, the environment in general.

However, as some cultivation methods and certain products may have adverse effects on the environment which pass unnoticed by the individual farmer, scientific and official regulatory bodies exist to alert him to possible damage. As discussed earlier, one measure is the regulation of pesticides to ensure that they are not harmful to the environment or to humans.

Farming and Research

Because the consumer expects food to be readily available and reasonably priced as well as wholesome and safe, agricultural research is an ongoing process that focuses on fulfilling consumer expectations. Research activities include:

Developing new plant varieties to provide greater nutritional value, higher production efficiency or resistance to pests and disease (allowing the reduction of pesticide use)

Improving plant protection methods, including the increased use of biological controls

Improving fertilisation to further enhance plant nutrition and minimise negative effects on the environment

Enhancing the quality of meat or milk

Improving feedstuffs for animals to enhance animal health and optimise the conversion of feed into milk or meat

Improving irrigation methods to ensure safety and optimise the use of water

These and other objectives of agricultural research aim at further improving the quality and safety of food as it leaves the farm, to minimise any negative impacts on the ecology and to contribute to the goal of sustainable agriculture.

Future Challenges

Farmers, and the network of scientists, governments and manufacturers which supports them, continually direct their energy and efforts toward developing the best growing and living conditions for crops and animals. Enhancing soil nutrition and defending crops and animals against pests and diseases is a constant process made ever more important by the world's growing population and the consumer's demand for a safe and wholesome food supply.

In recent years, economic and technological achievements have led to a sharp fall in the number of farmers in Europe. Today, three per cent of the population produces most of the food required. In the future, research and development will continue to assist farmers to become even more productive, to seek improvements in the safety and wholesomeness of food, and to achieve all of this with minimum impact on the environment. These are the challenges facing the world of agriculture as the 21st century approaches.

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From Farm to Fork: Farming, The Beginning of The Food Chain

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Modern farming does its utmost to guarantee quality and safety in food production - thus addressing concerns that are uppermost in consumers' minds today. The origins of most food products such as bread, milk, meat, fruit, vegetables, sugar, etc. are in agriculture.

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Explains climate changes impact on food systems

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On This Page:

Overview

Agriculture is an important sector of the U.S. economy. The crops, livestock, and seafood produced in the United States contribute more than $300 billion to the economy each year. When food-service and other agriculture-related industries are included, the agricultural and food sectors contribute more than $750 billion to the gross domestic product.

Agriculture and fisheries are highly dependent on the climate. Increases in temperature and carbon dioxide (CO2) can increase some crop yields in some places. But to realize these benefits, nutrient levels, soil moisture, water availability, and other conditions must also be met. Changes in the frequency and severity of droughts and floods could pose challenges for farmers and ranchers and threaten food safety. Meanwhile, warmer water temperatures are likely to cause the habitat ranges of many fish and shellfish species to shift, which could disrupt ecosystems. Overall, climate change could make it more difficult to grow crops, raise animals, and catch fish in the same ways and same places as we have done in the past. The effects of climate change also need to be considered along with other evolving factors that affect agricultural production, such as changes in farming practices and technology.

Impacts on Crops

Crops grown in the United States are critical for the food supply here and around the world. U.S. farms supply nearly 25% of all grains (such as wheat, corn, and rice) on the global market.[4] Changes in temperature, atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO ₂), and the frequency and intensity of extreme weather could have significant impacts on crop yields.

For any particular crop, the effect of increased temperature will depend on the crop's optimal temperature for growth and reproduction. In some areas, warming may benefit the types of crops that are typically planted there, or allow farmers to shift to crops that are currently grown in warmer areas. Conversely, if the higher temperature exceeds a crop's optimum temperature, yields will decline.

Higher CO₂ levels can affect crop yields. Some laboratory experiments suggest that elevated CO₂ levels can increase plant growth. However, other factors, such as changing temperatures, ozone, and water and nutrient constraints, may counteract these potential increases in yield. For example, if temperature exceeds a crop's optimal level, if sufficient water and nutrients are not available, yield increases may be reduced or reversed. Elevated CO₂ has been associated with reduced protein and nitrogen content in alfalfa and soybean plants, resulting in a loss of quality. Reduced grain and forage quality can reduce the ability of pasture and rangeland to support grazing livestock.

More extreme temperature and precipitation can prevent crops from growing. Extreme events, especially floods and droughts, can harm crops and reduce yields. For example, in 2010 and 2012, high nighttime temperatures affected corn yields across the U.S. Corn Belt, and premature budding due to a warm winter caused $220 million in losses of Michigan cherries in 2012.

Dealing with drought could become a challenge in areas where rising summer temperatures cause soils to become drier. Although increased irrigation might be possible in some places, in other places water supplies may also be reduced, leaving less water available for irrigation when more is needed.

Many weeds, pests, and fungi thrive under warmer temperatures, wetter climates, and increased CO₂ levels. Currently, U.S. farmers spend more than $11 billion per year to fight weeds, which compete with crops for light, water, and nutrients. The ranges and distribution of weeds and pests are likely to increase with climate change. This could cause new problems for farmers' crops previously unexposed to these species.

Though rising CO₂ can stimulate plant growth, it also reduces the nutritional value of most food crops. Rising levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide reduce the concentrations of protein and essential minerals in most plant species, including wheat, soybeans, and rice. This direct effect of rising CO₂ on the nutritional value of crops represents a potential threat to human health. Human health is also threatened by increased pesticide use due to increased pest pressures and reductions in the efficacy of pesticides.

Impacts on Livestock

Americans consume more than 36 million metric tons of meat and poultry annually. Livestock and poultry account for over half of U.S. agricultural cash receipts, often over $100 billion per year. Changes in climate could affect animals both directly and indirectly.

Heat waves, which are projected to increase under climate change, could directly threaten livestock. In 2011, exposure to high temperature events caused over $1 billion in heat-related losses to agricultural producers. Heat stress affects animals both directly and indirectly. Over time, heat stress can increase vulnerability to disease, reduce fertility, and reduce milk production.

Drought may threaten pasture and feed supplies. Drought reduces the amount of quality forage available to grazing livestock. Some areas could experience longer, more intense droughts, resulting from higher summer temperatures and reduced precipitation. For animals that rely on grain, changes in crop production due to drought could also become a problem.

Climate change may increase the prevalence of parasites and diseases that affect livestock. The earlier onset of spring and warmer winters could allow some parasites and pathogens to survive more easily. In areas with increased rainfall, moisture-reliant pathogens could thrive.

Potential changes in veterinary practices, including an increase in the use of parasiticides and other animal health treatments, are likely to be adopted to maintain livestock health in response to climate-induced changes in pests, parasites, and microbes. This could increase the risk of pesticides entering the food chain or lead to evolution of pesticide resistance, with subsequent implications for the safety, distribution, and consumption of livestock and aquaculture products.

Increases in carbon dioxide (CO₂) may increase the productivity of pastures, but may also decrease their quality. Increases in atmospheric CO₂ can increase the productivity of plants on which livestock feed. However, the quality of some of the forage found in pasturelands decreases with higher CO₂. As a result, cattle would need to eat more to get the same nutritional benefits.

Impacts on Fisheries

American fishermen catch or harvest five million metric tons of fish and shellfish each year. U.S. fisheries contribute more than $1.55 billion to the economy annually (as of 2012). Many fisheries already face multiple stresses, including overfishing and water pollution. Climate change may worsen these stresses. In particular, temperature changes could lead to significant impacts.

The ranges of many fish and shellfish species may change. In waters off the northeastern United States, several economically important species have shifted northward since the late 1960s. The three species shown in [the figure to the left] (American lobster, red hake, and black sea bass) have moved northward by an average of 119 miles.

Many aquatic species can find colder areas of streams and lakes or move north along the coast or in the ocean. Nevertheless, moving into new areas may put these species into competition with other species over food and other resources, as explained on the Ecosystems Impacts page.

Some marine disease outbreaks have been linked with changing climate. Higher water temperatures and higher estuarine salinities have enabled an oyster parasite to spread farther north along the Atlantic coast. Winter warming in the Arctic is contributing to salmon diseases in the Bering Sea and a resulting reduction in the Yukon Chinook Salmon, Finally, warmer temperatures have caused disease outbreaks in coral, eelgrass, and abalone.

Changes in temperature and seasons can affect the timing of reproduction and migration. Many steps within an aquatic animal's lifecycle are controlled by temperature and the changing of the seasons. For example, in the Northwest warmer water temperatures may affect the lifecycle of salmon and increase the likelihood of disease. Combined with other climate impacts, these effects are projected to lead to large declines in salmon populations.

In addition to warming, the world's oceans are gradually becoming more acidic due to increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO ₂). Increasing acidity could harm shellfish by weakening their shells, which are created by removing calcium from seawater. Acidification also threatens the structures of sensitive ecosystems upon which some fish and shellfish rely.

International Impacts

Climate change is very likely to affect food security at the global, regional, and local level. Climate change can disrupt food availability, reduce access to food, and affect food quality. For example, projected increases in temperatures, changes in precipitation patterns, changes in extreme weather events, and reductions in water availability may all result in reduced agricultural productivity. Increases in the frequency and severity extreme weather events can also interrupt food delivery, and resulting spikes in food prices after extreme events are expected to be more frequent in the future. Increasing temperatures can contribute to spoilage and contamination.

Internationally, these effects of climate change on agriculture and food supply are likely to be similar to those seen in the United States. However, other stressors such as population growth may magnify the effects of climate change on food security. In developing countries, adaptation options like changes in crop-management or ranching practices, or improvements to irrigation are more limited than in the United States and other industrialized nations.

Any climate-related disturbance to food distribution and transport, internationally or domestically, may have significant impacts not only on safety and quality but also on food access. For example, the food transportation system in the United States frequently moves large volumes of grain by water. In the case of an extreme weather event affecting a waterway, there are few, if any, alternate pathways for transport. High temperatures and a shortage of rain in the summer of 2012 led to one of the most severe summer droughts the nation has seen and posed serious impacts to the Mississippi River watershed, a major transcontinental shipping route for Midwestern agriculture. This drought resulted in significant food and economic losses due to reductions in barge traffic, the volume of goods carried, and the number of Americans employed by the tugboat industry. The 2012 drought was immediately followed by flooding throughout the Mississippi in the spring of 2013, which also resulted in disruptions of barge traffic and food transport. Transportation changes such as these reduce the ability of farmers to export their grains to international markets, and can affect global food prices.

Impacts to the global food supply concern the United States because food shortages can cause humanitarian crises and national security concerns. They also can increase domestic food prices.

References
[6] CCSP (2008). The Effects of Climate Change on Agriculture, Land Resources, Water Resources, and Biodiversity in the United States. A Report by the U.S. Climate Change Science Program and the Subcommittee on Global Change Research. Backlund, P., A. Janetos, D. Schimel, J. Hatfield, K. Boote, P. Fay, L. Hahn, C. Izaurralde, B.A. Kimball, T. Mader, J. Morgan, D. Ort, W. Polley, A. Thomson, D. Wolfe, M. Ryan, S. Archer, R. Birdsey, C. Dahm, L. Heath, J. Hicke, D. Hollinger, T. Huxman, G. Okin, R. Oren, J. Randerson, W. Schlesinger, D. Lettenmaier, D. Major, L. Poff, S. Running, L. Hansen, D. Inouye, B.P. Kelly, L Meyerson, B. Peterson, and R. Shaw. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, DC, USA. [8] USDA (2012). 2012 Census of Agriculture: Volume 1, Chapter 1: U.S. National Level Data, Table 33. U.S. Department of Agriculture.

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Climate Impacts on Agriculture and Food Supply

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Agriculture is an important sector of the U.S. economy. The crops, livestock, and seafood produced in the United States contribute more than $300 billion to the economy each year. When food-service and other agriculture-related industries are included, the agricultural and food sectors contribute more than $750 billion to the gross domestic product.

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Describes food systems in depth

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APA Policy Guide ON Community and Regional Food Planning

This Policy Guide, adopted in 2007, describes the importance of community and local food systems and presents seven general policies that support food systems planning, each divided into several specific policies.

A Planners Guide to Community and Regional Food Planning

This PAS report shows how planners can play a significant role in shaping the food environment of their communities.

Community and Regional Food Planning

This PAS Memo article uses the first six general policies of APA's policy guide as a framework to present concrete examples of what planners and planning agencies are doing to support community and regional food systems.

Community Food System Assessments

This PAS Memo article offers guidance for planners on conducting a community food system assessment, featuring a case study of Buffalo, New York, to demonstrate how planners are using this tool.

Food systems Planning

This edition of PAS QuickNotes provides a primer on how planning affects the development of healthy, sustainable local and regional food systems.

The Food System: A Stranger to the Planning Field

This 2007 JAPA article discusses the absence of the food system from most planning practice, research, and education and offers reasons and ideas for planning involvement to strengthen community food systems.

Planning for Food Access and Community-Based Food Systems

This report from APA's Planning and Community Research Center examines how and why some local governments have addressed food access and food system issues in the comprehensive or sustainability planning process and identifies common themes and innovative features for implementing plan policies and achieving plan goals.

Principles of a Healthy, Sustainable Food System

This web page presents a concise set of shared principles for sustainable food systems that promote health.

Growing Food Connections Planning and Policy Briefs

This set of six briefing papers highlights promising planning and policy strategies used by local governments across North America to strengthen their communities' food systems by promoting agricultural viability and healthy food access.

Collaborative and Inclusive Food Systems Planning

This APA Learn course explores the challenges and strategies in building and maintaining an inclusive grassroots-driven food system.

Bread and Butter: Planning for Farms

This APA Learn course discusses strategies and tools for farmland protection, targeted growth, and optimal land-use in response to housing-density and climate-projection scenarios.

The Planner's Strongest Allies: Successful Farmers

This APA Learn course examines the relationship between farmers and urban communities through policies and strategies that limit encroaching suburban sprawl, promote preservation, and incentivize urban development.

Safe Routes to Healthy Food

This APA Learn course explores the integration of active transportation infrastructure and healthy food access and furthering the two for more comprehensive public health and safety.

Incentivizing the Sale of Healthy and Local Food

This APA Learn course reviews the policies, programs, and projects that are expanding access to healthy, affordable, and locally-produced food while also boosting economic benefits and improving public health.

Recipe for Resiliency

This Planning article argues that planners must collaborate with public and private stakeholders to create sustainable community food systems.

Legal Lessons: Zoning to Fight Obesity

This Planning article explores the role planners have in improving community health through food system interventions.

Planning Equitable and Safe Routes to Healthy Food

This Commissioner article highlights the relationship between transportation and food access.

Evergreen: Urban Agriculture and the (New) Land-Grant University

This Planning article considers how a land-grant university with a traditionaly rural-oriented mission can thrive in an urban setting.

Viewpoint: Fast Food's Bad Rap

This Planning article challenges the dominant narrative surrounding fast food's role in our food ecosystem.

Eat Better, Move More, Work Together

This Planning article introduces energy balance as a concept that can be used to frame planning and public health conversations about activity and nutrition.

Evergreen: The Ten-Foot Diet: The Emerging Hyperlocal Food System

This Planning article tracks the emerging commercial scale of the hyperlocal food system.

Viewpoint: Planning for Agriculture, Not Just Around It

This Planning article encourages planners to move agriculture out of the periphery and into the center of planning conversations.

Planning for Food Trucks

This edition of PAS Quicknotes outlines the opportunities and challenges of food trucks and discusses several policy considerations.

Institutionalizing Urban Agriculture: Process, Progress, and Innovation

This edition of PAS Memo considers how to formalize urban agriculture, including zoning, inter-agency collaboration, engagement, and evaluation.

On the Health Track

This Planning article examines four communities where local coalitions have addressed lack of physical activity and lack of access to nutritious food through a planning and public health lens.

Welcome to Beer Country

This Planning article addresses the emerging role of small breweries in economic development and tourism.

Healthier, Wealthier, and Wiser

This Planning article explores the economic development dimension of food systems planning.

evergreen: Restorative Farming

This Planning article urges planners to consider restorative farming as a tool to maintain the health of land.

Food Groups

This Planning article examines local food systems planning and policy in Los Angeles, California.

Find Your Foodshed

This Planning article follows the emergence of foodshed planning in three California cities and explores the planner's role in the process.

The Farmland Protection Toolbox

This edition of PAS QuickNotes outlines various tools planners can use to protect agricultural land from conversion.

A Moveable Feast

This Planning article takes a look at Portland's food cart culture and the policy environment that facilitates and challenges it.

Farming at the Fringe

This Planning article discusses the ways exurban areas are facilitating family farm operations.

Portion Control

This Planning article highlights creative solutions to food waste.

SPECIAL ISSUE: THE FOOD FACTOR

The August/September 2009 issue of Planning is devoted to an examination of the food system, with articles covering the relationship between food systems planning and public health as well as several urban and rural case studies.

The Supermarket as a Neighborhood Building Block

This Planning article highlights the evolving, yet still central, role of the supermarket in a community.

Oyster As Superhero

This Planning article explores the relationship between food systems planning and the environment through oysters in the Chesapeake Bay.

Growers' Gamble

This Planning article discusses the challenges and opportunities of farmers markets and how cities can better support them.

Safe Routes to (More Than) Schools

This blog post introduces Safe Routes to Healthy Food, a multi-agency effort to increase access to nutritious food via transportation interventions.

Bringing Food to an Aging America

This blog post focuses on how to address the specific food access needs of older adults.

Hunger in the Arctic

This Planning article chronicles the waning food supply among Inuit communities in the Canadian Arctic due to climate change.

Faces of Food Systems Planning

This blog post introduces the APA's Food Systems Planning Interest Group (FIG) and their efforts to make food systems planning mainstream among academics and practicing planners.

Growing Local: Strengthening Food Systems Through Planning and Policy

This blog post highlights Growing Food Connections, a five-year multi-agency effort to study food systems innovations through local planning and policy.

New Resources for Local Food Systems Planning

This blog post introduces the first two briefing papers in a six-paper series by Growing Food Connections that will highlight food systems issues.

The Evolution of Food Systems Planning in Kansas

This blog post examines the food systems planning scene in Douglas County, Kansas and lists various policies and projects taken to improve the food system.

Touring Regional Food Systems in Cincinnati and Kentucky

This blog post chronicles a tour designed by the Greater Cincinnati Regional Food Policy Council to highlight the local food system's strengths and opportunities.

Beacon Hill's Enchanted Food Forest

This blog post features an interview with Sandy Pernitz, who works with the first large-scale public food forest in the neighborhood of Beacon Hill in Seattle, Washington.

Turning Blight to Beets at the Roosevelt Row Growhouse

This blog post highlights a creative urban agriculture project in Phoenix, Arizona.

Chicago's Pullman Neighborhood Ventures into a Greener Industrial Age

This blog post explores how Pullman, a neighborhood on the southeast side of Chicago, Illinois, is incorporating urban farming into its industrial future.

Plan4Health Success Story: Food Systems Planning in Rhode Island

This blog post includes a webinar and video that details the data-driven work being done to address food access and health in Rhode Island, in partnership with APA's Plan4Health.

Plan4Health Success Story: The F.R.E.S.H. Project

This blog post explores how the Food Resources Education Security Health Project (F.R.E.S.H.) partners with county government, Native American Nations, and community organizations to improve food access in east central Wisconsin.

Plan4Health Success Story: Mount Hope Coalition to Increase Food Security

This blog posts includes a video that shows how the Mount Hope Coalition to Increase Food Security educates residents on locally growth food in Providence, Rhode Island.

Plan4Health Success Story: Healthy Corner Stores in Tarrant County, Texas

This blog post describes how Plan4Health Tarrant County implemented a Healthy Corner Store initiative, along with other projects, to address food security in their community.

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This collection catalogs numerous resources that provide background, policy guidance, model ordinances, and examples of local and regional plan recommendations and development regulations for various types of activities and uses that promote food access or security from across the country.

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This website talks about sustainable food systems and has a short video on sustainable food systems.

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Study Diverse Food Systems Around the World

Work at an Alpine castle farm in Europe, study in the mountains of Thailand or solve local food-system problems in the U.S. as a Sustainable Food Systems major or minor.

Developed by students and faculty in 2016, the major offers engaging courses, work-study on the Guilford College Farm, a variety of internships and study-abroad opportunities. Faculty regularly lead students to Castle Brunnenburg in the Italian Alps - named one of the best study abroad opportunities in the country - where you learn about agriculture in an alpine setting and the history of food systems and the culture supporting it.

The International Sustainable Development Studies Institute in Thailand is another Guilford affiliated program where you can learn about sustainable food systems in communities from the mountains to the coast of Thailand.

You may also choose an off-campus internship with a community partner group working to address challenges in local and regional food systems in the Triad.

Possible careers include working at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency or the Piedmont Land Conservancy; working or own local, regional and national farms; or continued graduate study in such prestigious programs Clemson University Environmental Consulting, the University of Oregon and Syracuse University.

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Guilford College Sustainable Food Systems majors learn to solve food-system problems around the world through work study on the College Farm and study abroad.

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this is the most simple video on our food

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How Do We Get Our Food? | Farming Industry | Science For Kids | Grade 5 | Periwinkle

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Goes in depth on the 4 main parts of a food system

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Food System Basics

Food systems include the nuts and bolts of what it takes to move food from point A to point B along a supply chain. From labor and transportation to policies and climate, many factors influence how food gets from the farm to your fork.

We can also see food systems running at local, regional, national, or international levels. Production, processing, distribution, and consumption - food systems require many steps, each with a variety of inputs and outputs.

What Moves Food through the Food System?

In addition to the inputs and outputs listed for each step, the following are also present every step of the way:

Labor. Migrant farmworkers, farmer family members and community members, farmers' market staff, supermarket cashiers, meat plant workers, restaurant staff-it can require an incredible amount of human effort to get food from the field onto your plate. Providing workers a living wage and safe working conditions can help protect the people who make it possible for us to eat.

Energy. Try to picture all the fuel and electricity needed to power tractors, farm equipment, factories, delivery trucks, restaurants and grocery stores, and your kitchen appliance. The food system can be very energy-intensive, though some farmers like Milagro Farms seek to reduce dependence on fossil fuels by switching to renewable energy and finding sales outlets closer to home.

Waste. Food is packaged and repackaged as it moves through the food system, and there are losses at every step. Reducing packaging, recycling used packaging, and turning waste into biogas or compost can slash waste within the food system.

What Shapes the Food System?

These factors influence the food system as a whole:

Policy. Agricultural and food policyincludes the regulations producers need to follow to sell their goods, government aid to producers and consumers, trade agreements, and more. The last Texas legislative session led to some local food policy wins, such as limiting the permit fees farmers must pay for selling at multiple farmers' markets and making it easier to sell pickled and frozen fruits and vegetables. The current national farm bill increased funding for programs SFC champions, including conservation programs and SNAP.

Climate. Climate and weather patterns have always had a large impact on farming. There's no question the unpredictable weather patterns, extreme temperatures, floods, and droughts brought on by climate change add more uncertainty to the food system. Seed scientists are working to breed drought-resistant and heat-loving varieties that are adapted to local conditions. Many universities and research groups are searching for climate-smart ways to ensure that we can grow food and get it to those who need it for generations to come.

How You Can Strengthen Our Local Food System

Supporting our local food system can help our community become more resilient in the face of challenges like the current pandemic and climate change.

Shorter supply chains, less transportation, less processing, and more traceable and transparent production are all advantages of a local food system. Here are some tips for supporting a thriving Central Texas food system:

Buy local using our list of food access resources in Central Texas during COVID-19.

See if you qualify for food assistance, especially if your household income has dropped during the pandemic. With many local sales outlets accepting SNAP and WIC benefits, you can help keep food dollars local.

Further reading:

Thousands of Cars Line Up at One Texas Food Bank as Job Losses Hit Hard - NPR, 4/17/20

230,000 Texas Families Filed for SNAP Food Assistance in March, Twice as Many as Same Month Last Year - The Texas Tribune, 4/13/20

As Prices Fall, Texas Dairies Have to Keep Milking - KUT, 4/22/20

Market Disruptions, Low Prices Drive Texas Farmers to Plow Crops Under - San Angelo Standard-Times, 4/22/20

As COVID-19 Disrupts the Industrial Meat System, Independent Processors Have a Moment to Shine - CivilEats, 5/19/20

These 5 Foods Show How Coronavirus Has Disrupted Supply Chains - National Geographic, 5/19/20

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What Makes Up a Food System? Breaking it Down into 4 Parts

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What does our current food system look like, and how does it work? And if it's broken, how can we fix it? We take a look at the four main parts of our food system and the factors that influence them.

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has facts about what organic food is and how it is grown

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Organic Foods: What You Need to Know - HelpGuide.org

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Is organic food really healthier? Is it worth the expense? Find out what the labels mean and which foods give you the most bang for your buck.

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ways to help change our food system

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Our relationship with food is dangerously imbalanced Image: REUTERS/Juan Carlos Ulate

Head of Portfolio, Agricultural Livelihood, IKEA Foundation

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5 ways to transform our food systems and save the planet

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Our relationship with food is dangerously imbalanced Image: REUTERS/Juan Carlos Ulate Head of Portfolio, Agricultural Livelihood, IKEA Foundation Stay up to date: Agriculture, Food and Beverage Follow The share of the world that is undernourished Image: Our World in Data How food produced for human consumption is lost or wasted Image: UN Don't miss any update on this topic Create a free account and access your personalized content collection with our latest publications and analyses.

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How animals are raised to go to food production.

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Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

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Background
Click images for captions
The average American consumes more meat, milk, and eggs than nearly any other citizen of the world. ¹ Where do most of these animal products come from, and why does it matter?

For most of agriculture's history, farm animals were raised on diversified farms, where they generally had access to the outdoors and ample space to move about. Although conditions like these still exist, the industrialization of agriculture radically transformed how most animals are raised for food.

At the end of 2012, the U.S. population of poultry, swine, cattle, and other food-producing animals numbered over 2 billion-outnumbering U.S. citizens by seven to one. Over the course of a typical year, over 9 billion are slaughtered. ² The vast majority of these animals are raised in a system called industrial food animal production, or IFAP (pronounced "eye-fap").

In IFAP, poultry and swine are confined in densely stocked indoor facilities. A single IFAP facility, for example, typically houses over 5,000 hogs, or over 100,000 laying hens. ² Beef and dairy cattle spend at least part of their lives in similarly large-scale indoor or outdoor feeding operations. 3,4 IFAP facilities are designed to maximize the amount of meat, milk, or eggs from a particular breed of animal in the shortest amount of time and at the lowest cost. They are also heavily dependent on specially formulated animal feeds, pharmaceutical drugs, fossil fuels, and other inputs to the production system.

IFAP produces an enormous amount of food with minimal human labor, and has been credited with lowering the price of meat, eggs, and milk. ⁵ However, IFAP incurs heavy costs to public health and ecosystems that are not reflected in the sales price of these products.

Because IFAP is by far the dominant model of meat, milk, and egg production, it is the focus of this section. See also Ecological and Urban Agriculture, Food and Climate Change and Food Safety.

Waste management
Click images for captions

Large animal confinement factories... might drown in their own waste if they don't haul it out whenever they can.

- Gene Logsdon, farmer ⁸

Confining thousands or millions of animals in a small amount of space poses a challenge: what to do with the enormous amounts of feces and urine they generate? Poultry, swine, and cattle raised in U.S. operations produce an estimated 335 million tons of waste annually (not counting water weight) ⁹-over 40 times the amount leaving sewage treatment plants. ¹⁰ A single IFAP facility may produce as much waste as a small city, ¹¹ concentrated over a small area of land. To dispose of IFAP waste, producers typically spread or spray the manure onto nearby agricultural land.

When applied to crop fields, animal waste provides nutrients and organic matter that help crops grow, transforming waste into food. For this reason, farmers don't typically think of it as "waste" and instead call it "manure." IFAP facilities generate such a large quantity of waste in one place, however, that it is often much more than nearby crops can use-becoming a pollution problem rather than a source of fertility. When waste is over-applied, the excess may seep down into groundwater or be carried into nearby waterways as runoff (the flow of water,such as from rain or irrigation, over land). IFAP waste may also leak out of storage pits, or worse, overflow or rupture during heavy storms. 12,13

Pollution from IFAP facilities is a public health and ecological problem because it may contain bacteria, viruses, parasites, veterinary drugs, hormones, heavy metals, excess nutrients, and other potentially harmful contaminants. People may be exposed to these hazards by drinking contaminated well water, for example, or by swimming and fishing in contaminated waters. 10,14-16

Antibiotic resistance
Click images for captions
In medicine, antibiotic drugs are used to kill or inhibit pathogens (disease-causing organisms), such as Staphylococcus aureus-bacteria that can cause skin, blood, and urinary tract infections. If a patient does not complete her or his full dose of antibiotics, however, they may succeed only in killing the most susceptible bacteria. Sir Alexander Fleming, who discovered the lifesaving antibiotic drug penicillin, warned in 1945 that "the ignorant man may easily underdose himself and by exposing his microbes to nonlethal quantities of the drug, make them resistant." In a case of survival of the fittest, bacteria capable of surviving in the presence of the antibiotic grow and multiply. Eliminating the infection would then require treatment with a different antibiotic drug, or potentially several different drugs-and there are only so many different drugs available. For this reason, antibiotic-resistant infections are more difficult and expensive to treat, ²⁰ and potentially fatal.

Experiments in the 1940s and 1950s found that feeding low doses of antibiotics to animals caused them to gain weight faster and on less feed. These findings prompted the introduction of antibiotics to the diets of healthy poultry, swine, and cattle. ²¹ By 2009, 80 percent of antibiotic drugs sold in the U.S. were used not for human medicine but for food animal production. ²²

The nonmedical use of antibiotics in food animal production creates an environment that favors antibiotic-resistant bacteria, eroding the effectiveness of lifesaving drugs. A growing body of evidence suggests pathogens (resistant or otherwise) spread from IFAP operations to nearby communities via workers, 23,24 air, ²⁵⁻²⁷ water, ²⁸ and flies, ²⁹ and to consumers via contaminated meat. ³⁰ These pathways add to the growing dangers of antibiotic-resistant infections.

Worker health, worker justice

Who is responsible for the health and ecological problems of IFAP? Blame is sometimes targeted at the people who raise the animals. In many cases, however, they are as much a victim of an industrial system as they are a part of the problem.

In industrial swine and poultry production, for example, farmers (or "growers") are often pressured into signing contracts with vertically integrated corporations that dictate how the animals must be raised. ³² Signing a contract with an "integrator" often means taking out loans to build the required facilities. Debt can further pressure growers to accept the terms mandated by the integrator when it comes time to renew the contract. As one poultry grower said, "When you have that kind of debt load over you ... you're going to choose to sign the contract. You feel that there's no other option when you owe ... a million dollars." ³²

People who raise animals in IFAP operations also face numerous health risks. Crowded conditions in IFAP operations present frequent opportunities for the transmission of disease-causing organisms between animals, and from animals to workers. IFAP workers may be responsible for handling animals, animal waste, and carcasses-all of which may harbor bacteria, viruses, and other pathogens, including antibiotic-resistant strains. Once infected, workers may spread these pathogens into their homes and communities. ³³

IFAP workers may also be exposed to a range of airborne hazards, including harmful gases emitted from animal waste, particles of dried feces and urine, animal dander, fungal spores, and bacterial toxins. These hazards contribute to a heavy health burden: at least one in four workers in indoor IFAP operations is estimated to have a respiratory illness such as asthma. 34,35

Community impacts
Click images for captions
Living near IFAP often means coping with flies, odors, polluted air, contaminated water, and an environment populated by disease-causing pathogens.

Studies suggest bacterial pathogens, harmful gases, and other environmental contaminants may spread from IFAP facilities to surrounding communities, increasing residents' disease risks. Contaminants may be brought into communities by workers, 23,24 blown out of ventilation systems, ²⁵⁻²⁷ introduced into drinking and recreational waters, 10,14-16,28 and spread by flies, birds, and other animals. 29,36 People living closer to IFAP operations (or where IFAP waste is applied) often have higher rates of illness, including respiratory problems ³⁷⁻⁴² and infections with antibiotic-resistant pathogens. ⁴³

Overwhelming odors from IFAP facilities can be a nuisance for nearby residents-interfering with daily activities, social gatherings, and overall quality of life. One North Carolina resident living near an industrial hog facility testified, "I think about the time everybody sat down to eat supper, we had all the windows closed, but you couldn't eat because the odor was just that strong ... It's just like you could eat [your food], but as soon as you got up or went outside ... you threw it back up." ⁴⁴ More than just an unpleasant smell, odors from IFAP facilities have been associated with physical and mental health problems, including high blood pressure, depression, anxiety, and difficulty sleeping. ⁴⁵⁻⁴⁷.

IFAP facilities and the problems they bring are often unwanted in communities. Proposals for the construction of new facilities are frequently met with strong opposition from local residents. IFAP facilities are disproportionately located in low-income communities and communities of color, where residents may have less political influence to oppose them-a form of environmental injustice. ⁴⁸

Animal welfare
Click images for captions

All the arguments to prove man's superiority cannot shatter this hard fact: In suffering, the animals are our equals.

- Peter Singer, ethicist

To accommodate the industrial model, animals and their environments are engineered to maximize productivity. Raising animals indoors eliminates weather from the equation, giving producers greater control over temperature, lighting, and other factors that influence productivity. ⁵ Specialized confinement facilities maximize the number of animals per area, and allow for automated feeding, watering, ventilation, and waste removal. ⁴⁹

As a result, most animals in IFAP rarely if ever see the outdoors, let alone feel sunshine, experience day or night, or walk on grass. They are unable to perform many of their natural behaviors; pigs raised on concrete are unable to root in the earth with their powerful nose discs, chickens are unable to dust bathe, cattle are fed unnatural diets of grain that cause painful liver abscesses. In most egg production facilities, hens are confined to "battery cages" so small they are unable to spread their wings. Female pigs (sows) used for breeding are confined to "gestation crates" in which they are unable to turn around or groom themselves. 5,49,50

The stress and crowding of confinement can cause animals to become aggressive toward one another. To prevent pecking among laying hens, beaks are removed with a hot blade. Pigs' tails are amputated to prevent them from being bitten. Bodily alterations to animals are usually performed without anesthesia or any other form of pain relief, partly because it is viewed as too costly, even though it is widely accepted that such alterations are painful. 5,49,51,52 Bodily alternations are not unique to IFAP; practices such as castration and dehorning are common on pasture-raised farms.

These physical and psychological harms are among many others not described here.

Changing diets, policies, and farming practices
Click images for captions
How can the harms of industrial food animal production (IFAP) be remedied? Changing diets, government policies, and the way animals are raised could all make a difference.
Changing diets
Each of our food purchases is a "vote with our fork" that sends a market signal affecting what, where, and how food is produced. In the words of farmer and author Wendell Berry, "How we eat determines, to a considerable extent, how the world is used." ⁵³

Compared to typical high-meat diets, eating a diet of mostly plants requires less agricultural land (see image), ⁵⁴⁻⁵⁷ and produces less nitrogen pollution 54,57 and greenhouse gas emissions. 54,57-62 Reducing meat and dairy consumption, particularly among high meat-consuming countries like the U.S., is an urgent and necessary step toward achieving a sustainable future. ⁶³
Changing policies
IFAP is enabled by weak environmental regulations and economic incentives. Strengthening restrictions on antibiotic use, improving the enforcement of air- and water-quality standards, and raising animal welfare standards are just a few of the policy changes that could improve the lives of workers, communities, and animals. ⁵
Changing farming practices
Ecological approaches to livestock production typically involve raising animals outdoors (weather permitting), at lower densities, without growth-promoting drugs, and on diverse farms that cultivate a variety of crop or animal species. Well-managed pasture-based farms avoid many of the public health problems of IFAP, offer farmers greater autonomy, and allow animals freedom to express their natural behaviors. Pasture-based production is not a perfect solution, however, however, in part because it requires much more land (see image) 64,65 and may produce more greenhouse gas emissions than industrial production. ⁶⁴⁻⁶⁷

Resources

The following list of suggested resources is intended as a starting point for further exploration, and is not in any way comprehensive. Some materials may not reflect the views of the Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future.
For teachers Reports News and magazine articles Films Academic journal articles

Swine Farming Is a Risk Factor for Infection With and High Prevalence of Carriage of Multidrug-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus. Wardyn SE, Forshey BM, et al. Clinical Infectious Diseases. 2015.

Interplay between policy and science regarding low-dose antimicrobial use in livestock (open access). Sorensen AC, Lawrence RS, Davis MF. Frontiers in Microbiology. 2014.

High-Density Livestock Operations, Crop Field Application of Manure, and Risk of Community-Associated Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus Infection in Pennsylvania (open access). Casey JA, Curriero FC, et al. JAMA Internal Medicine. 2013.

Roxarsone, Inorganic Arsenic, and Other Arsenic Species in Chicken: A U.S.-Based Market Basket Sample (open access). Nachman KE, Baron PA, et al. Environmental Health Perspectives. 2013.

Investigating the Role of State and Local Health Departments in Addressing Public Health Concerns Related to Industrial Food Animal Production Sites (open access). Fry JP, Laestadius LI, et al. PLOS One. 2013.

Managing waste from confined animal feeding operations in the United States: the need for sanitary reform (open access). Graham JP, Nachman KE. Journal of Water and Health. 2010.

Air Pollution and Odor in Communities near Industrial Swine Operations (open access). Wing S, Horton RA, et al. Environmental Health Perspectives. 2008.

Community Health and Socioeconomic Issues Surrounding Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (open access). Donham KJ, Wing S, et al. Environmental Health Perspectives. 2007.

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66. Capper JL. Is the Grass Always Greener? Comparing the Environmental Impact of Conventional, Natural and Grass-Fed Beef Production Systems. Animals. 2012;2(4):127-143.
67. Lupo CD, Clay DE, Benning JL, Stone JJ. Life-Cycle Assessment of the Beef Cattle Production System for the Northern Great Plains, USA. J Environ Qual. 2013;42:1386-1394.
68. Cooney N. Veganomics. Brooklyn, NY: Lantern Books; 2014.
69. Foley J a., Ramankutty N, Brauman K a., et al. Solutions for a cultivated planet. Nature. October 2011.
70. Berry W. The Unsettling of America: Culture & Agriculture. San Francisco, CA: Sierra Club Books; 1996.

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Click images for captions The average American consumes more meat, milk, and eggs than nearly any other citizen of the world. 1 Where do most of these animal products come from, and why does it matter? For most of agriculture's history, farm animals were raised on diversified farms, where they generally had access to the outdoors and ample space to move about.

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this video

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Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

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this is a pdf all about how we grow food, how it affects us and the materials and machinery that is used.

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Gives why food systems work and why they matter.

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Two in three children between the ages of 6 months and two years are not getting the nutrients and food they need for healthy growth and development. Sadly, there has been no progress in improving children's diets in the last decade.

The poor quality of young children's diets is the major driver of all forms of malnutrition - stunting, wasting, micronutrient deficiencies, overweight and obesity - and one of the greatest obstacles to ensure children not only survive, but thrive. Yet, change is possible with the right commitments and investments.
Read UNICEF's latest global report on nutrition: 'Fed to fail: The crisis of diets in early childhood'
At the centre of this challenge is a broken food system that fails to provide children with the diets they need to grow healthy and that is badly impacting the planet. But what exactly do we mean when we talk about 'food systems'? Why do they matter for children? And what needs to change?

Food systems are the public policy decisions; the national and global systems and supply chains; and the individuals and groups - public and private - that influence what we eat.

They are important for two key reasons:

1. What we eat - our diets - is one of the biggest drivers of health and well-being. This is especially the case for children. Good nutrition at every stage of a child's life is vital to ensure they grow, develop, and learn to reach their full potential.

2. Current food systems - including production, farming, processing and global supply chains - have an enormous impact on our planet, driving climate change and threatening the environment.

Why do food systems need reform?

A staggering two in three children between the ages of 6 months and two years are not getting the diverse diets they need to grow up well, putting them at risk of malnutrition. Food systems are one of the major drivers of this.

Too often driven by profit over purpose, decisions about what food is produced and how that food is processed, packaged, and promoted undermine the quality of what children eat. The most nutritious food is often expensive, putting it out of reach for many households, while unhealthy alternatives are readily available and heavily marketed.

Conflict, climate change, environmental crises and emergencies are also making food systems fragile. As a result, millions of children do not have safe and regular access to nutritious food to the extent that famine - which should be consigned to history - looms again.

Food systems are threatening the health of our planet. Industrial food production contributes a third of greenhouse gas emissions globally, and its heavy use of fresh water, fertilizers, and pesticides has an immense ecological impact. This creates a vicious cycle of environmental degradation that further harms children's access to safe, healthy and nutritious food.

By better understanding the significance of food systems, and joining forces with children and young people, we can deliver good nutrition and a healthier planet for every child.

Making change happen

Action on food systems can transform this situation - progress is possible. For example, over the past two decades, the number of undernourished children has fallen by one-third.

We know we can continue this progress through collective action to:

1. Improve the quality of what children eat. This includes mandatory quality standards for children's food, public policies that promote healthy diets, and supply-chain interventions to fortify staple foods for young children.

2. Improve the quality of children's food environments - where they live, learn and eat. This includes ending unhealthy food marketing that targets children, serving better food in schools, and improving food labeling.

3. Improve feeding practices - especially in early childhood. This includes protecting, promoting and supporting breastfeeding and encouraging healthy food practices through health, education and social protection systems.

It is also vital that action is taken to minimize the environmental damage of food systems and to reduce their carbon footprint. This has a critical role to play on the road to COP 26 - the 2021 UN climate conference. Healthy diets must be nutritious, affordable and sustainable.

The Food Systems Summit 2021

This is a critical moment to listen to the voices of children and young people. Not only does their future depend on a radical overhaul of our food systems, but they also have some of the best and brightest ideas about how these systems can better serve people and our planet.

The UN Food Systems Summit, held during the UN General Assembly in New York in September 2021, was an important opportunity to demonstrate UNICEF's commitment to support for food systems transformations. By building on the Summit commitments UNICEF will work alongside partners and drive concrete action to:

Increase the availability and affordability of nutritious foods - including fruits, vegetables, eggs, fish meat and fortified foods - by incentivizing their production, distribution, and retailing.

Implementing national standards and legislation to protect young children from unhealthy processed and ultra-processed foods and beverages and to end harmful marketing practices targeting children and families.

Increase the desirability of nutritious and safe foods through multiple communication channels including digital media to reach parents and children with easy to understand, coherent information.

Just as the drivers of poor diets are multifaceted, so are the solutions. To deliver nutritious, safe, and affordable diets to every child, governments, donors, civil society organizations and development actors must work hand-in-hand to transform food, health and social protection systems by leading ten key actions.

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Food Systems: What they are, why they matter

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Two in three children between the ages of 6 months and two years are not getting the nutrients and food they need for healthy growth and development. Sadly, there has been no progress in improving children's diets in the last decade.

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This website gives you access to documents about food systems in the past.

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Food systems are the sum of actors and interactions along the food value chain-from input supply and production of crops, livestock, fish, and other agricultural commodities to transportation, processing, retailing, wholesaling, and preparation of foods to consumption and disposal. Food systems also include the enabling policy environments and cultural norms around food. Ideal food systems would be nutrition-, health-, and safety-driven, productive and efficient (and thus able to deliver affordable food), environmentally sustainable and climate-smart, and inclusive. To realize this vision, continued investments must be made in agricultural research and development and technological innovations, paving the way for programs and policies that are based on sound evidence.

IFPRI conducts research and offers policy support on a range of food system issues from farm-level productivity to development of inclusive food value chains to nutrition education-providing evidence for design of food systems that provide people with equitable access to nutritious, sustainable diets and contribute to more broadly to development and well-being.

IFPRI's research on this topic is closely aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including SDG 1, SDG 2, SDG 12, SDG 14, and SDG 15.

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Food systems are the sum of actors and interactions along the food value chain-from input supply and production of crops, livestock, fish, and other agricultural commodities to transportation, processing, retailing, wholesaling, and preparation of foods to consumption and disposal. Food systems also include the enabling policy environments and cultural norms around food.

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Explains how the food system works

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Convenience stores, grocery stores, and fast-food restaurants in the US offer customers an almost dizzying array of food selections, from packaged snacks to fresh produce, fresh foods, canned goods, and complete prepared meals. Yet, the production system that makes these food choices possible is often invisible to the end consumer. The great distances these products have traveled and the number of hands they have passed through are hidden behind the appearance of standardization and abundance. From Seattle to Topeka, an orange is an orange, and the same brand of packaged foods looks and tastes the same. Amid this sameness, it now requires time and effort for a food purchaser to trace the unique sources of familiar foods or understand what sort of farming they represent.

That so much food can be produced worldwide and distributed so widely is proof of the tremendous amount of hard work and sacrifice that people and animals contribute within our food system every day. Conventional food systems are capable of providing safe and reliable food products consistently from year to year, during all seasons, through a combination of technology, skill, and organization. But behind this abundance is an uncomfortable truth: The food systems that fill our plates are also purveyors of human injustice, animal abuse, and environmental degradation, leading to increasing calls for alternatives.

WHAT IS A FOOD SYSTEM?

A food system is a complex set of interconnected practices and relationships that ultimately deliver food from farms, processing facilities, factories, warehouses, and retailers, to the dinner table. Viewing this web of activities as a system allows us to examine how the system works.

Food systems begin with food production-including what is grown, how, where, under what conditions, and by whom-and conclude with the circumstances of food consumption.

Food systems can be relatively simple at smaller scales or more extensive and complex. For example, in certain subsistence farming contexts, farmers directly feed themselves and their own families from their own labor on plots of land nearby their homes. More complex food systems, like that of the United States, are characterized by production and consumption that are often separated by long distances and involve a tremendous number of activities, resources, and individuals in their journey from farm to table. Today, many food systems span the globe.

The idea of a food system encompasses all the potential questions, challenges, and consequences of food production and consumption. These include deeper topics such as the environmental impacts of agriculture, the ethical dimensions of raising and eating animals, the problems of inequity and injustice in farm policy and supply chains, and the challenge of ensuring universal access to healthy food.

HOW DOES THE FOOD SYSTEM WORK?

Food systems function differently around the world, but some exert more influence around the globe than others. The US is an example of a national food system that is able to purchase and transport food commodities from abroad to feed its population, necessitating extremely complex supply chains that involve large numbers of actors.

PRODUCTION

Production refers to the creation of food's raw materials. This can involve farms that grow field crops and facilities that raise farmed animals such as cattle or farmed fish. The fishing industry is a segment of the production system that focuses on harvesting wild species like tuna and salmon.

PROCESSING

Once crops have been harvested or animals slaughtered, the resulting food commodities are sold to processors that transform them into finished goods. Processing facilities cut and can fruit, wash and bag vegetables, freeze products that will be sold frozen, juice fruits, and grind nuts into nut butter. Slaughterhouses, also known as meatpacking plants, harvest usable tissues from carcasses of animals and pack them or keep them in storage. Subsequent stages of processing add additional value to many raw materials, such as creating baked goods or pre-cooked meats that will be sold as ready-to-eat products.

DISTRIBUTION

The wholesale food industry purchases value-added, processed products from both national and international producers and stores them in warehouses until they are ready to be delivered to food businesses and grocery shelves. Many trucks on American highways and containers arriving in shipping ports are part of this distribution network. Food products may be shipped hundreds, or even thousands, of miles before ultimately reaching the consumer.

CONSUMPTION

The final stage of the food system involves facilities that serve consumers. Grocery stores, corner convenience stores, and vending machines account for the retail sector of the food system, where consumers shop for food products to take home. The foodservice sector includes food served in restaurants, schools, cafeterias, and the airline industry.

WHAT ARE THE TYPES OF FOOD SYSTEMS?

Food systems look different depending on the geographical location and the socioeconomic status of a region and the cultural context within which the system functions. These factors influence how a given food system functions and whether it is just and sustainable or unjust and extractive. The US has what can today be considered a conventional food system based on industrial production.

CONVENTIONAL FOOD SYSTEMS

Many food systems worldwide are rooted in inequality. British and European colonialism was fueled by trade in food commodities like tea and sugar that enslaved or exploited the labor of people from African, South American, and Asian countries to produce goods for consumption in Europe. This legacy of exploitation and dehumanization continues today within many industrial food systems.

Although the current global food system is capable of feeding everyone on earth, nearly seven hundred million people faced chronic hunger in 2019, a number that is increasing by tens of millions per year. Additionally, an estimated 35% of adults worldwide experience overnutrition leading to health problems, and the disparity within global food accessibility becomes stark.

While the origins of this disparity are centuries old, the modern-day conventional food system of wealthier nations is a relatively recent phenomenon. Industrial agriculture, defined by monocrops, concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs), and corporate consolidation, began in the US during the Industrial Revolution and has become the predominant form of agriculture nationwide.

Through corporate mergers and the exercise of political and financial power, industrial agriculture disrupted the food system, pushing out small- and mid-sized farms that were once integral to the nation's food supply and which are far more environmentally and socioeconomically stable. Multinational food companies came to control much of the market for seed breeding, food production, and food trade, exerting massive vertical and horizontal influence from domestic economies to international markets. This consolidation of capital and market power by multinational agrifood corporations has contributed to the disruption of traditional food systems worldwide.

Conventional farming is also responsible for injecting abundant supplies of meat into the food system. While CAFO meat is relatively cheap to purchase in wealthy nations, it comes with high environmental and social costs, which are often hidden. As the country's food system increasingly caters to diets that are rich in meat and other animal products, plant crops such as corn and soy are increasingly produced not for human households but for CAFOs. By some estimates, around 77% of global agricultural land is dedicated to raising and feeding farmed animals-land which could be used to grow food for people who are habitually malnourished.[5] This massive diversion of resources to the animal agriculture system drives land and resource scarcity, which raises food prices, further exacerbating accessibility issues.

ALTERNATIVE FOOD SYSTEMS

Alternative food systems are today lauded as a way to resolve the many negative consequences perpetuated by conventional food systems. Yet this term is somewhat misleading. Approaches touted today as novel alternatives-including local and organic food production, direct sale from farmers to consumers, and farmer cooperatives-were established traditional ways of producing food in many parts of the world long before European settler colonialism.

LOCAL FOOD SYSTEMS

While there is no universal definition of what constitutes a local food system, the term generally refers to food distribution from smaller-scale farmers who sell directly to consumers or to nearby restaurants and grocery stores. These farms produce a range of products for direct human consumption rather than bulk commodities for processing or corn for animal feed. Farmer-owners have a direct stake in the health of their land and can avoid the contract farming structures that incentivize extracting as much value as possible from the land without thought for the impacts. Sales to local retail or direct sales to end consumers also cut out some of the intermediary supply chain steps where profits tend to be captured by large food corporations, leaving more wealth in the hands of farmers. Local food systems can be appealing to consumers who wish to support farmers who prioritize high animal welfare standards and preserve the local landscape and resources.

In the US, local food systems feature farmer's markets, community gardens, and farms where the public can pick their own produce. Community-supported agriculture (CSA) programs are also becoming increasingly popular. Originally developed by Black American farmers, CSAs allow consumers to purchase shares for a portion of the expected harvest of a farm, helping the farm maintain financial stability. Farm-to-school programs deliver fresh food to school cafeterias to replace meals that would otherwise be highly processed.

ORGANIC FOOD SYSTEMS

As the environmental and health impacts of conventional agriculture become more widely understood, public demand for cleaner, more sustainably produced foods continues to rise. Organic food systems describe food production, processing, and distribution in which farmers and food handlers avoid using certain artificial agrichemical inputs, including pesticides, herbicides, synthetic fertilizers, as well as certain synthetic food ingredients. Instead, organic production favors less toxic mineral and biological alternatives that minimize ecological impact. Under the right circumstances, organic production can improve environmental health and crop yields over time. Organic principles can often apply to the processing stages of the system as well. Because organic production has to do with practices rather than with size, organic food systems may be local or even international in scope. In the US, standards for organic production set by the USDA's National Organic Program. Nearly one hundred countries have some form of legislation protecting organic food production.

COOPERATIVES IN FOOD SYSTEMS

The conventional food system in the US is geared towards big industrial players, putting smaller producers at a significant disadvantage. Cooperatives or co-ops are one way to overcome these barriers. Collectively-owned through memberships, co-ops can take a variety of different forms. Some establish "food hubs," processing facilities that member farms in a given region can use, enabling access to a wider range of customers from wholesale to retail. Co-ops can also engage in collective marketing activities such as forming relationships with local distributors and volume-based retail customers that smaller farms could not individually supply. Often, co-ops can be effective at addressing social justice issues related to food access. In West Oakland, California, the Mandela Marketplace is a worker-owned grocery store bringing locally grown food to a historically underserved community.

FAIRTRADE

Fairtrade systems attempt to rectify global trade relations that favor transnational corporations and higher-income nations. The advent of globalization benefited heavily subsidized agribusiness corporations that were able to outcompete growers in lower-income countries. Financial market speculation also brought unstable prices for food commodities, making it difficult for farmers to maintain steady livelihoods. When combined, these factors resulted in millions of farmers losing the ability to make a sustainable income from their land, and in many cases, unable to feed themselves.

While a range of fairtrade certifications exists with a variety of mandates, fairtrade certifications generally seek to correct the power differentials that characterize conventional food supply chains, leading to meager purchase prices for farmers. Instead of searching for the lowest supplier price, fairtrade purchasing sets higher minimum prices that allow for both environmental sustainability and economic justice. Certification mandates may require that traders pay prices that enable dignified living conditions for farmers, that they pay a premium for organic products, or that they enter into long-term contracts with farmers to provide stability. While fairtrade is not a panacea for the power imbalances that plague modern food systems, it demonstrates one approach to food production built on social and environmental values rather than pure profit motives.

However, fairtrade is not a perfect solution. In some cases, the social and economic benefits of fairtrade may be more successful than the environmental goals.[13] Fairtrade also remains a minority market segment, rife with the threat of freeloading. Despite continued mainstream support for the values behind fairtrade, food purchasers and importers are not legally obligated to obtain third-party-verified fairtrade certifications, allowing them to continue the historical power dynamics that generate poverty, environmental degradation, and human rights abuses. Where they are active, even well-designed fairtrade certifications may fail to fully deliver on their promises,[15] leaving some fairtrade-certified farmers still unable to make a sustainable living from their work.[16] Multinational food companies operating without fairtrade standards of conduct have recently been sued for perpetuating human rights violations in the global chocolate supply chain, including human trafficking and forced child labor.

NOVEL AGRICULTURAL TECHNOLOGIES

Novel uses of technology are increasingly showing up on farms and in food systems. Blockchain, a way of storing data through decentralized relationships that provide permanent, unchangeable records held by multiple parties, could be used to increase transparency and security within food supply chains-something that could one day help to prevent unethical practices such as forced labor and aid producers in receiving information about which crops to grow and in what quantities.

Urban agriculture is another promising technological advance for food systems, potentially allowing for food production closer to urban consumers, thus reducing the energy and resources required for distribution and helping to address food accessibility challenges in cities.

FOOD SYSTEM EXAMPLE: ORGANIC FARMING

While much of the food produced in the US relies upon the conventional food system, the organic food system also spans the nation, including farms, processors, distribution networks, and retailers. The United States Department of Agriculture oversees this system by certifying producers and food handlers that meet organic standards. For example, accredited crop producers must avoid synthetic chemicals banned by organic standards, maintain healthy soil, and refrain from using GMO seeds. Organic processors must understand the organic status of every single ingredient they use, whether they are creating food for human consumption or animal feed; only products made with a certain threshold of organic ingredients can obtain the organic label.

CONCLUSION

Contemporary food systems are complex, interconnected networks of human activities and natural environments. The broader system of people, animals, landscapes, and resources that produce our food may be beyond consideration for most-as is our role as individual consumers in a massive system that spans entire continents and oceans.

In a globalized world of capitalist agriculture built on a foundation of colonialism, food systems can be extractive and exploitative. But the growing popularity and diversity of alternative food systems offer hope for the future. By learning from the mistakes of conventional agriculture, tomorrow's food systems can restructure food production to ensure animal protection, economic stability, improved accessibility, and plentiful plant-based foods produced with respect for the environment. Supporting local farmers growing food for human consumption, ensuring fair prices within supply chains, and embracing innovation can bring the global food system closer to solving the malnutrition and environmental degradation that unfortunately continue to define food production today.

M. C. Nesheim, M. Oria, and P. T. Yih, eds., A Framework for Assessing Effects of the Food System (Washington DC: National Academies Press, 2015), Chapter 2: Overview of the U.S. Food System, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK305173/.

[5] Hannah Ritchie and Max Roser, "Environmental Impacts of Food Production," Our World in Data, January 15, 2020, https://ourworldindata.org/environmental-impacts-of-food.

Steve Martinez et al., "Local Food Systems: Concepts, Impacts, Issues" (USDA Economic Research Service, May 2010), https://www.ers.usda.gov/webdocs/publications/46393/7054_err97_1_.pdf?v=0.

Niels Halberg, H. F. Alroe, and M. T. Knudsen, Global Development of Organic Agriculture: Challenges and Prospects (Wallingford and Cambridge, MA: CABI, 2006).

Michael S. Carolan, Reclaiming Food Security, (Abingdon and New York: Routledge, 2013).

[13] Anne Mook and Christine Overdevest, "Does Fairtrade Certification Meet Producers' Expectations Related to Participating in Mainstream Markets? An Analysis of Advertised Benefits and Perceived Impact," Sustainable Development 26, no. 3 (2018): 269-80, https://doi.org/10.1002/sd.1700.

[15] Miet Maertens, "Fairtrade Does Not Walk the Talk," Nature Sustainability 2, no. 7 (July 2019): 549-50, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-019-0332-0.

[16] Thomas Dietz et al., "How Effective Is Multiple Certification in Improving the Economic Conditions of Smallholder Farmers? Evidence from an Impact Evaluation in Colombia's Coffee Belt," The Journal of Development Studies 56, no. 6 (June 2, 2020): 1141-60, https://doi.org/10.1080/00220388.2019.1632433.

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What Is a Food System, Types and How Does the Food System Work?

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Convenience stores, grocery stores, and fast-food restaurants in the US offer customers an almost dizzying array of food selections, from packaged snacks to fresh produce, fresh foods, canned goods, and complete prepared meals. Yet, the production system that makes these food choices possible is often invisible to the end consumer.

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what needs to change in our food systems video

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Why do we need to change our food system?

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all about growing food

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How do farmers grow food around the world?

If you visited a farm in every country, you would notice a lot of variation. You might see a cocoa plantation in Ghana, a wine vineyard in Italy, rice paddies in China, a wheat field in the United States or a cattle ranch in Brazil.

Farmers living in different areas have different climates, landscapes, microorganisms, plants and animals so they must adapt their growing practices to local conditions. However, all farmers rely on ecosystem services.

To grow crops, it helps if farmers understand local growing conditions (such as knowing when the rainy season starts, which crops grow well together, what nutrients the crop needs and are these nutrients present in the soil). After deciding what to grow, farmers often till the land by loosening the soil and mixing in fertilizers, which are nutrient rich. Then, they sow seeds or plant seedlings. When the crops are growing, farmers must water (or rely on rainfall), weed and kill crop pests. Once the crops are mature, the farmer will harvest them.

Farmers need resources to grow food. They need many different types of resources. Farmers need natural resources, such as land, air, nutrients, water and sunlight. Farmers themselves need energy so they can work the land. Farmers need human-made tools to work the land. Some resources can be bought at the local market. So farmers also need money to buy resources that are not available on their land.

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How do farmers grow food around the world?

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If you visited a farm in every country, you would notice a lot of variation. You might see a cocoa plantation in Ghana, a wine vineyard in Italy, rice paddies in China, a wheat field in the United States or a cattle ranch in Brazil.

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shows where different kinds of crops are grown

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National Ag Day: Where Was the Food On Your Plate Grown?

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March is National Nutrition Month. Throughout the month, USDA will be highlighting results of our efforts to improve access to safe, healthy food for all Americans and supporting the health of our next generation. Recently, the Let’s Move! campaign issued its annual call for kids to enter original r…

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growing food

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"From Farm to Fork" traces the different stages of the food chain system and examines the practices and procedures that ensure the safety of our food.

The purpose of this "fact pack" is to explain the complex process by which food reaches the consumer's table and the systems and technologies that ensure the quality and safety of food from farm to fork.

Each section of the fact pack is a self-contained study which may be consulted separately or as part of the whole document.

Specialists in food processing contributed to this document. Despite the different food cultures and eating habits in Europe, the study transcends national borders in its approach to food safety, hygiene and quality.

The European Food Information Council hopes that this information pack will contribute to a better understanding of the food chain in general, and more specifically, of the steps taken to ensure the safety of food. Ultimately, the quality and safety of food depend on the efforts of everyone involved in the complex chain of food production, processing, transport, preparation and consumption. As the World Health Organisation (WHO) puts it so succinctly - food safety is a shared responsibility.

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From Farm to Fork: Processes in the Food Chain

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"From Farm to Fork" traces the different stages of the food chain system and examines the practices and procedures that ensure the safety of our food. The purpose of this "fact pack" is to explain the complex process by which food reaches the consumer's table and the systems and technologies that ensure the quality and safety of food from farm to fork.

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How do farmers grow food around the world?

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There are many different ways of growing crops and raising livestock that can be grouped into three broad categories: small-scale farming, industrial farming and farming.

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How food gets onto store self's, Viewing this web of activities as a system allows us to examine how the system works.

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Convenience stores, grocery stores, and fast-food restaurants in the US offer customers an almost dizzying array of food selections, from packaged snacks to fresh produce, fresh foods, canned goods, and complete prepared meals. Yet, the production system that makes these food choices possible is often invisible to the end consumer. The great distances these products have traveled and the number of hands they have passed through are hidden behind the appearance of standardization and abundance. From Seattle to Topeka, an orange is an orange, and the same brand of packaged foods looks and tastes the same. Amid this sameness, it now requires time and effort for a food purchaser to trace the unique sources of familiar foods or understand what sort of farming they represent.

That so much food can be produced worldwide and distributed so widely is proof of the tremendous amount of hard work and sacrifice that people and animals contribute within our food system every day. Conventional food systems are capable of providing safe and reliable food products consistently from year to year, during all seasons, through a combination of technology, skill, and organization. But behind this abundance is an uncomfortable truth: The food systems that fill our plates are also purveyors of human injustice, animal abuse, and environmental degradation, leading to increasing calls for alternatives.

WHAT IS A FOOD SYSTEM?

A food system is a complex set of interconnected practices and relationships that ultimately deliver food from farms, processing facilities, factories, warehouses, and retailers, to the dinner table. Viewing this web of activities as a system allows us to examine how the system works.

Food systems begin with food production-including what is grown, how, where, under what conditions, and by whom-and conclude with the circumstances of food consumption.

Food systems can be relatively simple at smaller scales or more extensive and complex. For example, in certain subsistence farming contexts, farmers directly feed themselves and their own families from their own labor on plots of land nearby their homes. More complex food systems, like that of the United States, are characterized by production and consumption that are often separated by long distances and involve a tremendous number of activities, resources, and individuals in their journey from farm to table. Today, many food systems span the globe.

The idea of a food system encompasses all the potential questions, challenges, and consequences of food production and consumption. These include deeper topics such as the environmental impacts of agriculture, the ethical dimensions of raising and eating animals, the problems of inequity and injustice in farm policy and supply chains, and the challenge of ensuring universal access to healthy food.

HOW DOES THE FOOD SYSTEM WORK?

Food systems function differently around the world, but some exert more influence around the globe than others. The US is an example of a national food system that is able to purchase and transport food commodities from abroad to feed its population, necessitating extremely complex supply chains that involve large numbers of actors.

PRODUCTION

Production refers to the creation of food's raw materials. This can involve farms that grow field crops and facilities that raise farmed animals such as cattle or farmed fish. The fishing industry is a segment of the production system that focuses on harvesting wild species like tuna and salmon.

PROCESSING

Once crops have been harvested or animals slaughtered, the resulting food commodities are sold to processors that transform them into finished goods. Processing facilities cut and can fruit, wash and bag vegetables, freeze products that will be sold frozen, juice fruits, and grind nuts into nut butter. Slaughterhouses, also known as meatpacking plants, harvest usable tissues from carcasses of animals and pack them or keep them in storage. Subsequent stages of processing add additional value to many raw materials, such as creating baked goods or pre-cooked meats that will be sold as ready-to-eat products.

DISTRIBUTION

The wholesale food industry purchases value-added, processed products from both national and international producers and stores them in warehouses until they are ready to be delivered to food businesses and grocery shelves. Many trucks on American highways and containers arriving in shipping ports are part of this distribution network. Food products may be shipped hundreds, or even thousands, of miles before ultimately reaching the consumer.

CONSUMPTION

The final stage of the food system involves facilities that serve consumers. Grocery stores, corner convenience stores, and vending machines account for the retail sector of the food system, where consumers shop for food products to take home. The foodservice sector includes food served in restaurants, schools, cafeterias, and the airline industry.

WHAT ARE THE TYPES OF FOOD SYSTEMS?

Food systems look different depending on the geographical location and the socioeconomic status of a region and the cultural context within which the system functions. These factors influence how a given food system functions and whether it is just and sustainable or unjust and extractive. The US has what can today be considered a conventional food system based on industrial production.

CONVENTIONAL FOOD SYSTEMS

Many food systems worldwide are rooted in inequality. British and European colonialism was fueled by trade in food commodities like tea and sugar that enslaved or exploited the labor of people from African, South American, and Asian countries to produce goods for consumption in Europe. This legacy of exploitation and dehumanization continues today within many industrial food systems.

Although the current global food system is capable of feeding everyone on earth, nearly seven hundred million people faced chronic hunger in 2019, a number that is increasing by tens of millions per year. Additionally, an estimated 35% of adults worldwide experience overnutrition leading to health problems, and the disparity within global food accessibility becomes stark.

While the origins of this disparity are centuries old, the modern-day conventional food system of wealthier nations is a relatively recent phenomenon. Industrial agriculture, defined by monocrops, concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs), and corporate consolidation, began in the US during the Industrial Revolution and has become the predominant form of agriculture nationwide.

Through corporate mergers and the exercise of political and financial power, industrial agriculture disrupted the food system, pushing out small- and mid-sized farms that were once integral to the nation's food supply and which are far more environmentally and socioeconomically stable. Multinational food companies came to control much of the market for seed breeding, food production, and food trade, exerting massive vertical and horizontal influence from domestic economies to international markets. This consolidation of capital and market power by multinational agrifood corporations has contributed to the disruption of traditional food systems worldwide.

Conventional farming is also responsible for injecting abundant supplies of meat into the food system. While CAFO meat is relatively cheap to purchase in wealthy nations, it comes with high environmental and social costs, which are often hidden. As the country's food system increasingly caters to diets that are rich in meat and other animal products, plant crops such as corn and soy are increasingly produced not for human households but for CAFOs. By some estimates, around 77% of global agricultural land is dedicated to raising and feeding farmed animals-land which could be used to grow food for people who are habitually malnourished.[5] This massive diversion of resources to the animal agriculture system drives land and resource scarcity, which raises food prices, further exacerbating accessibility issues.

ALTERNATIVE FOOD SYSTEMS

Alternative food systems are today lauded as a way to resolve the many negative consequences perpetuated by conventional food systems. Yet this term is somewhat misleading. Approaches touted today as novel alternatives-including local and organic food production, direct sale from farmers to consumers, and farmer cooperatives-were established traditional ways of producing food in many parts of the world long before European settler colonialism.

LOCAL FOOD SYSTEMS

While there is no universal definition of what constitutes a local food system, the term generally refers to food distribution from smaller-scale farmers who sell directly to consumers or to nearby restaurants and grocery stores. These farms produce a range of products for direct human consumption rather than bulk commodities for processing or corn for animal feed. Farmer-owners have a direct stake in the health of their land and can avoid the contract farming structures that incentivize extracting as much value as possible from the land without thought for the impacts. Sales to local retail or direct sales to end consumers also cut out some of the intermediary supply chain steps where profits tend to be captured by large food corporations, leaving more wealth in the hands of farmers. Local food systems can be appealing to consumers who wish to support farmers who prioritize high animal welfare standards and preserve the local landscape and resources.

In the US, local food systems feature farmer's markets, community gardens, and farms where the public can pick their own produce. Community-supported agriculture (CSA) programs are also becoming increasingly popular. Originally developed by Black American farmers, CSAs allow consumers to purchase shares for a portion of the expected harvest of a farm, helping the farm maintain financial stability. Farm-to-school programs deliver fresh food to school cafeterias to replace meals that would otherwise be highly processed.

ORGANIC FOOD SYSTEMS

As the environmental and health impacts of conventional agriculture become more widely understood, public demand for cleaner, more sustainably produced foods continues to rise. Organic food systems describe food production, processing, and distribution in which farmers and food handlers avoid using certain artificial agrichemical inputs, including pesticides, herbicides, synthetic fertilizers, as well as certain synthetic food ingredients. Instead, organic production favors less toxic mineral and biological alternatives that minimize ecological impact. Under the right circumstances, organic production can improve environmental health and crop yields over time. Organic principles can often apply to the processing stages of the system as well. Because organic production has to do with practices rather than with size, organic food systems may be local or even international in scope. In the US, standards for organic production set by the USDA's National Organic Program. Nearly one hundred countries have some form of legislation protecting organic food production.

COOPERATIVES IN FOOD SYSTEMS

The conventional food system in the US is geared towards big industrial players, putting smaller producers at a significant disadvantage. Cooperatives or co-ops are one way to overcome these barriers. Collectively-owned through memberships, co-ops can take a variety of different forms. Some establish "food hubs," processing facilities that member farms in a given region can use, enabling access to a wider range of customers from wholesale to retail. Co-ops can also engage in collective marketing activities such as forming relationships with local distributors and volume-based retail customers that smaller farms could not individually supply. Often, co-ops can be effective at addressing social justice issues related to food access. In West Oakland, California, the Mandela Marketplace is a worker-owned grocery store bringing locally grown food to a historically underserved community.

FAIRTRADE

Fairtrade systems attempt to rectify global trade relations that favor transnational corporations and higher-income nations. The advent of globalization benefited heavily subsidized agribusiness corporations that were able to outcompete growers in lower-income countries. Financial market speculation also brought unstable prices for food commodities, making it difficult for farmers to maintain steady livelihoods. When combined, these factors resulted in millions of farmers losing the ability to make a sustainable income from their land, and in many cases, unable to feed themselves.

While a range of fairtrade certifications exists with a variety of mandates, fairtrade certifications generally seek to correct the power differentials that characterize conventional food supply chains, leading to meager purchase prices for farmers. Instead of searching for the lowest supplier price, fairtrade purchasing sets higher minimum prices that allow for both environmental sustainability and economic justice. Certification mandates may require that traders pay prices that enable dignified living conditions for farmers, that they pay a premium for organic products, or that they enter into long-term contracts with farmers to provide stability. While fairtrade is not a panacea for the power imbalances that plague modern food systems, it demonstrates one approach to food production built on social and environmental values rather than pure profit motives.

However, fairtrade is not a perfect solution. In some cases, the social and economic benefits of fairtrade may be more successful than the environmental goals.[13] Fairtrade also remains a minority market segment, rife with the threat of freeloading. Despite continued mainstream support for the values behind fairtrade, food purchasers and importers are not legally obligated to obtain third-party-verified fairtrade certifications, allowing them to continue the historical power dynamics that generate poverty, environmental degradation, and human rights abuses. Where they are active, even well-designed fairtrade certifications may fail to fully deliver on their promises,[15] leaving some fairtrade-certified farmers still unable to make a sustainable living from their work.[16] Multinational food companies operating without fairtrade standards of conduct have recently been sued for perpetuating human rights violations in the global chocolate supply chain, including human trafficking and forced child labor.

NOVEL AGRICULTURAL TECHNOLOGIES

Novel uses of technology are increasingly showing up on farms and in food systems. Blockchain, a way of storing data through decentralized relationships that provide permanent, unchangeable records held by multiple parties, could be used to increase transparency and security within food supply chains-something that could one day help to prevent unethical practices such as forced labor and aid producers in receiving information about which crops to grow and in what quantities.

Urban agriculture is another promising technological advance for food systems, potentially allowing for food production closer to urban consumers, thus reducing the energy and resources required for distribution and helping to address food accessibility challenges in cities.

FOOD SYSTEM EXAMPLE: ORGANIC FARMING

While much of the food produced in the US relies upon the conventional food system, the organic food system also spans the nation, including farms, processors, distribution networks, and retailers. The United States Department of Agriculture oversees this system by certifying producers and food handlers that meet organic standards. For example, accredited crop producers must avoid synthetic chemicals banned by organic standards, maintain healthy soil, and refrain from using GMO seeds. Organic processors must understand the organic status of every single ingredient they use, whether they are creating food for human consumption or animal feed; only products made with a certain threshold of organic ingredients can obtain the organic label.

CONCLUSION

Contemporary food systems are complex, interconnected networks of human activities and natural environments. The broader system of people, animals, landscapes, and resources that produce our food may be beyond consideration for most-as is our role as individual consumers in a massive system that spans entire continents and oceans.

In a globalized world of capitalist agriculture built on a foundation of colonialism, food systems can be extractive and exploitative. But the growing popularity and diversity of alternative food systems offer hope for the future. By learning from the mistakes of conventional agriculture, tomorrow's food systems can restructure food production to ensure animal protection, economic stability, improved accessibility, and plentiful plant-based foods produced with respect for the environment. Supporting local farmers growing food for human consumption, ensuring fair prices within supply chains, and embracing innovation can bring the global food system closer to solving the malnutrition and environmental degradation that unfortunately continue to define food production today.

M. C. Nesheim, M. Oria, and P. T. Yih, eds., A Framework for Assessing Effects of the Food System (Washington DC: National Academies Press, 2015), Chapter 2: Overview of the U.S. Food System, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK305173/.

[5] Hannah Ritchie and Max Roser, "Environmental Impacts of Food Production," Our World in Data, January 15, 2020, https://ourworldindata.org/environmental-impacts-of-food.

Steve Martinez et al., "Local Food Systems: Concepts, Impacts, Issues" (USDA Economic Research Service, May 2010), https://www.ers.usda.gov/webdocs/publications/46393/7054_err97_1_.pdf?v=0.

Niels Halberg, H. F. Alroe, and M. T. Knudsen, Global Development of Organic Agriculture: Challenges and Prospects (Wallingford and Cambridge, MA: CABI, 2006).

Michael S. Carolan, Reclaiming Food Security, (Abingdon and New York: Routledge, 2013).

[13] Anne Mook and Christine Overdevest, "Does Fairtrade Certification Meet Producers' Expectations Related to Participating in Mainstream Markets? An Analysis of Advertised Benefits and Perceived Impact," Sustainable Development 26, no. 3 (2018): 269-80, https://doi.org/10.1002/sd.1700.

[15] Miet Maertens, "Fairtrade Does Not Walk the Talk," Nature Sustainability 2, no. 7 (July 2019): 549-50, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-019-0332-0.

[16] Thomas Dietz et al., "How Effective Is Multiple Certification in Improving the Economic Conditions of Smallholder Farmers? Evidence from an Impact Evaluation in Colombia's Coffee Belt," The Journal of Development Studies 56, no. 6 (June 2, 2020): 1141-60, https://doi.org/10.1080/00220388.2019.1632433.

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What Is a Food System, Types and How Does the Food System Work?

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Convenience stores, grocery stores, and fast-food restaurants in the US offer customers an almost dizzying array of food selections, from packaged snacks to fresh produce, fresh foods, canned goods, and complete prepared meals. Yet, the production system that makes these food choices possible is often invisible to the end consumer.

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goes in on the distribution phase of food systems

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For the Instructor

These student materials complement the Future of Food Instructor Materials. If you would like your students to have access to the student materials, we suggest you either point them at the Student Version which omits the framing pages with information designed for faculty (and this box). Or you can download these pages in several formats that you can include in your course website or local Learning Managment System. Learn more about using, modifying, and sharing InTeGrate teaching materials.

The introductory section below is adapted from "Chapter 3: The food system and household food security" at the document website of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

This section attempts to describe the parts of a food system in basic terms, starting from the standpoint of the systems approach. It begins, "the perception underlying the systems approach is that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Any situation is viewed in terms of relationships and integration. A food system may thus include all activities related to the production, distribution, and consumption of food that affect human nutrition and health (see Figure 10.1.1, which is reproduced from module 1).

Food production comprises such factors as the use of land for productive purposes (land use), the distribution of land ownership within communities and regions (land tenure), soil management, crop breeding and selection, crop management, livestock breeding and management and harvesting, which have been touched on in previous modules. Food distribution involves a series of post-harvest activities including the processing, transportation, storage, packaging and marketing of food as well as activities related to household purchasing power, traditions of food use (including child feeding practices), food exchanges and gift giving and public food distribution. Activities related to food utilization and consumption include those involved in the preparation, processing, and cooking of food at both the home and community levels, as well as household decision-making regarding food, household food distribution practices, cultural and individual food choices and access to health care, sanitation, and knowledge.

Among the components of the food system, e.g. food processing, communication and education, there is substantial overlap and interlinkage. For example, household decision-making behavior with regard to food is influenced by nutrition knowledge and by cultural practices with regard to food allocation within the household as well as by purchasing power and market prices."

Food systems are further embedded in environments and societies (thus, both natural and social/political contexts) which differ according to a variety of factors such as agroecology (the composition of the local agroecosystem, see previous modules), climate, social aspects, economics, health, and policy. The model presented in Figure 10.1.1 above is useful in conceptualizing the various activities that determine food security and nutritional well-being and the interactions within the food system."

Two important features that we want to emphasize in the passage above from the FAO are first, the fact that food systems involve processes at multiple scales (e.g. local agroecosystems, government policy at a national scale, international research and technology development), which eventually have many impacts at a household scale, either in the livelihoods of food producers (who gain income from the food system and also consume food); and also for consumers around the world. Second, criteria with which we should evaluate food systems are their ability to deliver nutrition and health outcomes (see e.g. module 3), and also the sustainability of natural resources and environments, which we will consider in module 10.2. We note that these criteria of environmental sustainability and health are at opposite ends of this "conveyer belt" model of food systems, where the food system "conveyer belt" can be said to deliver nutrition and health outcomes by transforming the inputs from natural resources and environments. These health and nutrition outcomes are associated with the concept of food security (sufficient access to appropriate and healthy food) which was introduced in module 3 and will be further explored in module 11. Human health and environmental sustainability correspond roughly to the positive objectives that we conceive of for the human system and natural systems, respectively: health and equitable nutrition (or food security) in the human system, and environmental sustainability of natural systems. A final observation from Fig. 10.1.1 is that food systems are ubiquitous and touch on all aspects of human societies. We are all participants in food systems, either as producers, consumers, in distribution, or in other myriad ways.

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Food Systems: Environments, Production, Distribution, and Household Utilization of Food

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These student materials complement the Future of Food Instructor Materials. If you would like your students to have access to the student materials, we suggest you either point them at the Student Version which omits the framing pages with information designed for faculty (and this box).

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this video tells us what food systems are and how they work

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Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

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Talks about the processes of farming and the usage of products we use while farming.

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"From Farm to Fork" traces the different stages of the food chain system and examines the practices and procedures that ensure the safety of our food.

The purpose of this "fact pack" is to explain the complex process by which food reaches the consumer's table and the systems and technologies that ensure the quality and safety of food from farm to fork.

Each section of the fact pack is a self-contained study which may be consulted separately or as part of the whole document.

Specialists in food processing contributed to this document. Despite the different food cultures and eating habits in Europe, the study transcends national borders in its approach to food safety, hygiene and quality.

The European Food Information Council hopes that this information pack will contribute to a better understanding of the food chain in general, and more specifically, of the steps taken to ensure the safety of food. Ultimately, the quality and safety of food depend on the efforts of everyone involved in the complex chain of food production, processing, transport, preparation and consumption. As the World Health Organisation (WHO) puts it so succinctly - food safety is a shared responsibility.

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From Farm to Fork: Processes in the Food Chain

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"From Farm to Fork" traces the different stages of the food chain system and examines the practices and procedures that ensure the safety of our food. The purpose of this "fact pack" is to explain the complex process by which food reaches the consumer's table and the systems and technologies that ensure the quality and safety of food from farm to fork.

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food system

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Call to mind the last meal that you consumed. How many different ingredients went into it? How did they get to you? Where and how were they grown? If your meal wasn't entirely grown in your own personal garden, it was a part of a larger food system. Food systems refer to how we organize the production, distribution, and consumption of food, and they are hugely important parts of our societies. While some food systems put a strain on the planet, others have a smaller impact.

What Is a Food System?

A food system is a complex web of activities including the production, processing, transport, and consumption of food. Smaller systems can also exist within the larger system, like economic, social, energy, marketing, and financing systems. Food systems have also been categorized as traditional, modern, or intermediate. Modern food systems like that in the U.S. "use a wide range of external inputs to maximize production, as well as high-tech systems for storing, transporting, processing and selling food. Farms, firms and traders are typically specialized and operate at large scales."

The American Public Health Association currently defines a "sustainable" food system as one that "provides healthy food to meet current food needs while maintaining healthy ecosystems that can also provide food for generations to come with minimal negative impact to the environment. A sustainable food system also encourages local production and distribution infrastructures and makes nutritious food available, accessible, and affordable to all. Further, it is humane and just, protecting farmers and other workers, consumers, and communities."

So, is the food system that you operate within (by choice or circumstance) sustainable? Let's take a closer look.

Environmentally Sound

Environmentally sound food systems are ones that aim to work in harmony with the earth to cause as little harm as possible. They support diverse, complex, and balanced biological systems.

Humane

A humane food system is one in which natural resources and living beings are not exploited, including human and nonhuman animals. Humane food systems and practices can be hard to find. Much modern food depends on large-scale factory farms that exploit animals for their flesh and secretions and violate workers' rights, all while harming the earth. Farms advertised as more humane, and small animal farms, do little to address many of animal agriculture's most pressing problems.

Economically Viable

An economically viable food system is one in which food producers and growers are able to cover their production costs while making enough money to earn a living and keep food production flowing smoothly.

Socially Just

A socially just food system keeps humans, plants, animals, the planet, and local communities in mind as decisions are made about how food should be organized. Such systems keep their production methods as cruelty-free as possible and respect workers' rights while aiming to create access to healthy food available to all.

What Are the Types of Food Systems?

As we mentioned above, there are many different types of food systems that can be categorized in multiple ways. But there is a lot of conversation about one particular division-that between conventional and alternative food systems.

Conventional Food Systems

The U.S. follows a conventional food system as a whole, but micro-communities and individuals are choosing to live differently and adopt alternative food systems. These systems often include local, organic, cooperative, and fair trade systems, as well as other features.

Alternative Food Systems

Does your community or home operate under an alternative food system? As concerns for the planet, animal welfare, and human rights grow, alternative food systems are becoming more popular.

Local Food Systems

Local food systems do their best to keep everything about food production local, from the farms to the processing plants, retail at grocery stores, and consumers. Keeping everything local, or within a set community, keeps wealth in that specific community and uplifts its businesses and farmers. When people work within a local food system, they automatically cut down on the amount of packaging, waste, and transportation that is required to produce, store, and get food to where it is sold. In addition to saving on waste and gas for transportation, local food systems must only consume what is in season. A great demonstration of a local food system in action is a farmer's market. Here, local farmers and businesses sell or trade their goods that came from their specific area. People are able to go and buy fresh, recently farmed food.

Organic Food Systems

Organic food systems are ones that rely on organic foods, or food that is produced without using conventional pesticides, fertilizers made with sewage sludge or synthetic ingredients, bioengineering, or ionizing radiation. Before a product can be labeled as "organic," a certifier approved by the government must inspect the farm.

Cooperatives in Food Systems

A food co-op is a grocery store that is owned by people who shop and work there. Members get to decide what foods and products are stocked, where those items are purchased, and what quality standards vendors must meet. Co-ops usually aim to provide high-quality food at fair prices.

Fair Trade

A fair trade product comes with some guarantee to consumers that it has been traded in a more ethical way than other products, supporting better working conditions, protecting the planet, and improving livelihoods.

Novel Agriculture Technologies

In order to feed an expanding global population but still do our best to fight climate change and other environmental problems, many novel agriculture technologies have been developed. Farming innovations, alternative plant proteins, and packing materials used to reduce the carbon footprint of products are on the rise, to name a few.

How Does the Food System Work?

Each food system works differently, but most have some form of the same basic processes of production, processing, distribution, consumption, and waste management.

The Benefits of Food Systems

No two communities in the world have the same exact food system, but more and more people are participating in conventional food systems, and many will have in common that they don't realize the harm being done to themselves and those around them through the way their food reaches them.

Food System Effects on Climate Change

For better or worse, each food system has an impact on climate change. Some, like a conventional food system that relies heavily on imported food and has a focus on animal flesh and secretions, have a negative impact on the world around them and speed up climate change.

Researchers looking at the effects of diet have estimated that conforming to global dietary guidelines would cut food system emissions by 29 percent, but: "To seriously fight climate change, more plant-based diets will be needed. Our analysis shows if the world went vegetarian that cut in food-related emissions would rise to 63 percent. And if everyone turned vegan? A huge 70 percent."

Food System Effects on Animal Welfare

A food system that relies on animal agriculture to produce meat, eggs, and dairy products harms and slaughters billions of animals per year; more than 70 billion land animals, to be exact. Whether on a small family farm or a large-scale Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation (CAFO), animals are subjected to inhumane treatment, living conditions, and ultimately slaughter.

Food System Effects on Societies and Economies

Our fast-moving and high-production conventional food system massively contributes to the violation of most planetary boundaries, harming locals who live in affected areas. CAFOs in the U.S. are also often worked by undocumented people, and "hired farm laborers face particularly difficult working conditions and experience a quality of life that is well below that of most others in the U.S. population." Additionally, "the insecure citizenship and immigration status of many farm workers often results in a lack of economic and political power and leaves them vulnerable to exploitation."

Food System Effects on Human Health

A conventional food system that relies on animal flesh and secretions for food has negative effects on human health. A diet that includes meat, eggs, and dairy products (the standard American diet) is filled with pro-inflammatory foods laced with artificial ingredients that research suggests can impair brain function, as well as increase the risk of physical and mental health issues. By contrast, eating a plant-based diet can promote better heart health, lower your risk of cancer, improve kidney function, lower the risk of type 2 diabetes, and more.

Food System Effects on the Environment

A conventional food system, such as the one that we largely rely on in the U.S., causes large-scale environmental degradation. For example, monocropped fields require manufactured fertilizers and pesticides that run off into soil and waterways. CAFOs produce excess animal waste that pollutes the air, water, and soil. Our methods of food production use finite resources without replenishing them. In addition, the way that we produce and consume food contributes directly to global climate change.

Food System Problems and Barriers

Some people are living under a conventional food system and would like to transition to an alternative food system to live healthier, keep wealth in their local community, lessen the suffering that animals go through when used for food, and tread lighter on the planet. There are barriers that people face when trying to do so, such as food deserts. Food deserts are places where people have little to no access to healthy and affordable foods, such as fruits and vegetables. It is important to note that food deserts are disproportionately located in low-income neighborhoods and communities of color. People living in food deserts may live far from grocery stores, have individual barriers to accessing food, or lack reliable personal or public transportation. In addition, some people living with caregivers are not able to make decisions about what food to buy and consume.

Conventional food systems that are harmful to the planet, people, and animals are often supported and even subsidized by the government. The U.S. government spends around $38 billion in tax money each year to subsidize and prop up the dairy, meat, and egg industries. They only spend $17 million each year to subsidize fruits and vegetables. A $5 Big Mac would cost $13 if the retail price included all the hidden costs that meat producers offload onto society, and a pound of hamburger would cost $30 without subsidies.

Current government subsidies ultimately make it easier for people to get their hands on unhealthy and processed food, and harder for folks to get healthy and fresh food.

What's Next

Conventional food systems that rely heavily on meat, dairy, and eggs as well as monocrops and large-scale produce or animal farming harm humans, nonhuman animals, and the planet. Transitioning to alternative food systems where we support fair trade practices, co-ops, farmers' markets, plant-based foods and protein, organic farming and local practices will lead us to a brighter future.

Most Farm Subsidies Are "Harmful" to People and the Planet, Says UN We Should All Be Worried About the United Nations Food Systems Summit Our Food Systems Are Complicated. Food Data Doesn't Have to Be.

Calen is an activist, blogger, and freelance writer who focuses on unlearning the harmful ideas that society has taught us while creating direct change.

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What Is a Food System? Types of Food Systems and How They Work

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Call to mind the last meal that you consumed. How many different ingredients went into it? How did they get to you? Where and how were they grown? If your meal wasn't entirely grown in your own personal garden, it was a part of a larger food system.

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this video explains on where our organic food comes from and explains the process of it

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A photo that takes you through the process of food systems

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this video explains the process of carrot growth. which will give you an idea on food systems

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0:00 / 3:49•Watch full video

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What creates a food system, what does our current food system look like, and how does it work.

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Food System Basics

Food systems include the nuts and bolts of what it takes to move food from point A to point B along a supply chain. From labor and transportation to policies and climate, many factors influence how food gets from the farm to your fork.

We can also see food systems running at local, regional, national, or international levels. Production, processing, distribution, and consumption - food systems require many steps, each with a variety of inputs and outputs.

What Moves Food through the Food System?

In addition to the inputs and outputs listed for each step, the following are also present every step of the way:

Labor. Migrant farmworkers, farmer family members and community members, farmers' market staff, supermarket cashiers, meat plant workers, restaurant staff-it can require an incredible amount of human effort to get food from the field onto your plate. Providing workers a living wage and safe working conditions can help protect the people who make it possible for us to eat.

Energy. Try to picture all the fuel and electricity needed to power tractors, farm equipment, factories, delivery trucks, restaurants and grocery stores, and your kitchen appliance. The food system can be very energy-intensive, though some farmers like Milagro Farms seek to reduce dependence on fossil fuels by switching to renewable energy and finding sales outlets closer to home.

Waste. Food is packaged and repackaged as it moves through the food system, and there are losses at every step. Reducing packaging, recycling used packaging, and turning waste into biogas or compost can slash waste within the food system.

What Shapes the Food System?

These factors influence the food system as a whole:

Policy. Agricultural and food policyincludes the regulations producers need to follow to sell their goods, government aid to producers and consumers, trade agreements, and more. The last Texas legislative session led to some local food policy wins, such as limiting the permit fees farmers must pay for selling at multiple farmers' markets and making it easier to sell pickled and frozen fruits and vegetables. The current national farm bill increased funding for programs SFC champions, including conservation programs and SNAP.

Climate. Climate and weather patterns have always had a large impact on farming. There's no question the unpredictable weather patterns, extreme temperatures, floods, and droughts brought on by climate change add more uncertainty to the food system. Seed scientists are working to breed drought-resistant and heat-loving varieties that are adapted to local conditions. Many universities and research groups are searching for climate-smart ways to ensure that we can grow food and get it to those who need it for generations to come.

How You Can Strengthen Our Local Food System

Supporting our local food system can help our community become more resilient in the face of challenges like the current pandemic and climate change.

Shorter supply chains, less transportation, less processing, and more traceable and transparent production are all advantages of a local food system. Here are some tips for supporting a thriving Central Texas food system:

Buy local using our list of food access resources in Central Texas during COVID-19.

See if you qualify for food assistance, especially if your household income has dropped during the pandemic. With many local sales outlets accepting SNAP and WIC benefits, you can help keep food dollars local.

Further reading:

Thousands of Cars Line Up at One Texas Food Bank as Job Losses Hit Hard - NPR, 4/17/20

230,000 Texas Families Filed for SNAP Food Assistance in March, Twice as Many as Same Month Last Year - The Texas Tribune, 4/13/20

As Prices Fall, Texas Dairies Have to Keep Milking - KUT, 4/22/20

Market Disruptions, Low Prices Drive Texas Farmers to Plow Crops Under - San Angelo Standard-Times, 4/22/20

As COVID-19 Disrupts the Industrial Meat System, Independent Processors Have a Moment to Shine - CivilEats, 5/19/20

These 5 Foods Show How Coronavirus Has Disrupted Supply Chains - National Geographic, 5/19/20

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What Makes Up a Food System? Breaking it Down into 4 Parts

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What does our current food system look like, and how does it work? And if it's broken, how can we fix it? We take a look at the four main parts of our food system and the factors that influence them.

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this article shows maps of the main countries where food is grown

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Developing countries are home to roughly 80 percent of the world's population, 98 percent of humanity's hungry people, and 78 percent of harvested croplands. Their farming systems have an essential role to play in addressing global food needs, ending extreme poverty, tackling climate change, protecting biodiversity, safeguarding water systems, and many other crucial challenges. But agriculture itself is a complex and vibrant sector, characterized by huge diversity. Therefore analysts and practitioners working on these big picture global issues can all benefit from a basic understanding of what the global distribution of crops actually looks like.

To that end, we recently worked together on a paper, "What does 'agriculture' mean today? Assessing old questions with new evidence," which provides a simple overview of crop types around the developing world. The analysis draws from Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) data for crops harvested across 140 low- and middle-income countries. Full data tables are also available for download here.

Below we highlight five basic insights:
1. Cereals are central in most (but not all) countries Figure 1: Crop with largest share of area harvested, 2010
Figure 1 illustrates the extent to which, across developing countries, cereals account for the largest share of area harvested, often the majority. Indeed 59 countries have more than half their cropland harvested to cereals. In some developing regions the category accounts for nearly two-thirds of harvested areas, including 65 percent in Europe and Central Asia and 64 percent in the Middle East and North Africa. However, there is regional variation. Cereals account for only 34 percent of area harvested in Latin America and the Caribbean. In some countries with large agricultural land areas, such as Argentina and Brazil, oil crops like soy are more prominent.
2. The type of cereal grown is often tied to geography Figure 2: Predominant Cereal, 2010

Source: Authors' calculations based on FAO data

Source: Authors' calculations based on FAO data 3. Only a minority of countries are major cash crop producers Figure 3: Lead Cash Crop, 2010 (where total cash crops account for at least 15 percent of area harvested)

Different plants grow in different places. This is a key reason why patterns of technology diffusion in agriculture are distinct from those in other economic sectors. Figure 2 shows clear geographic patterns for cereal crops. Wheat grows best in temperate environments and is prevalent in parts of Europe and Central Asia, but almost entirely absent in sub-Saharan Africa. Paddy rice flourishes in lowland tropical environments, as are found in much of South and Southeast Asia. Maize can grow in both temperate and tropical areas, although its germinating properties are highly place-specific. It grows commonly in Central America and also Southern and Eastern Africa. In the Sahelian region of Africa, other cereals like millet and sorghum are most prominent.
Source: Authors' calculations based on FAO data
(where each accounts for at least 20 percent of area harvested)

In most developing countries, export-oriented cash crops account for only a small share of area harvested, even if they might account for a larger percentage of agricultural value added. Overall, only 12 percent of the cropland in developing countries is harvested to cash crops. Moreover, cash crops only account for 15 percent or more of the relevant area in 47 out of 140 countries. This includes small island developing states that are less visible in Figure 3. Cash crops are most prominent in the Latin America and Caribbean region, where 20 of 29 countries cross the same 15 percent threshold, driven primarily by sugar, coffee, and cocoa. The corresponding figure in sub-Saharan Africa is only 12 of 46 countries, concentrated in West Africa and the island economies. South East Asia stands out for its high prevalence of cash crops, including Malaysia, where 65 percent of its cropland is used for oil palm. No country in the Middle East and North Africa crosses the 15 percent threshold.
Figure 4: Percent change in area harvested, 2000 to 2010
4. Cropland area is expanding quickly, particularly in Africa
5. Crop mixes are generally stable, even when crop area is increasing
Between 2000 and 2010, the net area harvested across 140 developing countries grew by 14 percent. Twelve countries, including eight in Africa, saw an increase of 50 percent or more. For example, Tanzania saw an extraordinary expansion, increasing its cropland by 6.1 million hectares (ha), or 82 percent. Only four countries saw a greater amount of absolute expansion over the decade: India (16.4 million ha, 9 percent), Brazil (16 million ha, 31 percent), China (11.4 million ha, 7 percent), and Indonesia (8.2 million ha, 26 percent). However, not all countries expanded, and 35 countries saw a contraction in area harvested over the same period. This included three countries with declines of more than 1,000,000 ha each: Mexico, South Africa, and Turkey.
The future of agriculture
Source: Authors' calculations based on FAO data

Between 2000 and 2010, most developing countries saw only modest shifts in the share of land area harvested to each crop category. Even among the five countries mentioned above with the greatest amount of area expansion, none of them saw any category of crops change by more than 10 percentage points. In Indonesia, for example, there was a shift away from cereals (-5 percentage points) and oils (-3) alongside growth in cash crops (+10). Meanwhile India saw a relative decline in cereals (-6) accompanied by balanced expansion in oils (+1), pulses (+2), fruits and vegetables (+2), and cash crops (+1). Conversely, Tanzania's growth was slightly weighted toward cereals (+8) and somewhat evenly away from the other crop categories.

South America offers a notable exception to general stability across crop shares. Between 2000 and 2010, Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay all experienced rapid increases in the share of land harvested to oils, particularly soybeans, and declines in area for cereals. In Uruguay, land for soybeans grew from only 1 percent of area harvested in 2000 to a whopping 42 percent by 2010. Meanwhile, soybeans grew from 35 to 56 percent share in Argentina and from 26 to 34 percent share in Brazil.

These quick facts offer a brief overview of agriculture's diversity across the developing world. They also underscore the complex nature of ongoing agricultural change. Harvested areas and crop mixes are continuing to evolve in distinct patterns around the globe. As the world confronts a new generation of economic, social, and environmental challenges, we must pay close attention to the shifting contours of where food actually grows.

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Developing countries are home to roughly 80 percent of the world's population, 98 percent of humanity's hungry people, and 78 percent of harvested croplands. In this post, John McArthur and Krista Rasmussen review the state of agricultural production in the developing world.

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this website explains on how organic food is grown

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Organic agriculture, which is governed by strict government standards, requires that products bearing the organic label are produced without the use of toxic and persistent pesticides and synthetic nitrogen fertilizers, antibiotics, synthetic hormones, genetic engineering or other excluded practices, sewage sludge, or irradiation. Guided by these and other standards, organic

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this website talks about which countries make the most food

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We look at the top producers of the world’s food basket.

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introduces the basics of food systems and what they are

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Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

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this website lists the processes of agriculture which is a factor to our food systems

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Agriculture is the process of producing food, feed, fiber and many other desired products by the cultivation of certain plants and the raising of domesticated animals (livestock).

The practice of agriculture is also known as "farming", while scientists, inventors and others devoted to improving farming methods and implements are also said to be engaged in agriculture.

Subsistence farming, who farms a small area with limited resource inputs, and produces only enough food to meet the needs of his/her family.

At the other end is commercial intensive agriculture, including industrial agriculture.

Such farming involves large fields and/or numbers of animals, large resource inputs (pesticides, fertilizers, etc.), and a high level of mechanization.

These operations generally attempt to maximize financial income from grain, produce, or livestock.

Modern agriculture extends well beyond the traditional production of food for humans and animal feeds.

Other agricultural production goods include timber, fertilizers, animal hides, leather, industrial chemicals (starch, sugar, alcohols and resins), fibers (cotton, wool, hemp, silk and flax), fuels (methane from biomass, ethanol, biodiesel), cut flowers, ornamental and nursery plants, tropical fish and birds for the pet trade, and both legal and illegal drugs (biopharmaceuticals, tobacco, marijuana, opium, cocaine).

The 20th Century saw massive changes in agricultural practice, particularly in agricultural chemistry.

Agricultural chemistry includes the application of chemical fertilizer, chemical insecticides, and chemical fungicides, soil makeup, analysis of agricultural products, and nutritional needs of farm animals.

Beginning in the Western world, the green revolution spread many of these changes to farms throughout the world, with varying success.

Other recent changes in agriculture include hydroponics, plant breeding, hybridization, gene manipulation, better management of soil nutrients, and improved weed control.

Genetic engineering has yielded crops which have capabilities beyond those of naturally occuring plants, such as higher yields and disease resistance.

Modified seeds germinate faster, and thus can be grown in an extended growing area.

Genetic engineering of plants has proven controversial, particularly in the case of herbicide-resistant plants.

As of 2006, an estimated 36 percent of the world's workers are employed in agriculture (down from 42% in 1996), making it by far the most common occupation.

However, the relative significance of farming has dropped steadily since the beginning of industrialization, and in 2006 - for the first time in history - the services sector overtook agriculture as the economic sector employing the most people worldwide.

Also, agricultural production accounts for less than five percent of the gross world product (an aggregate of all gross domestic products).

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agriculture and food; food and agriculture; soil types; sustainability; rainforests; geochemistry

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Agriculture is the process of producing food, feed, fiber and many other desired products by the cultivation of certain plants and the raising of domesticated animals (livestock). The practice of agriculture is also known as "farming", while scientists, inventors and others devoted to improving farming methods and implements are also said to be engaged in agriculture.

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Food systems explained overview.

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this website basically summarizes how farmers grow our food across the globe and the process that comes with it

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How do farmers grow food around the world?

Did you know?

A hive of bees flies over 55,000 miles to bring you one pound of honey? A honeybee can fly 15 miles per hour (24 kilometers per hour)?

There are 914 different breeds of sheep in the world. Over 85 are found in Great Britain.

Growing crops without pollinators is hard, if not impossible, even with natural resources, energy, tools and money. Pollinators fertilize flowering crops by transferring pollen from one flower to another. Insects, birds, small mammals and even the wind and water can pollinate flowers. The most common pollinator is the honeybee; it helps coffee flowers produce coffee beans in Columbia, mango flowers produce mangoes in India, passion fruit flowers produce passion fruits in Brazil, and watermelon flowers produce watermelons in China. And don't forget that honeybees also produce honey!

Have you ever wondered how farmers can grow healthy crops on the same piece of land, year after year, without using up all the nutrients in the soil? Nutrient cycling is an important ecosystem service that allows nutrients to be used by several organisms and later returned to the soil to begin a new cycle. In South Africa, farmers bring their sheep to large pastures for grazing. The grasses and flowers in the pastures take up nutrients found in the soil through their roots. The different species of grasses and plants take up different nutrients and transform them into vitamins and minerals. When a sheep eats plants, the nutrients are transferred into its body and used for growth. Some of the nutrients will not be absorbed by the animal and will pass through its digestive system. Over time, worms, bacteria and other microorganisms will break down the nutrients in the sheep's poop or excrements providing fertilizers or manure and returning the nutrients to the soil. The nutrients are now available for grasses and flowers, and a new cycle can begin.

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How do farmers grow food around the world?

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Did you know? A hive of bees flies over 55,000 miles to bring you one pound of honey? A honeybee can fly 15 miles per hour (24 kilometers per hour)? There are 914 different breeds of sheep in the world. Over 85 are found in Great Britain.