Public Health Linkages with Sustainability Workshop Summary (2013) / Chapter Skim
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4 SUSTAINABILITY LINKS TO FOOD AND WATER RESOURCES
4 SUSTAINABILITY LINKS TO FOOD AND WATER RESOURCES
Pages 65-88
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From page 65... ...
Partridge Chair in Food and Sustainable Agriculture Systems College of the Atlantic Molly Anderson began her presentation by stating that although the terms "food systems" and "agriculture" are often believed to be synonymous, agricultural production is only the beginning of the food system. She noted that food systems are extensive, and they include food processing, food sales and distribution, food preparation, and, ultimately, food consumption.
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From page 66... ...
. However, the Food Price Index spiked again in 2011, to a higher level than in 2009 (FAO, 2011)
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From page 67... ...
. An effort to maximize one aspect, such as the economic outcomes of food production, will undermine the other two (social and environmental)
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From page 68... ...
Anderson noted that modern food production systems are also creating environmental impacts and instability by degrading vital resources necessary for food production. According to the Global Assessment of Human Induced Soil Degradation, 40 percent of the land for global food production has been degraded, and this number will likely increase if current land use practices continue (Wood et al., 2000)
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From page 69... ...
Anderson outlined how the industrialized food production model that developing countries have been encouraged to adopt creates a multitude of negative environmental impacts. These farming methods may degrade soil via salinization, compaction, and nutrient depletion, and exacerbate climate change due to high energy requirements (McIntyre et al., 2009a,b; Woods et al., 2010)
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From page 70... ...
Global Value Chains Trends can also be seen in global value chains, as depicted in Figure 4-3. Anderson explained that independent farmers of commodity crops in Sector II are either disappearing or are contracting with transnational corporations in Sector I that sell undifferentiated goods globally.
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From page 71... ...
. These classifications create four types of products and value chains: commodities and other undifferentiated goods sourced transnationally from vertically integrated supply chains (Sector I)
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From page 72... ...
IAASTD and the Way Forward Anderson noted that the aims of the International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge, Science, and Technology for Development (IAASTD) were to review more than 60 years of publications to assess the impacts of agricultural knowledge, science, and technology on reducing hunger and poverty, improving rural livelihoods and human health, and facilitating true sustainable development (McIntyre et al., 2009a,b)
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From page 73... ...
She stated that reform of food governance mechanisms, such as recent reform of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations Committee on Food Security, can play an important role in altering food systems.
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From page 74... ...
Accelerating since that time, stated Bartram, substantive shifts have occurred in the development of policy and the management of water at the international level; these efforts have largely followed two tracks, one focused on the human need for water, generally coupled with sanitation, and the other focused on water resources and their management. Bartram noted that the former has included declaration of the International Drinking Water Supply and Sanitation Decade (the 1980s)
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From page 75... ...
-- a policy and management approach that recognizes that water has many different and sometimes competing uses that need to be reconciled at the watershed level. Bartram stated that efforts that have used this approach include the Global Water Partnership, which was established in 1996 with the backing of a limited number of governments to advocate for integrated water resources management; the World Water Council, which was also reestablished in 1996 with the support of a limited number of governments to principally but not exclusively focus on water resources; and the World Commission on Dams, which was a timelimited body established in 1998 to address the international concern principally about large dams and their management.
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From page 76... ...
Bartram noted that the data on drinking water access, however, only tell a part of the story. For drinking water, he said, 87 percent of the population has access to improved water sources, but only 54 percent of the population has access to improved drinking water in the home.
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From page 77... ...
FIGURE 4-4 Access to improved sanitation, 1990–2015. NOTE: Considering the projection for 2015, the mark will be missed by an estimated 1 billion people.
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From page 78... ...
78 FIGURE 4-5 Access to improved drinking water sources, 1990–2015. NOTE: Improved sources include sources protected from contamination up to around 30 minutes collection time from the household.
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From page 79... ...
For example, he added, most countries strictly regulate the direct use of wastewater, whether it is for toilet flushing or for agriculture, and yet do not think it is necessary to regulate the indirect use of that same wastewater once it is discharged into water resources that may be used for human contact and in food production. Bartram emphasized that these practices contribute to the intensification process referred to above and lead to inconsistencies in health protection, whether it is between hazards or between exposure routes.
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From page 80... ...
For example, legionellosis was first recognized in 1976, and, in effect, a natural bacterial occupant of the water environment became a health issue because humankind was doing something new with water. Bartram noted that Legionella species are found in aquatic environments and thrive in warm water and warm, damp places, such as potable water distribution systems, cooling towers and evaporative condensers, natural spas, hot tubs, and swimming pools.
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From page 81... ...
Bartram noted that health impact assessments provide a means to identify the potential future risk and in doing so, enable less costly and potentially more effective measures to be engineered from the outset. On a larger scale, stated Bartram, increasing numbers of countries around the world are experimenting with the use of desalination to provide or supplement drinking water.
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From page 82... ...
He added that one of the unintended consequences was that environment and health diverged, and the discipline and practice of environmental health lacked effective leadership. As the world starts to focus on the post-2015 development agenda, he noted, there is an opportunity for environmental health to act as a driver of the path forward.
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From page 83... ...
More health for your buck: Health sector functions to secure environmental health. Bulletin of the World Health Organization 87: Figure 1, page 881.
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From page 84... ...
Similarly, Bartram noted that climate change and extreme weather events are a growing concern as a significant number of the population live on the coast. Bartram stated that large coastal cities face a number of unanswered questions including how these regions can grow and remain sustainable.
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From page 85... ...
2007. The potential role of concentrated animal feeding operations in infectious disease epidemics and antibiotic resistance.
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From page 86... ...
2009. More health for your buck: Health sector functions to secure environmental health.
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From page 87... ...
SUSTAINABILITY LINKS TO FOOD AND WATER RESOURCES 87 Woods, J., A Williams, J
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