Finals

Lesson 2. Towards a Sustainable World: Sustainable Development /

Global Food Security

Learning Outcomes:

1. Differentiate stability from sustainability

2. Explain the global challenges in food security
3. Define global food security and describe the global food security index

Sustainable Development

Sustainable Development refers to the organizing principle for meeting

human development goals while at the same time sustaining the ability of natural
system to provide the natural resources and ecosystem services upon which the
economy and society depend. The desired result is a state of society where
living condition and resources continue to meet human needs without
undermining the integrity and stability of the natural system.

While the modern concept of sustainable development is derived mostly

from the 1987 Brundtland Report, it is also rooted in earlier ideas about
sustainable forest management and twentieth century environmental concerns.
As the concept developed, it has shifted to focus more on economic
development and environmental protection for future generations. It has been
suggested that “the term ‘sustainability’ should be viewed as humanity’s target
goal of human-ecosystem equilibrium (homeostasis), while ‘sustainable
development’ refers to the holistic approach and temporal processes that lead
us to the end point of sustainability”.

The concept of sustainable development has been – and still is – subject

to criticism. What, exactly, is to be sustained in sustainable development? It has
been argued that there is no such thing as a sustainable use of a non-renewable
resource, since any positive rate of exploitation will eventually lead to the
exhaustion of earth’s finite stock. This perspective renders the industrial
revolution as a whole unsustainable. It has also been argued that the meaning of
the concept has opportunistically been stretched from “conservation
management” to “economic development”, and that the Brundtland Report
promoted nothing but a business as usual strategy for world development, with
an ambiguous and insubstantial concept attached as a public relations slogan.

Sustainability versus Stability

Sustainability is the utilization of resources without compromising the

other, of the future generation. It’s a broader normative term. Sustainability can

NQA_2019-20 1
 hardly be used as solely ecological feature without considering human
perception and impact.

Stability is a way characterizes a system behaviors and its quite well

bounded to certain method in dynamic system analysis.

Food Security

The demand for food will be 60% greater than it is today and the
challenge at food security requires the world to feed 9 billion people by 2050
(Breene, 2016). Global food security means delivering sufficient food to the
entire world population. It is, therefore, a priority of all countries, whether
developed or less developed. The security of food also means the sustainability
of society such as population growth, climate change, water scarcity, and
agriculture. Breene (2016) cited the case of India to show how complex the
issue of food security is in relation to other factors:

Agriculture accounts for 18% of the economy’s output and 47% of its workforce.
India is the second biggest producer of fruits and vegetables in the world. Yet
according to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations,
some 194 million Indians are undernourished, the largest number of hungry
people in any single country. An estimated 15.2% of the population of India are
too malnourished to lead a normal life. A third of the world’s malnourished
children live in India (n.p.).

But perhaps the closest aspect of human life associated with food
security is the environment. The challenges to food security can be traced to the
protection of the environment. A major environmental problem is the destruction
of natural habitats, particularly through deforestation (Diamond, 2006). Industrial
fishing has contributed to a significant destruction of marine life and ecosystems
(Goldburg, 2008). Biodiversity and usable farmland have also declined at a rapid
pace.

Another significant environmental challenge is that of the decline in the

availability of fresh water (Conca, 2006). The decline in the water supply
because of degradation of soil or desertification (Glantz, 1977), has transformed
what was once considered a public good into a privatized commodity. The
poorest areas of the globe experience a disproportionate share of water-related
problems. The problem id further intensified by the consumption of “virtual
water”, wherein people inadvertently use up water from elsewhere in the world
through the consumption of water-intensive products (Ritzer, 2015).The
destruction of the water ecosystem may lead to the creation of “climate
refugees, people who are forced to migrate due to lack of access to water or due
to flooding” (Ritzer, 2015, p.211).

Population through toxic chemicals has had a long-term impact on the

environment. The use of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) has led to

NQA_2019-20 2
 significant industrial pollution (Dinham, 2007). Greenhouse gases, gases that
trap sunlight and heat in the earth’s atmosphere, contribute greatly to global
warming. In turn, this process causes the melting of land-based and glacial ice
with potentially catastrophic effects (Revkin, 2008), the possibility of substantial
flooding, a reduction in the alkalinity of the oceans, and destruction of existing
ecosystems. Ultimately, global warming poses a threat to the global supply of
food as well as to human health (Brown, 2007) Furthermore, population growth
and its attendant increase in consumption intensity ecological problems. The
global flow of dangerous debris is another major concern, with electronic waste
often dumped in developing countries.

There are different models and agenda pushed by different organizations

to address the issue of global food security. One of this is through sustainability.
The United Nations has set ending hunger, achieving food security and
improved nutrition, and promoting sustainable agricultures as the second of its
17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for the year 2030. The World
Economic Forum (2010) also addressed this issue through the New Vision for
Agriculture (NVA) in 2009 wherein public-private partnerships were established.
It has mobilized over $10 billion that reached smallholder farmers. The Forum’s
initiatives were launched to establish cooperation and encourage exchange of
knowledge among farmers, government, civil society, and the private sector in
both regional and national levels (Breene, 2016).

References:

Aldama, Prince Kennex R. The Contemporary World,

Rex Book Store, Inc., 2018
Ariola, Mariano M. The Contemporary World,
Unlimited Books Library Services and Publishing Inc., 2018

Check-up Questions:

1. What is the difference between stability and sustainability?

2. What are the global challenges in food security?
3. Is global food security achievable?

Activity:

Submit a documented essay on the following topics: (choose one essay. Don’t
forget to include your reference)

1. Sustainable Development in Education

2. Global Food Security and its Impact To Human Lives
3. Sustainable Development In Industrial Technology
4. The Transport System in the Philippines
5. Global Challenges in Food Security

NQA_2019-20 3