Blog Post #7
Updated definition of food systems, food sustainability, and goals of paper:
Food production systems, defined as a chain of activities that generates food products through the mixture of land, labor, capital, and technology (von Braun & Brown, 2003) vary vastly in terms of ‘ethical production.’ While it may be possible to help impoverished countries or regions mitigate their socioeconomic status, such as Belize, food products are frequently built upon exploited labor and land, such as harvesting açaí berries, which predominantly runs on child labor. This essay will discuss ethical production and consumption in the context of food sustainability and the choices and knowledge of the upcoming generation of consumers regarding food production and labeling.
Food sustainability, according to Grunert et al., is a method of food production using “processes and systems that are non-polluting, conserve non-renewable energy and natural resources, are economically efficient, are safe for workers, communities, and consumers, and do not compromise the needs of future generations” (Grunert et al., 2014). Non-polluting, in this context, refers to greener alternatives to the conventional methods – such as nitrogen fertilizers or petrol-derived agricultural chemicals – that will stop the contribution to carbon emissions while ‘economically efficient’ refers to the idea that the factors of production are used at a level at or nearing their maximum capacity to prevent excess wastage.
Despite the initial intentions, however, the criteria that allow a product to be deemed sustainable are looser and, at the present day, generally reliant on the presence of ethical labels. While relying on ethical labels as indicators of responsible consumption may seem useful and pragmatic, a closer examination of current literature reveals a significant discrepancy.