Topic: Sovereignty

Sustainability has many definitions that vary by discipline and culture. We provide here a few concepts that may help you.

Commonly, we think of achieving sustainability as human development that balances environment, society and the economy in a way that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs.

Netukulimk is the Mi’kmaw (First Nations, Canada) concept for “the use of the natural bounty provided by the Creator for the self-support and well-being of the individual and the community at large.” In this case, community refers to the interconnectedness of all things—land, animals, water, human beings, plants, customs, laws. For Mi’kmaw, this understanding comes out of wejisqalia’timk, which means literally “we sprouted from the earth” and this speaks to the generations and generations of Mi’kmaw who have lived in Mi’kma’ki.  Sable, T. & Francis, B., 2012, p. 17.

These definitions are helpful to envision sustainability, but it becomes much more complex when we begin to dig into the details of how to achieve that.

Below are three videos (4-10 minutes) that help explain sustainability using natural science. The videos are from Sustainability Illustrated (where you will find many more!). The links here are for the English videos but are also available in French. Please, have a look at each one. There is some repetition, but that is good for learning!

1.1 Watch (~25 minutes)

1.2 Reflect (~20 minutes)

After watching the 3 videos above, reflect on the following questions. Remember that there are no “correct” answers to these questions, and your responses will likely change over time as you learn about sustainability.

1 – Describe sustainability. Use words appropriate as if you are explaining it to a colleague at work.

2 – What makes something (an action, a thing, a process) sustainable, or not sustainable?

3 – Describe the four principles of sustainability. Use words appropriate as if you are explaining it to a colleague at work.

4 – Describe the five principles of social sustainability. Use words appropriate as if you are explaining it to a colleague at work.

1.3 Keep Learning (optional)

1 – Discuss with colleagues about what sustainability means to them.

2 – If you enjoyed learning about sustainability using this lens and want a much more in-depth exploration, you could look at other resources and other ways of understanding sustainability before moving on:

• Check out our list of Sustainability Courses. Most listed are free, but certificates and longer university courses often have fees attached, which we try to identify clearly in the links.

• If you need more content about social sustainability, you can explore the two posts below.
  • 1 – Social Sustainability – Everything You need to know [2024 DEI Resources], Diversity for Social Impact
  • 2 – Social Sustainability, UN Global Compact

• Have you heard of the” Triple Bottom Line?” watch this 4-minute video to understand how this framework can be helpful in expanding your ability to talk to others about sustainability.

Congratulations for finishing Part 1 of Learning Module 1!

Continue to Part 2. What are food systems? (1.5 hours)

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We welcome any & all feedback!
Our goal is to make this the best we can for those who use it.

This Toolkit is made to be used & shared - feel free!
Please cite the authors of the resources (and the ICDA SFS Toolkit if you can).

Feedback? Questions? Ideas? Contact the ICDA SFS Coordinator:
ICDAsfs.coordinator@acadiau.ca

updated 2024 December

Food systems are complex and dynamic systems. In the Glossary you will find this definition used by Canadian Dietitians: “Food systems are complex, non-linear, systems… that embrace all the elements (environment, people, inputs, processes, infrastructure, institutions, markets, and trade) and activities …[of] production, processing, distribution, marketing, preparation, and consumption of food and the outputs of these activities, including socio-economic and environmental outcomes.”

Food systems are inseparable from the environment on which they depend, and the people who shape them. For example, Andean peoples, the Indigenous inhabitants of the Central Andes in South America, consider food systems to be deeply interconnected with their environment and cultural identity. Their agricultural practices, which have evolved over millennia, include paying tribute to Pachamama (Mother Earth), emphasizing sustainable land use and the relationship between the land, environment, and their culture. (Read more about Pachamama Day on the Cusco Peru website). Similarly, the Sámi, a group of people Indigenous to what is now called Europe, consider food and food systems as interconnected with broader cultural and geographic contexts. Tervo, et al. (2022) emphasize that … “…traditional Sami food and livelihoods relate to the natural environment and are part of their way of life; they are interlinked with the Sami people’s identity and dignity…”

Thinking of food systems as complex systems is very helpful in the context of sustainability.

2.1. Watch (4 minutes)

Start by watching the short video below to explore the concept of food systems.

Note that although waste is listed as a stage of the food system, food loss & waste happens at several stages of the food system.

2.2. Read (1 hour)

In this section, we encourage you to read the Building Block “What are Food Systems” published online by TABLE. It is about 6 pages of content and should take less than an hour to read.

At the end of the document, you will find many “recommend resources” and “references” that you can explore. Note that a few of the links are outdated as of 2024, but many are still good.

2.3. Reflect (20 minutes)

After reading, reflect on the following questions.

1 – Describe a food system. Use words appropriate as if you were explaining it to a colleague at work.

2 – Why is it helpful to think of food systems as complex systems?

3 – Based on the videos and readings, how would you personally define a food system?

4 – Using the “Nourish Food System Map” from the reading as a guide, what roles do you have in the food system as an individual, and as a nutrition and dietetics professional?

2.4. Keep Learning (optional)

If you enjoyed learning about food systems as complex systems, you can check out the courses and readings:

• The readings recommended by TABLE at the end of the Building Block, What are Food Systems?

• The Systems Thinking in Public Health in the ICDA SFS Toolkit’s Sustainability Courses page under ‘longer courses’.

• The Indigenous Food Systems Network: This website includes various videos, stories, and tools related to Indigenous food sovereignty and sustainable food practices.

• Infographic: UF/IFAS What is the Food System Infographic (ufl.edu).

Congratulations for finishing Part 2 of Learning Module 1!

Continue to Part 3: Why are Food Systems and Diets Currently not Sustainable? (1 hour)

Return to the Learning Modules’ Main Page

We welcome any & all feedback!
Our goal is to make this the best we can for those who use it.

This Toolkit is made to be used & shared - feel free!
Please cite the authors of the resources (and the ICDA SFS Toolkit if you can).

Feedback? Questions? Ideas? Contact the ICDA SFS Coordinator:
ICDAsfs.coordinator@acadiau.ca

updated 2024 December

There are many food systems, and they could be thought of as subsystems to the larger complex system that you learned about in the previous section. Some aspects of food systems are more sustainable, and some are less sustainable. However, the overall outcomes (widespread malnutrition, food insecurity, and negative impacts) of food systems are not sustainable.

3.1. Watch (4 minutes)

Watch this short video from the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP). It provides a very simple and visual outline of the social and environmental challenges that make our food systems unsustainable.

3.2. Read (30 minutes)

You can explore the 9 ways food systems are failing humanity through the link to the UNEP or by reading below.

In the 1950s, the “Green Revolution” promoted synthetic seeds, fertilisers, and pesticides that prioritised quantity over quality, leading to widespread environmental degradation, biodiversity loss, human health issues, and deepening social inequality (see UNEP news article for details). In preparation for the landmark United Nations Food Systems Summit in September 2021 UNEP provided the following 9 things to know about the global food system.

1. The global food system is not quite the bargain it seems.

The low retail cost of industrialized food can obscure its very high environmental price tag. According to some estimates, conventional agriculture – which produces greenhouse gas emissions, pollutes air and water, and destroys wildlife – costs the environment about $3 trillion every year (link to trucost.com). Externalized costs, such as the funds required to purify contaminated drinking water or to treat diseases related to poor nutrition, are also unaccounted for by the industry, meaning that communities and taxpayers may be picking up the tab without realizing it.

2. The global food system can facilitate the spread of viruses from animals to humans.

While their genetic diversity provides animals with natural disease resistance, intensive livestock farming can produce genetic similarities within flocks and herds. This makes animals more susceptible to pathogens, and when they are kept in close proximity, viruses can then spread easily among them. Intensive livestock farming can also serve as a bridge for pathogens, allowing them to jump from wild animals to farm animals and then to humans.

3. The global food system has been linked to zoonotic diseases.

Clearing forests to make space for agriculture and moving farms nearer to urban centres can destroy the natural buffers that protect humans from viruses circulating among wildlife. According to a United Nations Environment Programme assessment, climate change and the rising demand for animal protein are also affecting the emergence of what are known as zoonotic diseases – pathogens that can jump from animals to people and vice versa.

4. The global food system fosters antimicrobial resistance.

In addition to preventing and treating disease, antimicrobials are commonly used to accelerate livestock growth. Over time, microorganisms develop resistance, making antimicrobials less effective as medicine. In fact, about 700,000 people die of resistant infections every year.  By 2050, those diseases may cause more deaths than cancer. According to the World Health Organization, antimicrobial resistance “threatens the achievements of modern medicine” and may precipitate “a post-antibiotic era, in which common infections and minor injuries can kill.”

5. The global food system’s use of pesticides may be sickening people.

Large volumes of chemical fertilizers and pesticides are used to increase agricultural yields and humans may be exposed to these potentially-toxic pesticides through the food they consume, resulting in adverse health effects. Some pesticides have been proven to act as endocrine disruptors, potentially affecting reproductive functions, increasing the incidence of breast cancer, causing abnormal growth patterns and developmental delays in children, and altering immune function.

6. The global food system contaminates water and soil and affects human health.

Agriculture plays a major role in pollution, releasing large volumes of manure, chemicals, antibiotics, and growth hormones into water sources. This poses risks to both aquatic ecosystems and human health. In fact, agriculture’s most common chemical contaminant, nitrate, can cause “blue baby syndrome”, which can kill infants.

7. The global food system has been blamed for epidemics of obesity and chronic disease. 

Industrial agriculture produces mainly commodity crops, which are then used in a wide variety of inexpensive, calorie-dense, and widely available foods. Consequently, 60 per cent of all dietary energy is derived from just 3 cereal crops – rice, maize and wheat. Although it has effectively lowered the proportion of people suffering from hunger, this calorie-based approach fails to meet nutritional recommendations, such as those for the consumption of fruits, vegetables, and pulses. The popularity of processed, packaged, and prepared foods has increased in almost all communities. Worldwide, obesity is also on the rise and many suffer from preventable diseases often related to diet, like heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and some cancers.

8. The global food system is an inefficient use of land.

In spite of an insufficient global supply of pulses, fruits, and vegetables, livestock farming is ever more ubiquitous, perpetuating a self-sustaining cycle of supply and demand. Between 1970 and 2011, livestock increased from 7.3 billion to 24.2 billion units worldwide, with about 60 per cent of all agricultural land used for grazing. Meanwhile, while there may be fewer people in the world who are undernourished, there are many more people who are now malnourished.

9. The global food system entrenches inequality.

Although small farms make up 72 per cent of all farms, they occupy just 8 per cent of all agricultural land.  In contrast, large farms – which account for only 1 per cent of the world’s farms – occupy 65 per cent of agricultural land.  This gives large farms disproportionate control, and there is little incentive to develop technologies that could benefit resource-poor small-hold farmers, including those in developing countries. At the other end of the food supply chain, food that is affordable to the poor may be energy-dense but is often nutrient-poor. Micronutrient deficiencies may impair cognitive development, lower resistance to disease, increase risks during childbirth and, ultimately, affect economic productivity. The poor are effectively disadvantaged both as producers and consumers.

3.3. Reflect (20 minutes)

After watching the video and reading this chapter, reflect on the following questions.

1. Describe how climate change is impacting food systems, and how food systems are impacting climate change.
   
2. Describe how food systems and human diets are impacting, and are impacted by 2-3 other environmental challenges (e.g., biodiversity).
   
3. Describe how food systems and human diets are impacting social sustainability. If needed, review the “Five Principles of Sustainability” video above. For example, how do they impact human health and inequality?
   
4. With natural resources under pressure, how can individual consumers and communities contribute to preserving these resources through their food choices?
   
5. Try and think of two ways that the challenges you described above (in questions 1-3) are directly impacting your community.

3.4. Keep Learning (optional)

If you want to keep exploring the ways that food systems are unsustainable, we recommend you read Foodsource Chapter 1: Overview of Food System Challenges. It is about 25 pages and takes about 1-hour to read.

You can also filter for “Personal Knowledge Development” in the Existing Resources Database.

Or, you can begin with the following resources in this Toolkit:

• Climate change and variability: What are the risks for nutrition, diets, and food systems? (4 hours, paper)
  
• Human Health and Climate Change (2-hour course, free)
  
• The Food Systems Academy (website, blog, talks)

Congratulations for finishing Part 3 of Learning Module 1!

Continue to Part 4: What is a healthy and sustainable diet? (30 minutes)

Return to the Learning Modules’ Main Page

We welcome any & all feedback!
Our goal is to make this the best we can for those who use it.

This Toolkit is made to be used & shared - feel free!
Please cite the authors of the resources (and the ICDA SFS Toolkit if you can).

Feedback? Questions? Ideas? Contact the ICDA SFS Coordinator:
ICDAsfs.coordinator@acadiau.ca

updated 2024 December