The reality of today’s agricultural system is stark. We have created an inefficient system that provides cheap food but exhausts limited resources while damaging the environment and endangering public health. We have lost critical carbon sinks, including vast swathes of the Amazon Rainforest, regional old-growth forests and wetlands to the agricultural sector. This has severe knock-on implications for biodiversity, climate stability and the livelihoods of Indigenous people all over the world. Similarly, water, air and soil pollution from the sector poses a massive threat to the overall viability of the system and public health. These costs are rarely absorbed by food conglomerates backing this inefficient system. Agricultural externalities affect the overall health of the planet, and the human race, yet come at little benefit. Despite this system producing enough food to feed our global population, many still face undernutrition while others suffer dire health consequences from the food available to them. The economic and social costs of the food wasted and lost through this inefficient system are staggering and unacceptable. Across the system, on average, over half of food produced is lost or wasted.

Speaker: Allison Penner

Published in: Canada International Conference on Education, 2022

• Date of Conference: 21-23 June, 2022
• DOI: 10.20533/CICE.2022.0012
• Electronic ISBN: 978-1-913572-49-5
• Conference Location: Virtual (Mississauga, Canada)