‘Sustainability is a paradigm for thinking about the future in which environmental, societal and economic considerations are balanced in the pursuit of an improved quality of life’
The food production and processing industry is considered to be the most diverse industry which means that the component manufacture requires being of top level in the highly demanding industry (Jansen, 2015). The food production is one of the most important supports for sustaining in the world. There are various control components which come together in order to make the food production successful. These specific industrial components help in the processing and distribution of the entire process of food production. The right components help to assure the targets in the food production energy efficiency, the reliability and the performance. It is evident that the human survival is based on the three basic needs such as food, clothes and shelter. Among the three basic needs, the most essential component is the availability of food. The sustenance of the human life is founded on the reserve of resources provide by the environment. The collaborative contribution of the farmers results n the sustainable food production. However, due to issue of over population in the world, they are facing extreme difficulty in securing food for each and every human being on earth. The demands are increasing and the supplies are reducing. In the market, the marketers have adopted different strategies to address the demands of people (Boserup, 2017). Taken for example , there is a rapid growth in the usage of organic agriculture, the use of pesticides and the chemicals in the field. Such components deteriorate the quality of soil, its structure and composition. It should be the aim to conduct the healthy agricultural production for enough food production (Chen et al., 2016). This particular essay will focus on the food production in the context of India specifically in Punjab. The essay will also explain the key sustainability concerns from the view point of an environmental, the economic and the social point of view. The responses to the concerns will be discussed which could help in achieving the sustainability.
The sustainable development is the development that fulfils the requirements of the current generation without affecting the future generation. The term “sustainable development” was first used by the Brundtland Commission which has defined it as above. The sustainable development binds the capacity of the natural systems along with the social challenges which are faced by the humanity (Nilsson, Griggs & Visbeck, 2016). In the middle half of the 1970s , sustainability is was first used for describing the economy which is in equilibrium with the ecological support system. The ecologists have clearly pointed to the “limits to growth” (Hansen, Narbel & Aksnes, 2017).
In India, the past two decades have seen tremendous growth with the population of 1.2 billion. There has been an increase of 4.5 times n the gross domestic product. The consumption rate per capita has also increased accordingly and the food grin product has doubled nearly (Haq et al., 2016). In spite of the industrial and economic growth along with the capacity of the country to feed its people, the country is still unable to feed most of the women and children. The agricultural system produces the fats, the grains and the sugars but it is putting less importance on the production of vegetables, proteins and fruits. In India , especially in Punjab, people are more demanding of rice as their main crop and sugarcane , potatoes , sugarcane as their side crops (Saeed et al., 2018). As per the government study, India is growing almost 67 million tonnes of food every year which is more than the whole output of the countries like Britain and others (Mahmood et al., 2017). A recent report published on Punjab said that almost 95, 000 bags of rotten wheat lies in the storehouse of the state of Haryana. The food corporation of India states that the wheat with the damage of less than 2 % is sound. The 85- 90 % of the grain is categorized as feed –one (Pandey, & Seto, 2015)
The concept of the sustainable development has been broken down into three constituents’ parts such as the environmental sustainability, the economic and the social. The three pillars of the sustainability is an effective tool which has been used by the ecologists to define the problem of sustainable development. Among the three parameters, if one is weak, the entire system becomes unsustainable. The three pillars have their own usage and importance. The social sustainability is the ability with which the social system such as the family, the country or any organization is maintained with social well-being and the social harmony as well (Dhahri & Omri, 2018). The poverty, injustice, war, low education is the symptoms that the entire system is unsustainable. On the other hand, the environmental sustainability is the way the environment is defined at the level of resource extraction rates. It is possibly the biggest problem and receives low priority to be resolved. The economic sustainability is the capability of the economy to support the level of economic production. Since the year 2008, when the GREAT RECESSION occurred, it is the biggest apparent problem of the world. The progress is in danger because of the issue with the economic sustainability (Foster, Grim & Haltiwanger, 2016).
Previous researches suggest that food production and the sustainable food production are two different aspects. The concept of sustainable food system has to be put under special highlight. The sustainable food system can be considered as a collaborative system which integrates different components for enhancing the environment of the community, the social well-being and the economic status. The global food system is found to have a huge contribution to changing climate, the greenhouse gas formation in every level of the supply chain starting with the production stage, the processing stage, the distribution , the retailing and the home food preparation where the waste plays an important part. The food production is found to be giving rise to various major environmental factors such as the biodiversity loss, the excessive availability of pollutants in the air and water extraction. In the increasing production, the fertilizers are used abundantly to meet the demands which are directly or indirectly affecting the wildlife. Moreover, the soil is also losing its fertility, the effectiveness and the vitality for yielding the same crop.
Additionally, the natural habitats in the ecosystem are being destroyed for clearing the land to be used for the agriculture. It is one of the leading causes of the wildlife population decline and leads to the extinction of the species. The trees are being cut down for farming and the local species are being compelled to leave the place and relocate to somewhere else. This is a type of deforestation and can be referred to as the “land –use change” (Alexander et al., 2015).The climate change is initiated by such facts because the forests are the greatest absorbers of the carbon and other green house gases. The use of chemicals on the land is another issue which indirectly affects the human lives. The usage of heavy amount of artificial herbicides and fertilizers for meeting the food demand is a major environmental factor. The herbicides are used to prevent the growth of the unwanted plants which would steal the nutrients out of the crops. On the unfertile lands, heavy application of the fertilizers is done to meet the agricultural production.
From the point of view of the economic impacts of the food production, the food security relies on the efficient distribution, the affordability and the sustainability of the production. The social and economic aspects are dependent on the levels of income, the wealth and the distributional equity, the broader indicators such as the quality of life , the working conditions, the job satisfaction, the freedom choice and the lifestyle preferences. It is also associated with the impacts of the well-being and the worker health (Dhahri & Omri, 2018).. The affected individuals usually fall into three categories such as the farmers, the processing, a manufacturing and retailing department along with the customers. The production and the processing of the food along with the availability affects the economic growth and the social infrastructure of a particular community.
One major concern is the unequal relationship between the producers and the consumers across the communities. This inequality and imbalance helps in the rise of obesity and hunger. The food production industry comprises of the farmers, the fishers, the ranchers, the hired workers, the family members, the communities and the residents too. The occupations which fall under this industry are the planting, the harvesting and the retailing. The food production is intricately related with the consumption of food. One part of the community is overfed and on the other hand, another part suffers from malnutrition. The higher the demand is, the higher the prices are and the more the poor become unable to afford food to survive. This is a major social issue implied by the food production.
Lastly, it is suspected that the food production will face higher challenges for meeting the demands of sustainability. It will need enormous efforts for the improvement of the efficiency in the food production along with the supply system. The food production needs to focus on the sustainability because it is a paradigm for thinking about the future where the economic, environmental and social considerations are balanced for an improved quality of life. The sustainability can be achieved by using less energy and less water than it is using today. The environment is the foundation of the sustainability and it must be taken care of properly. The government has to be more sensitive about then environmental issues, the technical, the political and the social issues along with the economic innovations for keeping in terms with the sustainability of the production of food. However, only the technological innovation cannot solve the problem of unsustainability in the process of food production. The technological innovation cannot conserve the resources and maintain the social and ecological well-being. The farmers, the local groups , the rural workers and the community leaders are required to participate in the process. The farmer engagement, the learning and the development of the social institutions are highly required to solve the issue collaboratively. There is no such managerial or technological fix to address the issue of global hunger, environmental degradation and poverty. One such solution can be the maintenance of the permanent organic soil cover, the minimal soil tilling, the cultivation of the diverse crop and organic soil cover. Therefore, participation is the only key to solve the issue.
References
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