Sustainable development is referred to a path for economic and social development which assists in fulfilment of the needs of current generations while ensuring that the ability of the future generations to fulfil their needs is not violated (Le Blanc, 2015). The significance of sustainable development is increasing across the globe as the activities which harm the environment and its resources increases. The natural resources are scarce and excessive use leads to their extinction. Therefore, the government focuses on implementing different policies which are targeted towards addressing major issues relating to sustainable consumption of natural resources to protect them (Christen and Schmidt, 2012). Each of these policies is implemented by the government with an objective to address a specific issue relating to sustainable development. The aim of this essay is to outline the principles of sustainable development and evaluating a specific policy which is focused on addressing one of the global governance issues. In this essay, the Food Security policy implemented by the government in the United Kingdom will be evaluated. The aim of this strategy and parties who are involved in implementation of this policy will be identified in this essay. The structure of this essay will include evaluation of the principles of sustainable development to understand their importance. The Food Security policy implemented in the UK will be analysed in this essay to determine whether it complies with the guidelines of sustainable development policies or not. Various challenges in the policy will be identified based on its evaluation to assess whether the policy is compatible with the principles of sustainable development.
Principles of Sustainable Development
In the 1980s, the concept of sustainable development spread throughout the United Kingdom; this concept focused on developing the country in a sustainable way. Since then, this philosophy becomes a key part in the UK, and the government consider these elements while forming policies in the country (Eskerod and Huemann, 2013). There are still debates regarding whether this approach is enough to ensure that the economy of the country is not affected negatively based on implementation of sustainable development policies; however, these policies are important to fulfil the demands of both current and future generations. The basic principles of sustainable development focus on harmonising the various sectors and development strategies with the horizontal strategy of sustainable development. These principles provide various general guidelines which are focused on determining the strategy’s priorities by defining goals, tasks, frameworks and means of implementation. All these factors are coordinated and harmonised in a particular way in order to achieve sustainable development objectives. Based on the principles of sustainable development, the highest level of relevant bodies is formulated, clarified and adopted in the United Kingdom which is focused on formulating and implementing these policies (Barth and Rieckmann, 2012). The conservation of the ecosystem is a key principle of sustainable development. The ultimate objective of implementation of sustainable development policies is to conserve the earth and its resources. There are limited resources on earth and individuals, organisations and governments use these resources to fulfil their needs.
However, mass products and industrialisation lead to the exploitation of these resources which reduces the number of natural resources and make them scares. Therefore, conserving the ecosystem which includes natural resources is a key principle of sustainable development policies. These policies focus on reducing the exploitation of these resources by ensuring that enough are protected to fulfil the demand of future generations after fulfilling the requirements of current generation (Griggs et al., 2013). Preservation of terrestrial and aquatic ecosystem is necessary which can be achieved by implementation of sustainable development policies. Another principle of sustainable development is advancement of the society which depends on the availability of healthy residence, employment and quality education, adequate health service and balanced diet. These elements are crucial for ensuring sustainable development of a society. If these elements are available for the society, then it becomes a sustainable society. These factors also assist in developing the positive attitude of people towards nature and living beings, and they are more likely to comply with sustainable development guidelines to establish an overall sustainable society (Barkemeyer et al., 2014). Along with conservation of ecology, the conservation of biodiversity is another crucial principle of sustainable development. As per this principle, it is necessary to conserve all the living being in the world. Information regarding how individuals can learn to conserve the natural resources in order to protect the living beings can be given in a sustainable society through learning.
Different national and international programs for protection and conservation of biodiversity are implemented by the government to ensure that the biodiversity is protected. Coordination between these programs is also crucial to ensure their effectiveness. Population control is another principle of sustainable development because as the number of people increases in the world, the demand for natural resources increases as well (Christen and Schmidt, 2012). In most areas in the world, especially in developing and under-developed countries, it is difficult to implement sustainable development policies since people are facing basic challenges such as lack of electricity, poverty and other problems. Due to these problems, a large part of the population cannot make a contribution to the achievement of sustainable development objectives. Controlling the population assist in supporting the environmental balance and ensuring that a balance is maintained between the consumption of natural resources (Milutinovic and Nikolic, 2014). The principle of social justice is also a part of sustainable development which is provided based on the recognition of the rights of individuals to access adequate conditions for living. It is considered one of the fundamental human rights which are guaranteed to everyone. Based on this principle, all individuals should have equal opportunities for acquiring knowledge and skills which are required to become worthy member of the society which can be achieved through sustainable development.
Evaluation of Food Security Policy
The United Kingdom has highly successful agricultural industry; however, there are many international and domestic factors which adversely affect the production and princes of products for consumers in the country. This issue becomes evident during the world food price spike in 2008. Therefore, the government of the UK has implemented a Food Security strategy in the country which is focused on ensuring that the needs of foods products are fulfilled accordingly while ensuring that the ability of the future generation to produce agricultural products is no diminished (Food Security, 2018). Food and soft drinks industry is the largest manufacturing sectors in the UK, and it is the fourth largest sector in the world. In this industry, the food supply chain represents 6.8 percent of gross value added which makes up around £107 billion. Moreover, this sector also provides employment to more than 4 million people from whom around 500,000 people are working in farming and fishing (Department for Environment Food & Rural Affairs, 2016).
Furthermore, there are more than 400,000 people who are working in the food manufacturing sector in the UK. Currently, the country is not self-sufficient when it comes to fulfilling the food production requirements. The agricultural sector of the country is not able to produce enough products to fulfil the demand of customers in the country. Therefore, the country imports more than half of its total food which is consumed by its citizens (The Guardian, 2016). The proportion of imported goods in the country is increasing rapidly as the demand growth with the growth in population. Therefore, it has become important for the UK as a food trading nation to ensure that it is able to fulfil its demand from both imports and thriving agricultural sectors to feed its people. The fulfilment of these policies also assists in driving economic growth of the country.
The aim of this strategy is to explore the pressure on the global food system between now and 2050. This strategy is based on the principles of sustainable development to ensure that the demand for current and future generations is fulfilled. The objective of this strategy is to identify the decisions which the policy makers need to take in the years ahead to ensure that the global population rising to nine billion or more can be fed sustainably and equitably (Hubbard and Hubbard, 2013). This strategy focuses on complying with the principle of sustainable development since it focuses on protecting the ecosystem and biodiversity. The strategy focuses on ensuring that natural resources are protected to meet the needs of the current generation and the needs of the future generation. As the demand for food increases with the growth in the population, the importance of this strategy is highlighted. The government wanted to ensure that there is no shortage of food to fulfil the demand of current generation without wasting the resources. This demand can only be fulfilled through efficient agricultural operations and importing food products from other nations. As the number of people in the country grows, the challenges for this strategy increase as well. An unprecedented confluence of pressures is coming towards the global food system in the next 40 years because the population (currently seven billion) will grow to eight billion by 2030. This number is expected to reach nine billion by 2050 with the same growth rate (PacMoore, 2018).
Along with this growth, the demand for high-quality diet will increase as well which will increase the requirement of production of additional resources. The production sector will face challenges due to competition for land, water and energy which is required for the agriculture process. The competition between agricultural organisations is expected to intensify as the demand exceeds. During this period, the need for reducing greenhouse gas emissions will continue to ensure that the growing population and depletion of natural resources did not negatively affect the agricultural operations (Marsden, 2012). The climate change will also make it challenging for companies to rely on traditional ways of agriculture methods to fulfil the growing demand of people across the globe. Over this period, the globalisation will continue to expose the natural resources of the UK to foreign countries. The economy of the country will suffer due to pressures which ‘drive change’ across the globe. These factors pose many threats relating to food security which highlight the requirement of strategy reappraisal of challenges for the future. Based on these elements, there are five key challenges which the Food Security policy of the UK focuses on addressing. The first challenge is balancing the future demand and supply sustainable in order to ensure that food supplies are affordable (Hubbard and Hubbard, 2013). This challenge is closely linked with sustainable development principles.
The second challenge is ensuring that there is adequate supply of food products available to fulfil the demand of individuals in the UK and protecting the most vulnerable resources from volatility. This challenge shows that this focuses on protecting different aspects of ecosystem and biodiversity (Barclay, 2012). The third challenge is achieving global access to food and ending hunger. This challenge shows a connection to the sustainable development goals (SDGs) which are also referred to global goals. ‘Goal 1’ focuses on eliminating poverty in all its forms from everywhere which can be achieved by ensuring that everyone has access to nutritious food. ‘Goal 2’ focuses on ending hunger, achieve food security and improve nutrition in the good by promoting sustainable agriculture operations. This challenge recognises that producing enough food is crucial which ensure that everyone has access to nutritious good and the food resources are secure (Burford et al., 2013). Therefore, it complies with sustainable development principles. The fourth challenge focuses on managing the contribution of the food system implemented by the government in the UK. This challenge is included in this strategy in order to mitigate the threat of climate change. The fifth and final challenge of this strategy is to maintain biodiversity and ecosystem services while feeding the world. This challenge shows that this policy is focused on protecting the ecosystem and biodiversity to fulfil the demand of the growing population. Therefore, this policy complies with sustainable development principles.
The British Government is responsible for implementing the Food Security policy in the country and introduces the necessary challenges. The government introduces a bill of the Food Security policy in order to propose the necessary changes which are crucial for adopting a sustainable development approach (Hubbard and Hubbard, 2013). The Food Insecurity Measurement Bill is a good example which shows that the government continuously introduce relevant laws which are focused on expanding the scope and application of the Food Security Strategy. The Food policy is focused on ending hunger in the UK to ensure that everyone receives nutritious food which is relevant for their growth and development. The government is responsible for implementation of this act, and it has introduced various authorities which monitors the performance of this bill. For example, the Food Standards Agency focuses on ensuring that the food which is supplied in the UK and its resources are safe to meet current and future demands. The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs also monitors the agriculture-related operations in the country along with importing practices to ensure that enough food is available to meet the demand of growing population (Bateman et al., 2013).
Difference indicators are used by these authorities in order to monitor and evaluate the performance of the Food Security strategy to determine whether it is working effectively or not such as trends in global output per capita, diversity of UK supply, energy dependency of the food chain and others (Buzby and Hyman, 2012). The implementation of this strategy also focuses on ensuring that the organisations operating in food manufacturing industry comply with sustainable development guidelines to ensure that they did not exploit natural resources. These organisations have to follow the guidelines issued by the government authorities which focus on monitoring their operations. This monitoring is crucial for achieving the targets set by the Food Security strategy since these corporations can misuse their positions to engage in immoral or illegal activities which lead to exploitation of natural resources (Christen and Schmidt, 2012). Thus, the implementation of this strategy facilitates collaboration between both private and government-owned authorities to ensure that the common sustainability-related goals are met.
Sustainable Development Challenges in the Policy
The Food Security policy in the UK comply with the principles of sustainable development; it is an effective tool which is used by the government to ensure that sustainability-related goals are meet in the country to fulfil the demand of current and future generations (Hubbard and Hubbard, 2013). However, there are many challenges in this policy which makes it difficult to ensure that sustainability goals are met in the country. These challenges are referred to gaps in the current Food Security policy which adversely affects its outcomes. One of the key challenges relating to the effectiveness of food security policy is the threat of climate change. In the past few decades, the environment is changing rapidly due to actions of human bring. Earth’s climate is changing due to global warming which is a result of burning of fossil fuels which releases carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. The climate change affects agriculture in a number of ways by causing heat-waves, excessive rain, change in diseases and pests and others. Climate change contributes substantially to food insecurity in the future which will lead to increasing prices of food products and reducing food production (Lake et al., 2012). This factor is not considered by the government while implementing the Food Security policy in the country.
Although these are provisions included in the policy which are focused on ensuring a sustainable production of food in the future; however, there are no effective actions taken by the government to address the issue of climate change. ‘Goal 13’ of the SDGs is focused on monitoring and improving climate change by taking urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts. However, these challenges cannot be addressed by the provisions included in the current food security strategy in the UK. Since the threat of climate change is likely to become prominent in the future, it will be difficult to ensure that the current Food Security policy will be enough to fulfil the demand of future generations (Keesstra et al., 2016). Another key issue with the food security strategy is the lack of stricter legal guidelines which enforce the operations of organisations to ensure that they comply with sustainable development principles. Currently, the Food Security policy focuses on ensuring that the operations of the government are focused on fulfilling the needs of the current generation; however, there is lack of policies which enforce private entities to ensure that they comply with similar policies as well (Hubbard and Hubbard, 2013). The actions of private entities operating in the agriculture sectors are not governed by the Food Security policy, and they are not enforced to strictly comply with sustainable development guidelines.
Along with large enterprises, small businesses are also not regulated by this strategy which allows them to manage their operations without complying with the principles of sustainable development. It makes it challenging to ensure that the objectives of the Food Security policy are fulfilled. There is lack of collaboration between the government and private organisations operating in the agriculture sector which is crucial to ensure that these operations are conducted sustainably (Buzby and Hyman, 2012). Another key challenge is related to import of food products in the UK. The agricultural practices in the UK are not sufficient to fulfil the demand of its growing population; therefore, the country relies on imports to get food supplies. However, the major issue with this strategy is that imports are unpredictable which can be influenced by many national and international factors. The prices of products which are sold through imports can increase rapidly which makes it challenging for the country to ensure that it continues to fulfil the demand of its growing population (Smith et al., 2013). Heavy reliance on imports is not considered by the government in the food security strategy which is likely to create challenges in the future which it will become difficult or too expensive for the UK to import food products from other nations.
Recommendations
Although the Food Security policy focuses on addressing many major issues relating to food security in the United Kingdom; however, there are many challenges relating to this strategy which makes it ineffective. These challenges make it incompatible with the principles of sustainable development which defeats the purpose of imposing the strategy in the first place to ensure a sustainable supply chain for food products. However, these changes can be addressed by making necessary amendments in the strategy to ensure that becomes compatible with the principles of sustainable development. The government should focus on considering the factor of climate change while implementing food security policies in the country (Lake et al., 2012). Until the issue of climate change is not addressed appropriately, it will continue to create challenges to ensure that a sustainable food supply network is established in the UK. The issue of climate change can be addressed by reducing emission of greenhouse gases by ensuring that factors are not burning fossil fuels to run their operations. The government should ensure that major corporations are shifting to renewable energy sources to manage their operations which will lead to reducing pollution in the country (Hubbard and Hubbard, 2013). Organisations should focus on reducing their carbon footprint by changing their manufacturing and production operations.
Along with corporations, people should also contribute to achieving this goal. They should reduce wastage of food products, and they should also rely on renewable energy sources. These small steps will create a bigger impact on the environment which will lead to addressing the issue of climate change. Thus, compliance with these policies will ensure that agricultural activities are conducting in an effective manner and it will assist in compliance with sustainable development principles (Le Blanc, 2015). Another step which should be taken by the government is implementing strict laws which govern the operations of private entities. There are many major private corporations which operate in food production and manufacturing industry which have a significant impact on these processes. Until these companies join together to implement a sustainable development approach in the business, it will be difficult to effectively achieve the goals of Food Security policy. These laws should monitor the operations of these companies to ensure that they are using sustainable supply chain management (SSCM) principles which conducting their business (Walker and Jones, 2012). They should not misuse their powers to negatively affect the environment. These enterprises should not exploit natural resources, and they should take reasonable steps to protect the environment. These companies should maintain transparency in their operations to ensure that they indulge in sustainable development practices to ensure that the food suppliers are secured to meet the demand of current and future generations.
The government should also collaborate with these entities to approach a sustainable food supply chain which relies on renewable energy sources. It is important that both government and private authorities work together to comply with the Food Security policies to achieve its goals (Vervoort et al., 2014). Moreover, the government should impose huge penalties on organisations that violate the guidelines issued by this policy which leads to destruction of natural resources. Lastly, the government of the UK should reduce its reliance on imports to meet the demand for food supplies in the country. The government should promote the use of renewable energy sources in the agriculture operations which will assist in its expansion. The country should increase its production of food supplies while ensuring that the costs of manufacturing are not high as well. If the country continues to rely on imports, then it is likely to face challenges in the future. Therefore, in order to comply with sustainable development principles, it is important that the company should increase its reliance on local agriculture sector to meet the demand of growing population in the country (Tomlinson, 2013).
In conclusion, the Food Security policy implemented by the
government in the UK is focused on
securing the food supplies to meet the demands of current as well as future generations.
This policy complies with the principles of sustainable development which
focuses on protection of ecosystem and biodiversity. This strategy determines the challenges related to growing
population to meet their food supplies requirements. There are many challenges
in the future relating to food security
and availability which the government aimed to address by implementing this
strategy. This strategy influences
different aspects of the food production and manufacturing industry in the UK
by adopting a sustainable approach. This strategy is linked with the SDGs which are focused on ensuring that the
society is developed in a sustainable manner. The compatibility of
this policy with the principles of sustainable development is identified in this essay by assessing the
similarities between the two approaches. Various challenges are identified in this essay which makes this
strategy less compatible with sustainable development principles such as heavy
reliance on imports, lack of support from private organisations and the threat
of climate change. Various recommendations are
included in this essay which is targeted
on addressing these issues such as increased
focus on use of renewable energy sources
to support agriculture sector, imposition
of strict governance policies and necessary actions to address the issue of
climate change. Compliance with these recommendations will assist the
government in the UK to ensure that the Food Security policy comply with the
principles of sustainable development which will assist in meeting the demand of current as well as future
generations.
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