{"id":11330,"date":"2020-10-16T09:17:40","date_gmt":"2020-10-16T06:17:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/africasustainabilitymatters.com\/?p=11330"},"modified":"2026-01-11T05:31:17","modified_gmt":"2026-01-11T05:31:17","slug":"we-have-to-stop-eating-like-this","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/2020\/10\/16\/we-have-to-stop-eating-like-this\/","title":{"rendered":"Eating Better &#8211; For Us and The Planet"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Industrialized farming has been a reliable way to produce lots of food, at a relatively low cost. But it\u2019s not the bargain it was once believed to be. Unsustainable agriculture can pollute water, air and&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.fao.org\/fao-stories\/article\/en\/c\/1126974\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">soil<\/a>; is a source of greenhouse gas;&nbsp;and destroys wildlife \u2013 an environmental cost&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.trucost.com\/trucost-news\/trucost-reveals-3-trillion-environmental-cost-farming\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">equivalent to about US$3 trillion every year<\/a>. The use of chemicals and antimicrobials can have&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.who.int\/news-room\/q-a-detail\/pesticide-residues-in-food\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">adverse health effects<\/a>&nbsp;and lead to&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.unep.org\/resources\/frontiers-2017-emerging-issues-environmental-concern\">resistant infections<\/a>. And to top it all off, our production and consumption habits have been linked to&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.unep.org\/resources\/report\/preventing-future-zoonotic-disease-outbreaks-protecting-environment-animals-and\">the emergence of zoonotic diseases<\/a>, such as COVID-19.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">To mark&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.fao.org\/world-food-day\/home\/en\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">World Food Day<\/a>&nbsp;on 16 October, we take a closer look at sustainable agriculture \u2013 how it can help reduce our environmental footprint, improve our health and even create jobs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>What exactly is sustainable agriculture?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It is farming that meets the needs of&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.fao.org\/sustainability\/en\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">existing and future generations<\/a>, while also ensuring profitability, environmental health and social and economic equity. It favours techniques that emulate nature\u2013to preserve soil fertility, prevent water pollution and protect biodiversity. It is also a way to support the achievement of global objectives, like the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.unep.org\/explore-topics\/sustainable-development-goals\">Sustainable Development Goals<\/a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.unep.org\/explore-topics\/sustainable-development-goals\/why-do-sustainable-development-goals-matter\/goal-2\">Zero Hunger<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Does sustainable agriculture really make a difference to the environment?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Yes. It uses up to&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/wedocs.unep.org\/bitstream\/handle\/20.500.11822\/25950\/sustainable_agriculture.pdf?sequence=1&amp;isAllowed=y\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">56 per cent less energy<\/a>&nbsp;per unit of crops produced, creates 64 per cent fewer greenhouse gas emissions per hectare and supports greater levels of biodiversity than conventional farming. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.unep.org\/news-and-stories\/story\/we-have-stop-eating\">Read more&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Industrialized farming has been a reliable way to produce lots of food, at a relatively low cost. But it\u2019s not the bargain it was once believed to be. Unsustainable agriculture&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":11331,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[101],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11330","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11330","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11330"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11330\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11331"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11330"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11330"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11330"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}