What Is Sustainability?

I keep hearing the “Sustainability” word used a lot to describe an aspiration for the sort of food that people would like to buy. There is no definition of sustainability apart from the thee columns that are supposed to support the concept: environmental, economic and social. For many years the economic criteria has been use to define a good buy: ie the cheapest is the best, but the two other columns are now more considered, environmental and social. It is no good buying the cheapest if the purchase damages the environment and peoples lives.

Of course it has always been easy to measure money but not easy to measure the environmental and social effects of a purchase. This must sound very simplistic but we see that the most compelling driver for public procurement , and our own shopping baskets is the cheapest option especially in these troubled financial times. But what if we could measure those environmental and social issues. We now have Fair Trade products, although it beats me as to why this should not apply to UK farmers. Fair Trade allows a more informed social discussion when shopping. But the environmental issue is the confusing aspect. Is it better to buy a tomato produced in a heated greenhouse that one that come in a diesel burning lorry from Spain where only the sun heated the crop ? We have one pointer towards sustainable production and that is the Organic growing system.

Food miles contribute approximately 2% of the carbon produced in food production while making artificial fertilizer contributes about 30%. Blended fertilizers are better but we are running out of the mined ingredients for artificial fertilizer. So why do we not try to do something about that. Organic production uses natural methods of fertility building. This does compromise yield a little but at least to does not harm the soil, produces far less carbon and is probably sustainable.

I am seeing so many references to sustainability when policies are written, specifications are compiled and instructions for procurement are given. They are often followed by the caveat that Organic produce is not purchased. This is not hard to research, there is miles of information on the internet. So why do so many people only have a subjective opinion about these matters. The facts are out there although you may be blinded by the vested interests of companies desire to maximize profit at any environmental or social cost.

Thank you for reading my rant of the day.