Genoa Model United Nations 2017
General Assembly
Topic: Advancing strategies to reduce human ecological foodprint through sustainable consumption and production habits.
Studyguide by: Vittoria di Giovanni
DEFINITION OF KEY TERMS:
· Food loss: food that gets spilled or spoilt before it reaches its final product or retail stage;
· Food waste: food ready for human consumption, but not consumed because it is left to spoil by either retailers or consumers;
· Foodprint: the environmental impact of food, including the amount of land used to sustain our diet and the amount of carbon dioxide produced;
· The Marrakech Process: a global process to support the elaboration of a 10 Year Framework of Programs on sustainable consumption and production.
INTRODUCTION: World’s population has overtaken 6 billion in 1999, becoming 7 billion in 2011. As a matter of fact food production increased, becoming one of the greatest causes of environmental degradation throughout the world. All the food we are wasting every day is bringing to land degradation, declining soil fertility, unsustainable water use, overfishing and marine environment degradation; these are just some examples of the consequences we are facing. The biggest amount of food loss is to find during the production, harvest and stocking processes. Another part of food disappears during distribution and, of course, during consumption. We buy more of what we eat. Every year 56 billion of meat is butchered: this explosive growth of domestic animal population is totally against the natural equilibrium of the Earth. Day by day are depriving the environment of its natural resources. As you can tell, an enormous amount of resources is needed in order to produce food: in terms of water use it takes a 90 minute shower to get to just one hamburger. Meat production and modern practices of animal breeding are contributing more and more to water and air pollution and increased carbon dioxide emissions. Some data:
- Up to one third of all food is spoiled or misspent throughout the supply chain, before it is consumed by people (FAO).
- 1.3 billion tons of food is wasted every year (88 million tons in the EU, with associated costs estimated at 143 billion euros).
- 2 billion people globally are overweight or obese.
If the entire world ate as much as the European countries we would need three planets Earth to produce all the food needed.
Agriculture has also an important role in terms of global warming, contributing with 25% of the world greenhouse gas emissions. Its enormous use of fertilizers disrupts lakes, rivers, and coastal ecosystems across the globe. Agriculture also accelerates the loss of biodiversity. As we have cleared areas of grassland and forest for farms, we have lost various habitats, making agriculture a major driver of wildlife extinction.
“Our consumption patterns are so much a part of our lives that to change them would require a massive cultural overhaul, not to mention severe economic dislocation. A drop in demand for products, as economists note, brings on economic recession or even depression, along with massive unemployment.”
Richard Robbins, Global Problem and the Culture of Capitalism, (Allyn and Bacon, 1999).
BACKGROUND INFORMATION: Sustainable development is a form of development which tries to protect natural resources from depleting. It is as a consequence of the energetic crisis of 1973 that Western World Countries come across with their massive consumption of oil. But it is only from the first years of 1900, with The Natural Step Framework, that nations and industries started to take a step towards sustainable production and consumption. In 1994 the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives gave a new definition of sustainable development, considering the economic, the social and the environmental subjects all linked and mutually related. Sustainable consumption and production are part of the strategy for a sustainable development in the world; for that in 2002 at the Earth Summit held in Johannesburg, several nations decided to take serious involvement in it. The nations stated their partnership and decided to do something about it launching in 2003 the Marrakech Process, which has since then delivered regional strategies, policies and action plans. Moreover a responsible consumption made by people, every day, can help nations’ commitments and can concretely contribute to reduce pollution and prevent energetic crises.
MAJOR COUNTRIES INVOLVED: From 2002 China is trying to modify, with a wide number of tensions, its production’s patterns focusing on resource saving, emission reduction, energy saving and green consumption. The European Union has adopted in 2006 the renewed EU Sustainable Development Strategy in order to achieve concrete actions until 2020. Mexico, Canada and the United States are working together in order to promote sustainable production and consumption within the NASCA organization since 2001. Bhutan is a global example on how sustainable production of energy and preservation of nature can be important values within a government. It is a little nation indeed but Luxembourg, even smallest in dimensions, is producing four times as much CO2 as Bhutan’s. United Kingdom has launched in 2006 a Resources and Energy Analysis Programme, and in 2011 Sweden joined it. The Programme’s aim is to calculate emissions’ impact of what we buy and produce. Costa Rica is taking a lot of effort in reducing human ecological footprint: its government considers reducing gas emissions as a priority. Moreover in 2015 it has provided its citizens of clean energy for 75 days non-stop. Costa Rica’s aim is to become the first “carbon neutral” nation of the Southern Hemisphere.
UN INVOLVEMENT: During Rio+20 UN conference on Sustainable Development (2012) nations renewed their commitment upon sustainable development and prepared themselves to take action. In September 2015, the General Assembly of UN introduced “Agenda 2030”: a document underlining the most important tasks to reach within 2030. The Agenda is divided in four sections: Declaration, Sustainable Development Goals and Targets, Means of Implementation and the Global Partnership, Follow-up and Review; it outlines different fundamental topics so as to guarantee the health of the Earth and its citizens.
“The new agenda is a promise by leaders to all people everywhere. It is an agenda for people, to end poverty in all its forms ‒ an agenda for the planet, our common home” (Ban Ki-moon, Secretary General of United Nations)
USEFUL LINKS:
http://www.fao.org/save-food/resources/keyfindings/en/ (FOOD AND AGRICULTURE ORGANIZATION OF THE UNITED NATIONS)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1pisU45ffso&t=2398s (SURPLUS)
http://www.getaway.co.za/environment/responsible-travel/foodprint-worldenvironment-day/ (WHAT IS A FOODPRINT)
http://www.un-documents.net/jburgdec.htm (WORLD SUMMIT ON SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT - Johannesburg 2002)
https://esa.un.org/marrakechprocess/ (THE MARRAKECH PROCESS)
https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/post2015/transformingourworld (THE 2030 AGENDA FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT)