Environmental Aspects of Food Systems: A Review

Hongwei Liu Liu

Bachelor's thesis

Abstract:

Our increasing needs of the food products and the growing diversity modern lifestyle requested, the community farms are far behind to meet the requirements. Modern food supply chain is undergoing a way more complex system before they are served on the table, on-site farming operations, animal products management, and post-farm operations together with industrialized management impacts on environment directly and indirectly. Therefore, in some extent, end-users consumers food consumptions patterns will influence food industries and farmers, as the same as supply and demand.Carbon footprint as an indicator to express the total amount of GHG is emitted by human activities and CF methodology indicated several advantages of a full life cycle assessment. A CF calculation can technically provide the information of environment friendly meals and the carbon labelling scheme gives a guideline how to consume eco-friendly. Even though, the uncertainty of food CF is arise from the difficulties in measuring GHG emissions from biological systems and the high variability in agriculture sector, especially in soil emissions. Nevertheless, it gives an evidence showing that in addition to technological mitigation it will also be necessary to shift patterns of consumption, and in particular away from diets rich in GHG intensive meat and dairy foods. This will be necessary not just in the developed but also, in the longer term, in the developing world.

Keywords

sustainable consumption, climate change, diet patterns

Language used: English

Date on which the thesis was submitted / produced: 15. 4. 2016

Thesis defence

• Supervisor: doc. Ing. Jaroslav Havlík, Ph.D.

Czech University of Life Sciences Prague

Faculty of Agrobiology, Food and Natural Resources

Bachelor programme / field:
Sustainable Use of Natural Resources / Sustainable Use of Natural Resources