Food Sustainability Metrics and Measurement: An Environmental Analysis

This essay delves into the critical topic of food sustainability, examining the challenges and solutions related to food production and consumption. It highlights the differences between farm-fresh and store-bought food, emphasizing the nutritional and environmental advantages of the former. The essay explores the need for sustainable food systems, discussing the use of SNS (Sustainable Nutritious Security) metrics and other assessment tools to measure progress towards food sustainability goals. It addresses the environmental impact of food production, including the use of fertilizers, land transformation, and processing methods, while also exploring strategies like Climate Smart Agricultural methods to mitigate negative effects. The essay also discusses the Food Print-Index, which aims to raise awareness about food-related paradoxes and promote sustainable development goals. The conclusion emphasizes the importance of food sustainability for protecting the environment, improving agricultural practices, and enhancing the overall well-being of communities. The essay also refers to the health problems associated with store-bought food and calls for effective measures to promote sustainable food practices for a healthier population and a protected environment.

Running head: FOOD SUSTAINABILITY METRICS AND MEASUREMENT
FOOD SUSTAINABILITY METRICS AND MEASUREMENT
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1
FOOD SUSTAINABILITY METRICS AND MEASUREMENT
Introduction
With the growing population and their increasing demand, food sustainability has
become a challenge in the present day. Sustainable food is healthy for the consumers and is
produced in an ecologically and economically fairway, humane, and socially responsible.
Food sustainability primarily focuses on reducing emissions from greenhouse gases. Food
sustainability works towards providing healthy food to meet the current demands of food
while keeping in mind that it is not affecting the ecosystem. With the onset of store-bought
food, it has been challenging to deal with the problem of food sustainability. Farmer food
products are now becoming outdated. The primary aim of the essay is to discuss food
sustainability measures and index and environmental problems.
Discussion
Food Sustainability, Environmental Issues, and Food print index
There is a vast difference between store-bought food and food that are directly sold by
the farmers. The farm food products are more nutritious, less expensive, and have a high life
expectancy; the quality of the food is good as it directly comes from the farms and does not
harm the environment (Kim et al., 2016). On the other hand, store-bought food is less
nutritious as it is kept in the freezer for a very long period, food is not seasonal, to keep the
fresh food chemicals are used that harm the health of human beings, the food products are
costly, the quality of food is reduced and it harms the environment as it uses the method of
hybridization that affects the soil. The food products that are bought from stores cannot be
recycled whereas farm food can be recycled and kept for days. The entire world is now facing
the challenge to meet the demand for sustainable and nutritious food that is affected by the
growing population degradation of ecosystems and scarcity of resources. Therefore, Food

2
FOOD SUSTAINABILITY METRICS AND MEASUREMENT
Sustainability Goals are being made to solve the problem of farm and store-bought food that
would have the least impact on the environment (Brunori & Galli 2016).
SNS (Sustainable Nutritious Security) metrics system has been designed to look into
the matter of nutritious food, change in climate, public as well as private institutions that will
help to assess the progress of the sustainable goals. Seven metrics are chosen to deal with the
problem of food sustainability and they are- stability in the ecosystem, nutrients adequacy,
availability as well as affordability of food, food safety, socio-cultural wellbeing, waste
reduction and lastly, resilience (Gustafson et al., 2016). The use of fertilizer, land
transformation, processing are factors that affect the environment. Climate Smart Agricultural
method can be used to reduce the impact of food on the environment and at the same time,
sustain it. This method will also mitigate emissions. Calorie less food should be consumed as
it also increases the expectancy of the food, unlike the store-bought food that is filled with
preservatives that are high in calories. Post-farm activities should be used to reduce the
harmful impact on the environment as well as sustain the food. Metrics of eco-efficiency
should be calculated based on the principles of LCA (Conrad et al., 2018). The production of
food requires a lot of water that is ultimately depleting the water and other natural resources;
therefore, the above methods will mitigate the environmental problems arising from food
production.
The Food Print-Index works towards building awareness of the people regarding the
paradoxes in food and coming up with solutions that follow the Sustainable Development
Goals. It primarily deals with the issue of agricultural sustainability, a nutritional challenge as
well as food waste. The index determines the actual cost of the food product, promotes
awareness about the wastage of food and how the latter will impact the environment. They
monitor as well as address the problem of food sustainability (Alkon & Guthman 2017). The
index not only concentrates on SDG’s but is also linked with consumption and production,

3
FOOD SUSTAINABILITY METRICS AND MEASUREMENT
healthy lifestyle as well as poverty. The index goes ahead to rank the countries based on food
sustainability. The index works towards the sustainability of food and the issues regarding
production as well as access. They check where urgent action is needed regarding food
sustainability (Zurek et al., 2017).
Conclusion
Therefore to conclude, food sustainability is essential as it intends to preserve and
protect the environment, helps in expanding agricultural resources, and improve as well as
maintain the soil. Food sustainability measures and metrics also enhances the life of the
framer’s families as well as the community as a whole. It should be noted that how food is
produced places considerable strain on natural resources. However, the store-bought food
results in health problems like obesity, diabetes and other cardiac problems. Thus, effective
measures should be taken to cope with the issues of food sustainability that would eventually
improve the overall health of the people as well as protect the environment.

4
FOOD SUSTAINABILITY METRICS AND MEASUREMENT
References
Alkon, A., & Guthman, J. (Eds.). (2017). The new food activism: Opposition, cooperation,
and collective action. Univ of California Press.
Brunori, G., & Galli, F. (2016). Sustainability of local and global food chains: Introduction to
the special issue.
Conrad, Z., Niles, M. T., Neher, D. A., Roy, E. D., Tichenor, N. E., & Jahns, L. (2018).
Relationship between food waste, diet quality, and environmental sustainability. PloS
one, 13(4).
Gustafson, D., Gutman, A., Leet, W., Drewnowski, A., Fanzo, J., & Ingram, J. (2016). Seven
food system metrics of sustainable nutrition security. Sustainability, 8(3), 196.
Kim, S., Kim, J., Yun, E. J., & Kim, K. H. (2016). Food metabolomics: from farm to
human. Current Opinion in Biotechnology, 37, 16-23.
Zurek, M., Leip, A., Kuijsten, A., Wijnands, J., Terluin, I., Shutes, L. & van Zanten, H.
(2017). Deliverable No. 1.3: Sustainability metrics for the EU food system: a review
across economic, environmental and social considerations. SUSFANS.