Module 7 – Sustainable agriculture and Food systems

Date of implemented Module: 5.6.2024. 

Place of implementation: Rade Dodić Elementary School, Trstenik

Facilitator: Marijana Trifunović Dimitrijević

The “State of food security and nutrition in the world” reports that there is a growing need to end hunger, food insecurity and all forms of malnutrition. The COVID-19 pandemic has shown how fragile our agrifood system is, how significant are inequalities in our societies. There are 3.1 billion people now (it has risen by 112 million under the pandemic) who cannot afford a healthy diet. The child undernutrition – including stunting and wasting, deficiencies in essential micronutrients and overweight and obesity in children are rising unstoppably. The more and more frequent and severe extreme climate events are also affecting the supply chains especially in low-income countries. 

Sustainable agriculture means a wide range of production practices including conventional and organic. It is a regionally integrated system of plant and animal production with practices designed for long term results:

• It needs to produce enough food, feed, fiber and fuel for the rising population
• It has to protect the environment  and has to expand the natural resources supply
• It has to sustain the economic viability of agriculture systems.  

Sustainable agriculture

The UN environment programme, states that sustainable agriculture is farming that meets the needs of existing and future generations. It is profitable, environmentally healthy and supports social and economic equality. It prefers techniques that emulate nature – to preserve or improve soil fertility, prevents water and air pollution and protects biodiversity. It supports goals like sustainable development or zero hunger.

An economically and socially sustainable system should contribute to their local economies, deals fairly with workers, creates access to healthy food and prioritizes people and communities instead of corporate interests. 

Healthy soil 

Preserving or improving the health of our soils is one of the main goals of sustainable agriculture. As the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations claims: “Polluting our soils is polluting our future”.  95% of our food is produced directly or indirectly in the soil. It affects our food, our drinking water and our health. Actually, it affects the health of all organisms.

Healthy soil is one of the keys to food security. It helps to sustain food production, mitigate and adapt to climate change, filters water, and improves resilience to floods and droughts. But it is a finite resource so its degradation can’t be recovered within a human lifespan. Soil pollution causes a chain reaction. It alters biodiversity, reduces the organic matter and the soil’s filter capacity. It contaminates the underground water and causes imbalance of soil nutrients. The pollutants from the soil easily get into the food chain. They can cause diseases and affect human health and even excess mortality.

Effects on environmental and human health

Industrial agriculture not only consumes fossil fuel, water and topsoil at an unsustainable rate but contributes to environmental degradation. Air and water pollution, soil depletion, diminishing biodiversity and fish die-offs are a big concern. Factory-style animal agriculture has a great part in this. On one hand because it involves a large energy loss. On the other hand it has great environmental and public health concerns because of the pollution from the high concentration of animal wastes and the extensive use of antibiotics.

Community supported agriculture (named “CSA” system) is part of the solution

Community supported agriculture are groups organized on a voluntary basis so local food producers and buyers become in direct contact. To organize this there is a need of the community with active and voluntary participation.

The goal of these communities can be: 

• Ensuring a market for local products
• Provide health food for the community
• Strengthen local economy by keeping the money local 
• Community creation and building
• Development of the local economy through conscious consumer needs
• To form the attitude in our communities regarding sustainable economy, ecological effects
• Knowledge dissemination, joint learning

 Objectives of the module 

To show that each of the participants is responsible and has the power to make changes in his/her life, in his/her communities and even at the system-level. To present that thinking and working together is a very powerful tool we have.

To encourage participants to seek a comprehensive understanding about our food system and seek for solutions that will improve it. To understand the benefit of supporting local farmers and producers, but also the downsides of importing food supplies. To provide an insight into the world economy and global inequalities, injustices and the importance of fair trade. To examine local, global and intercultural issues connected with the food system.

With provided activities participants will have a chance to  learn about human rights, equality, justice and fairness, to improve empathy, understanding of interconnections, system and critical thinking. .

The main goal of the module is to encourage youth to take action for collective well-being and sustainability.