The Global Food System
- The global food system encompasses all the activities that are involved in the production, processing, distribution and consumption of food throughout the world
- It is dominated by a small number of TNCs that control everything from seed production to food retail e.g. Nestlé, Kellogg’s and Unilever
- The global food system has significant negative impacts:
- Environmental impacts include greenhouse gas emissions, deforestation, soil degradation, and water contamination
- Socially, it causes major health problems: More than 800 million people are experiencing chronic hunger while approximately 650 million people are living with obesity
- It also creates vast amounts of waste: Approximately one-third of all food produced is lost or wasted