Sustainability in food is very important in terms of meeting the natural food and beverage needs of the next generation.
First of all, it is necessary to consider sustainability. Sustainability is to meet the needs of today’s living standards, social order, natural resources of the next generation; It is planned to be used without harming its facilities. Sustainability is examined under three main headings. These are social, economic and ecological.
Importance of sustainability in food
In order to understand, it is necessary to pay attention to the following headings;
- The ever-increasing world population.
- Increasingly new resource requirements.
- Increasing energy prices.
- Climate change, in which greenhouse gases are the main factor.
- Transactions that pollute the nature carried out by large or small companies for profit.
States have new laws and incentives that drive companies towards sustainability. These laws and premiums also have benefits for companies that are the biggest drivers of sustainability. Some of these dynamics are: gaining the public’s trust, customers making these companies the reason for preference, and investors demanding sustainability.
Importance of sustainability in food
on the other hand, it is one of the most sensitive issues in the food industry. Sustainability in the food industry is ensured by some major issues:
- Planned energy use.
- Making healthy water and wastewater management.
- Optimizing resources.
- Healthy packaging.
- Prevention of greenhouse gas emissions.
Water is one of the most important things to consider in food sustainability. Both the increasing population’s need for water and
agricultural activities The fact that it is the most important need causes the rapid depletion of water resources. Water is being lost involuntarily due to rapid and irregular urbanization. There are some actions to be taken to prevent this event:
- In order to protect water resources, industrialization and urbanization should not be done in the regions where water resources are located.
- Waste water from industries should not be released into agricultural or urban water supplies.
- Groundwater is also a major factor in drought. Groundwater is drawn unconsciously and excessively. Consumption of groundwater causes drought in that region.
Today, our society is accustomed to consuming everything they have very easily. Both technological tools and food are now easily abandoned and thrown away. People who found a new product for each product easily gave up on the old one. Consumption has started without thinking about future generations after us.
To get the food we need and as much as we can consume, importance of sustainability in food
would be a step forward. Bread thrown away every day meets the food needs of people in Africa for two days. Even this small example shows how big of a problem the mistake can cause.
According to research, two out of three people think about the implementation of sustainable industry and public awareness. Although two-thirds is not a small percentage, the society that implements it is just as small. Even though people know how to behave, they risk the future by being selfish.
Sustainable packaging
It is also one of the factors to be considered. Sustainable elements that should be implemented in packaging are:
- It should be low cost and meet market performance criteria.
- It should meet consumer expectations.
- It is very important that it is produced from recycled or biodegradable materials. After being used in this way, it can be efficiently recycled.
If we want the next generation to live in a healthy and prosperous way, we must attach importance to sustainable food. Let’s not forget that this world does not belong to us, on the contrary, it is a legacy that we will pass on to the next generation. By using resources properly and making planned settlements, we can avoid consuming our world.
