Abstract
Modern agricultural and food systems have caused immense damage to human health and the environment. To build sustainable food systems for food and nutrition security, this paper argues that we must focus on the three Ds: degrowth, diversity and decentralisation. By reviving a conversation around what we value, we can begin to reframe the extractive relationships between people and the environment that underlie modern food production and consumption systems. This would require us to change what we measure as success in farming and in our lives, as well as reframe the notion of value as going far beyond narrow definitions of productivity and efficiency.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
- 2.
- 3.
See Obesity and Overweight reports by National Center for Health Statistics (2021) at https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/obesity-overweight.htm.
- 4.
The concept of food miles or product miles is one way to become conscious of our ecological footprint (Van Passel, 2013). Thanks to refrigeration technologies, the Japanese are able to consume whales which have been fished off the coast of Antarctica, thus, consuming the longest food miles.
- 5.
See Odisha Millets Mission. (n.d.). Homepage. Retrieved January 17, 2022, from www.milletsodisha.com and Millet Mission Odisha (2017, October 21) Millet Mission Odisha. Retrieved January 17, 2022, from www.milletmission.wordpress.org.
- 6.
- 7.
See Kassam and Kassam (2021) and Economic Research Service. (2021, August 25). Food availability and consumption. U.S. Department of Agriculture. Retrieved January 17, 2022, from https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/ag-and-food-statistics-charting-the-essentials/food-availability-and-consumption/.
References
Ahlawat, I. P. S., Sharma, P., & Singh, U. (2016). Production, demand and import of pulses in India. Indian Journal of Agronomy, 61(4s), S33–S41. https://krishi.icar.gov.in/jspui/bitstream/123456789/6462/1/S4-IPS-Ahlawat.pdf
Bawa, K. S., Nawn, N., Chellam, R., Krishnaswamy, J., Mathur, V., Olsson, S. B., Pandit, N., Rajagopal, P., Sankaran, M., Shaanker, R. U., Shankar, D., Ramakrishnan, U., Vanak, A. T., & Quader, S. (2020). Envisioning a biodiversity science for sustaining human well-being. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 117(42), 25951–25955. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2018436117
Beaulac, J., Kristjansson, E., & Cummins, S. (2009). Peer reviewed: A systematic review of food deserts, 1966–2007. Preventing Chronic Disease, 6(3), A105. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2722409/
Beck, T. (1994). Common property resource access by poor and class conflict in West Bengal. Economic and Political Weekly, 29(4), 187–197. https://www.epw.in/journal/1994/4/special-articles/common-property-resource-access-poor-and-class-conflict-west-bengal
Bharucha, Z., & Pretty, J. (2010). The roles and values of wild foods in agricultural systems. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society b: Biological Sciences, 365(1554), 2913–2926. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2010.0123
Chancel, L., & Piketty, T. (2019). Indian income inequality, 1922–2015: From British Raj to billionaire raj? Review of Income and Wealth, 65(1), S33–S62. https://doi.org/10.1111/roiw.12439
Cullather, N. (2010). The hungry world: America’s Cold War battle against poverty in Asia. Harvard University Press.
Daly, H. E. (1996). Beyond growth: The economics of sustainable development. Beacon Press.
DeFries, R., Chhatre, A., Davis, K. F., Dutta, A., Fanzo, J., Ghosh-Jerath, S., Myers, S., Rao, N. D., & Smith, M. R. (2018). Impact of historical changes in coarse cereals consumption in India on micronutrient intake and anemia prevalence. Food and Nutrition Bulletin, 39(3), 377–392. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F0379572118783492
Economic Research Service. (2021, August 25). Food availability and consumption. U.S. Department of Agriculture. Retrieved January 17, 2022, from https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/ag-and-food-statistics-charting-the-essentials/food-availability-and-consumption/
Escobar, A. (2015). Degrowth, postdevelopment, and transitions: A preliminary conversation. Sustainability Science, 10, 451–462. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11625-015-0297-5
Finnis, E. (2007). The political ecology of dietary transitions: Changing production and consumption patterns in the Kolli Hills, India. Agriculture and Human Values, 24(3), 343–353. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10460-007-9070-4
Gerber, J.-F., & Raina, R. S. (Eds.) (2018). Post-growth thinking in India: Towards sustainable egalitarian alternatives. Orient BlackSwan.
Guthman, J. (2011). Weighing in: Obesity, food justice, and the limits of capitalism. University of California Press.
Harchaoui, S., & Chatzimpiros, P. (2018). Can agriculture balance its energy consumption and continue to produce food? A framework for assessing energy neutrality applied to French agriculture. Sustainability, 10(12), 4624. https://doi.org/10.3390/su10124624
Hickel, J. (2021). What does degrowth mean? A few points of clarification. Globalizations, 18(7), 1105–1111. https://doi.org/10.1080/14747731.2020.1812222
Indira Devi, P., Kumar, L., Kumar, S. D., Manjula, M., Mukhopadhyay, P., Raghu, P., Sharma, D., Sridhar, R., & Venkatachalam, L. (2017). Payment for ecosystem services: Guaranteed farm income and sustainable agriculture. Economic and Political Weekly, 52(17), 12–14. https://www.epw.in/journal/2017/17/commentary/payment-ecosystem-services.html
Kallis, G., Paulson, S., D’Alisa, G., & Demaria, F. (2020). The case for degrowth. Polity.
Kassam, A., & Kassam, L. (2021). Paradigms of agriculture: New Ways Forward. In A. Kassam & L. Kassam (Eds.), Rethinking food and agriculture (pp. 181–218). Woodhead Publishing.
Kramer, M. (1981). Three farms: Making milk, meat and money from the American soil. Bantam Books.
Kothari, A., & Joy, K. J. (Eds.). (2017). Alternative futures: India unshackled. Authors Upfront.
Kothari, A., & Shrivastava., A. (2012). Churning the Earth: The making of global India. Penguin India.
Kulkarni, V. S., & Gaiha, R. (2021). Beyond Piketty: A new perspective on poverty and inequality in India. Journal of Policy Modeling, 43(2), 317–336. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpolmod.2020.10.003
Kumar, R. (2019). India’s Green Revolution and beyond: Visioning agrarian futures on selective readings of agrarian pasts. Economic and Political Weekly, 54(34), 41–48. https://www.epw.in/journal/2019/34/technology-and-society/indias-green-revolution-and-beyond.html
Kumar, R. (2021). Valuing variability: Agriculture, ecology and COVID-19. Society and culture in South Asia, 7(1), 105–111. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F2393861720975222
Kumar, R., Agrawal, N. K., Vijayshankar, P. S., & Vasavi, A. R. (2020). State of rural and agrarian India report 2020. Network of Rural and Agrarian Studies (NRAS). http://www.ruralagrarianstudies.org/state-of-rural-and-agrarian-india-report-2020/
Kumar, R., Nagavarapu, S., & Agrawal, A. (2019). Remaking farms and reshaping diets: Implications for untangling under-nutrition in rural India [Final technical report for the Faculty Interdisciplinary Research Project (FIRP) 2017–18, MI01429]. Indian Institute of Technology Delhi.
Lele, S., Springate-Baginski, O., Lakerveld, R., Deb, D., & Dash, P. (2013). Ecosystem services: Origins, contributions, pitfalls, and alternatives. Conservation and Society, 11(4), 343–358. https://doi.org/10.4103/0972-4923.125752
Menon A., & Vadivelu, J. A. (2006). Common property resources in different agro-climatic landscapes in India. Conservation and Society, 4(1), 132–154. https://www.jstor.org/stable/26396651
Millet Mission Odisha. (2017, October 21). Millet Mission Odisha. Retrieved January 17, 2022, from www.milletmission.wordpress.com
National Center for Health Statistics. (2021, September 10). Obesity and overweight. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/obesity-overweight.htm
Nawn, N. (2016). Sustaining the farming household to sustain the farming. Journal of Agrarian Change, 16(1), 94–122. https://doi.org/10.1111/joac.12085
Nestle, M. (2002). Food politics: How the food industry influences nutrition and health. University of California Press.
Nichols, C. (2017). Millets, milk and Maggi: Contested processes of the nutrition transition in rural India. Agriculture and Human Values, 34(4), 871–885. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10460-017-9781-0
Pollan, M. (2009). In defense of food: The myth of nutrition and the pleasures of eating. Penguin.
Raina, R. (2006). Need for public debate—The Indo-US knowledge initiative. Economic and Political Weekly, 41(17), 1622–1624. https://www.jstor.org/stable/4418135
Raina, R. (2009). Questioning temperaments in agricultural science. Seminar, 597, 50–54. https://www.india-seminar.com/2009/597/597_rajeswari_s_raina.htm#top
Raina, R. (2011). Agriculture in the environment: Are sustainable climate friendly production systems possible in India? In N. K. Dubash (Ed.), The handbook of climate change and India (pp. 317–327). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203153284
Rajagopal, G. (2016, October 13). The stories of Ehrlich, Borlaug and the Green Revolution. The Wire. https://thewire.in/agriculture/paul-ehrlich-norman-borlaug-green-revolution
Ravikanth, G., Aditya, V., & Shaanker, R. U. (2020). Biodiversity in and around farmlands: Food and nutritional security and rural livelihoods. Economic and Political Weekly, 55(49), 34–39. https://www.epw.in/journal/2020/49/review-environment-and-development/biodiversity-and-around-farmlands.html
Sen, A. (1981). Poverty and famines: an essay on entitlement and deprivation. Oxford University Press.
Shah, M., Vijayshankar, P. S., & Harris, F. (2021). Water and agricultural transformation in India: A symbiotic relationship—I. Economic and Political Weekly, 56(29), 43–55. https://www.epw.in/journal/2021/29/special-articles/water-and-agricultural-transformation-india.html
Sharma, A. (2017). Payment for ecosystem services. Economic & Political Weekly, 52(36), 73–74. https://www.epw.in/journal/2017/36/discussion/payment-ecosystem-services.html
Shenoy, B. R. (1974). PL 480 aid and India’s food problem. Affiliated East-West Press.
Shorrocks, A., Davies, J., & Lluberas, R. (2021). Global Wealth Report 2021. Credit Suisse Research Institute. https://www.creditsuisse.com/media/assets/corporate/docs/about-us/research/publications/global-wealth-report-2021-en.pdf
Sinha, S. K. (1986). Energy balance in agriculture: The developing world. In M. S. Swaminathan & S. K. Sinha (Eds.), Global aspects of food production (pp. 57–83). Tycooly International.
Stoll, S. (1998). The fruits of natural advantage: Making the industrial countryside in California. University of California Press.
Tomlinson, I. (2013). Doubling food production to feed the 9 billion: A critical perspective on a key discourse of food security in the UK. Journal of Rural Studies, 29, 81–90. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrurstud.2011.09.001
Van Passel, S. (2013). Food miles to assess sustainability: A revision. Sustainable Development, 21, 1–17. https://doi.org/10.1002/sd.485
Vyas, B. M., & Kaushik, M. (2020, November 4). How India was stripped of its Atmanirbharta in the edible oil industry. The Wire. https://thewire.in/political-economy/india-edible-oil-self-sufficiency
Waitzkin, H. (2021). Confronting the upstream causes of COVID-19 and other epidemics to follow. International Journal of Health Services, 51(1), 55–58. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F0020731420946612
Walker, R. E., Keane, C. R., & Burke, J. G. (2010). Disparities and access to healthy food in the United States: A review of food deserts literature. Health and Place, 16(5), 876–884. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.healthplace.2010.04.013
Wallace, R. (2016). Big farms make big flu. Monthly Review Press.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2023 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Kumar, R. (2023). Degrowth, Diversity and Decentralisation: Building Sustainable Food Systems for Food and Nutrition Security. In: Fazli, A., Kundu, A. (eds) Reimagining Prosperity. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-7177-8_10
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-7177-8_10
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore
Print ISBN: 978-981-19-7176-1
Online ISBN: 978-981-19-7177-8
eBook Packages: Economics and FinanceEconomics and Finance (R0)