Food production chains and sustainability: interfaces between global and local

Abstract

This research is about the relationship between the global food crisis, sustainable development and the (in) efficiency of broad food production chains. In order to increase the supply of food worldwide, governments and producers began to adopt agricultural industrialization practices, with a view to developing a culture of export and import of food products. However, such practices can damage the environment and, even so, are not enough in relation to the desire to cure world hunger. In this way, the present research seeks to analyze the problematic relations between the high agriculture and livestock industrialization, especially in relation to countries where there is a high incidence of hunger and malnutrition, and the reflexes of such practices in the environment, evidenced by harmful consequences such as burning, deforestation, river pollution, death of pollinating species and global warming. Based on the hypothetical-deductive method, the objective is to highlight some of the problems generated by the production of groceries on a large scale, aiming at exports, without valuing local needs and sustainability. In addition, we will seek to point out in an analytical way some beneficial aspects in relation to short production chains and their relationship with environmental and social sustainability.