FOOD SAFETY, FOOD SECURITY AND ENVIRONMENTAL RISKS

This paper shows how food safety, food security and environmental risks associated with agriculture can be alleviated through sustainable agriculture. Today, most of the countries are arguably food insecure. Developed countries rely mostly on industrial agriculture which has led to increasing monocropping and imported food while developing countries are extremely vulnerable to food price inflation. The risks associated with food insecurity are political and economic instability. Modern industrial agriculture mindset assumes the reality of substitution between land and external chemicals and management systems that resulted in overvalued land and undervalued social costs of the negative externalities with the associated environmental risks of polluted water, acid rain and degraded soil. The globalization of the food production and the intensification of food trade enhance the risks associated with food safety. Food consumption all over the world is a mixture of imported agricultural products and domestic products making difficult to find the contamination source in case of a food scare. The development of agriculture is an essential way to raise national income and improve the welfare of rural dwellers whether a developing country or a developed country. The paper makes the case that sustainable agriculture is the best method for agricultural development with the largest opportunity for economic development and reduction or alleviation of environmental, food security and food safety risks.