Håkan Sandin, Horticulturist at Swedish University of Agriculture explains sustainable food production and why the three areas of health, environment and economy are crucial in this vein
The inseparable triple combination of health, environment and economy is the basis for all development work and creates lasting sustainable food production. This also applies when we build a completely new food industry. Our task is not to close our eyes to any difficulties and be scared by the power structures that destroy our health, environment and economy. We have to build and create sustainable, mutualistic and circular solutions that can last for thousands of years.
We must, therefore, challenge the political power structures and the commercial corporate power that both allow the production and sale of harmful food in our world. We have a responsibility to ourselves as the human race and to the world, to develop food supply systems that are based on new science. We have to stop talking about what we always have done, referring to proven experience. Proven experience destroys our health, our environment and our economy.
Bacteria in human bodies
Let me explain again and again. It starts with 40 billion bacteria that all humans have in their stomach and intestinal system. Humans have 1.5 kg of bacteria, if we feed them correctly, good bacteria, an internal organ that we have ignored for so long time.
The human race shook hands with these individuals may be 10 million years ago. The contract states that these bacteria receive protection, warmth and food under one single condition, namely that they keep us healthy.
This contract has worked for millions of years. Something has however gone extremely wrong in recent years. We have a complete explosion of lifestyle diseases that modern health care cannot handle. One of the reasons is that we give the wrong food to these bacteria. This is what the latest research says, which is documented through around two new scientific papers a day and historically through 1000’s of papers over the past five years. So what is wrong with the food we feed the bacteria? What kind of food should we feed them?
Human food
If you are asked: What kind of food should humans eat? What is your answer? The answer is in one way very simple. We will, of course, eat what gives us a long and healthy life without any diseases and economic problems. And what if that is so? Then again, we have to ask ourselves what kind of food is it? Is it meat, vegetables, insects, bread or sugar-containing beverages? We have to answer these questions!
The science tells us that we have abused our contract with the bacteria and made them our enemies. If we eat the wrong food, they eat on our internal organs, create leakage and send out toxic substances in our bodies. We get serious illnesses like severe depression, diabetes, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), osteoarthritis and many other diseases.
In many parts of the world, mankind knows this off by heart and by tradition. But our western power structures and influential international companies maintain a production infrastructure that is harmful to our health, our environment and our economy on a big scale and in a small scale. This means that what you eat as an individual makes an impact on the world environment and economy. The question is how can we reverse this trend and how can we get the international power structures and the big strong international companies to create sustainable development, based on new science?
Scientifically based competition
Is it possible to make people healthier? In one way, the answer is very simple. We must re-establish the contract with our bacteria, that is, learn to eat what makes our stomach and intestinal bacteria happy.
Also, we have to expose the current order to competition. We must remove the harmful food from the shelves, not by force but through scientifically based competition, simply because they destroy our health, our environment and our economy.
The links between health, environment and economy
How do we link our work together to begin this development? It is important that we start looking at the connections between health, the environment and the economy. Each one of us understands that these relationships are very strong, but we need to describe them from a scientific perspective. As we understand these relationships in a scientific way, we can also begin to build a new future.
In Sweden, we have started this work by creating a completely new industry of fish and vegetables in house, which takes advantage of leftover resources in our society. Fish and vegetables are also the foods that science says are the healthiest for humans. We can build this industry without burdening the environment or seizing more arable land.
These industrial areas we call Foodparks, where we can produce very large amounts of food in small areas, e.g. 20,000 tonnes of fish and 40,000 tonnes of vegetables on a couple of hectares. In these industrial parks, we have full control of everything that we put in, all the flows in the park and everything that leaves the park.
Please note: This is a commercial profile
Håkan Sandin
Horticulturist
Swedish University of Agriculture
Tel: +46 703 168 920
