‘ Environment and Food ’ or Population, Health, Environment, and Food?

A s commentators on Colin Sage’s book Environment and Food (Sage 2012) and with one of us as a member of the ‘meet the critics’ ’ session at AAG 2012, we are pleased to collaborate with fellow critics and Sage on furthering the compelling debates he develops in his timely and sharply executed book. Together, as a geographer (David) dedicated to coupled human-land systems – and as a reviewer for Routledge of Colin’s manuscript – and a food security expert (Anna) having worked many years at the FAO, we are delighted by an invigorated interest in food systems and implications for the people and the planet. Here, we focus on a few major insights from the book to stir further debate and engagement with issues related to food and the environment. First, Sage’s book is quintessential geography as it is about the human/ environment relationship with respect to food and how we might have much greater care for this relationship as we move forward. Other colleagues (e.g., Smith et al. 2000; Freidberg 2004) have explored and discussed human implications of food and the environment and the especially important issues of inequality in the context of food production and the consumption. These surely are critical and deserve even further explication, engagement and critique. But what about the geography of land use/cover change as connected to questions of food environments? What are the implications of current food systems for the land? And, what about population geography? What is the human population component of food’s environments? The following is a central argument we posit to frame our discussion of Sage’s book: How many people eating what, produced where, produced how will describe the greatest changes on the face of the earth going forward. It will also describe much of human well-being vis à vis nutrition and health. Related to this overarching argument are the following questions: Is research on sustainable agriculture a fait accompli or is there much more we can learn? Can 8 billion plus all grow organic food locally? If so how? If not, how many people can? Under what circumstances? And where? What is the most harmonious way for us to produce and consume food going forward (Guthman 2004)? What role might population and health dynamics play in food production and, ultimately then, what role might maternal and child health play in improved nutrition in the developing world and the promotion of access to quality health care for all (e.g., Bremner et al. 2010)? In this, how can we get people to eat