The ability to produce in a way that will not damage our future ability to do so and which supports the ability of natural systems to maintain themselves is said to be sustainable.

Eve Balfour’s pioneering work in the late 1940’s when fundamental food production practices were being widely questioned, helped lay the foundations of the coherent approach known today as “organic”, “ecological”, or “biological”. She emphasised the inescapable relationship between the health of Man, Animal, Plant and Society within a shared Environment.

This attitude is amongst those views that seek to emphasise the Relationship between Components within a Natural or Artificial system over the character of the components themselves. Fundamentally different from the reductionist, hierarchical interpretation of analytical science, this holistic approach sought to establish man’s position, as one of many species within his environment, and the broader implications of his actions. It proposes that a Lateral view will suggest better the ways to work towards the sustainability needed to avoid personal, social or environmental collapse.

Contemporary Trading practices with their reliance on Specialisation and Centralised control of distribution, determine that Orkney’s production and consumption of food be judged in a global context, as destinations for produce, and origins of the daily diet are now international.

The sustainability of this production and supply may be better understood by:

• an examination of the value of the foods themselves,
• the ethical dimension of the techniques employed and,
• the environmental results produced.

The Nutritional Value and level of Health promoted in the consumer relates to variety, freshness, level of processing or loss of value, and presence of contaminants unrelated to nutrition. Current marketing systems have all but severed the connection between food production and consumption; Orkney’s traditions of food production have little bearing on local consumption patterns and most marketing efforts are today focussed outwith the home area as mass marketing is now necessary to match the level of specialised production.

As a result, imports account for the majority of local consumption, at the same time as the volume of food produced is exported. The loss of freshness and necessity for preservation reduce the value of both imported and exported products. Increases in variety by the import of exotic foods do not compensate for the loss of freshness in importing staples and there is an associated increase in consumption of heavily processed products, with a reliance on added salt, sugar, processed fats, colourings, flavourings and preservatives.

Should a justification of the role of Ethics in an assessment of sustainability be required, it is clear that production practices which cause unhappiness, insecurity, ill-health or suffering are not sustainable in themselves, as they conspire against the normal functioning of the organism, preventing it from maintaining its position within the natural or social systems of which it is an essential part.

These principles of ethics apply to human working conditions, to the experience of those involved and the level of compulsion and reward present, their ability to maintain health and to achieve fulfilment and longevity. Simply being ignorant of the conditions under which ones purchases are produced and arrive on the shop shelves exacerbates this problem.

The ethical study of the effects on fellow species must ask if they can carry out their natural functions and, in the case of higher animals and birds, that they be therefore free from distress. In the case of creatures directly employed as food animals, that they are allowed a reasonable span of life, many feeling that as civilised beings having no nutritional need to eat flesh, they should not be killed for consumption. There is also a responsibility to protect those species not directly used, including marine, insect and plant life and the habitats they represent or depend on.

It is clear that there are Abuses of all of these principles within the current practices of production and consumption within Orkney, from human rights considerations in relation to imports, to intensive livestock and poultry farming, through routine chemical applications and heavy machinery use, through the wastage of indiscriminate trawling to the overcrowding in fish farms. The massive slaughter of healthy animals during the Foot and Mouth scare and as part of government policy over the past decade resulting from BSE, motivated as much by economics as by disease control, can be seen as the inevitable result of an over specialised supply system cynically applied for financial gain, in the absence of other values. As national standards for labour or for animal welfare are not applied to imported foods, all the ills of intensive, centralised production are unwittingly or carelessly supported by purchases made within Orkney.

Environmental Impacts of Food Production are wide-ranging and this area displays the most immediate and clearest assessment of the level of sustainability being achieved. The natural systems of Climate pattern, Soil building and fertility, Water cycles and quality, both fresh and salt, and Ecology, being the dynamic interaction between organisms and with their environment, are directly employed and affected by primary production, secondary processing, conserving and storage, distribution, consumption and disposal of surpluses and unwanted by-products. The specialisation of production and the oversimplified interpretation of efficiency, often ignoring physical costs that are not directly included in immediate profitability, has resulted in a situation where the handling and transport of foodstuffs is more highly valued than the food itself. The resulting, often unnecessary, long-distance transport has massive environmental implications. It also causes the product to be subject to competition from almost any other world producer, without any guarantee of continuity of supply or market, incurring social insecurity in employment and loss of control by the producer.

The indications are that, due to reliance on external markets and imports, the county contributes actively to those aspects of Environmental Degradation which are causing most concern in general: Climate change, loss of Fertility, destruction of Habitats, exhaustion of finite Mineral Resources, production of biodegradable and non-biodegradable Waste and Pollution of land, sea and water, and of the air. The “Food-Miles” issue and associated packaging and cold storage incurred by imports and export alike involve unnecessary increases in carbon dioxide levels, the addition of ozone-depleting gases, and pollution from packaging production and disposal. Local import and reliance on chemical fertilisers and pesticides, heavy fuel use, unsuitable cultivations, use of non-recycled plastics, lack of rotational land use, ineffective use of animal or human excrement must be included in Orkney’s agricultural contribution to environmental problems.

In moving towards a Sustainable Model for Food Production and Consumption in Orkney, it is clear that this cannot be achieved with a continuing or expanding reliance on large scale, specialised production and distribution, organised centrally and based as it is on remote markets or suppliers and on techniques employing regular inputs of artificial chemicals. These principles apply equally to areas other than Orkney.

Undiminished Nutritional quality, Ethical production and business techniques, and Environmental compatibility are essential for an integrated approach to re-establish and maintain appropriate levels of Health in Human, Animal, Plant and Society, and the Environment within which they exist for mutual support.

The existing Organic Standards for food production are concerned with optimising this balance through the use of mixed rotations and composting, the avoidance of soluble fertilisers, the prohibition of intensive livestock operations, avoiding routine antibiotic treatments and the emphasis towards on-farm processing and direct sales to the consumer. In contrast, the principle of maximising production and profit achieves this only at the expense of much of what it relies on, be it the biological or climatic systems of soil, water and air or the creatures and humans concerned: a clearly unsustainable practice, increasingly so as economic efficiency “improves”.

Standards for Production require to function alongside an Economic System structured with the same aim; little improvement will be gained if organic products rely on distant markets, allow multiple packaging, unnecessary fuel use or the exploitation of workers, as they do at present.

Careful selection of food originating from as near to the point of consumption as possible can encourage producers to diversify in their production, further increasing choice, encourage cooperation and develop mutually beneficial relationships between producer and consumer guaranteeing quality and bringing a direct understanding of the way it is produced. A reliable local market for the producer can encourage investment in non-polluting methods and in the production of foods previously imported; the confidence generated and the higher proportion of the products value returning to the producer, enables smaller holdings to become economic. In itself, local trading of this type will reduce carbon emissions, allow mixed farming to develop, increasing fertility, provide security and employment, improve nutrition and reduce abuses of human rights and animal welfare.

It may be seen from the above that progress towards a more sustainable and egalitarian method of providing a wholesome food supply which does not threaten the integrity of the land from which it comes or the society it supports, can grow from the daily choices made. At present, the lip service accorded by policy makers to the need for policies on sustainability cannot produce results at a rate that even keeps pace with continued deterioration.