Conceptualizing a Sustainable Food System in an Automated World: Toward a “Eudaimonian” Future
The industrialized world has entered a new era of widespread automation, and although this may create long-term gains in economic productivity and wealth accumulation, many professions are expected to disappear during the ensuing shift, leading to potentially significant disruptions in labor markets...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2018-11-01
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| Series: | Frontiers in Nutrition |
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| Online Access: | https://www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fnut.2018.00104/full |
| _version_ | 1818294118425559040 |
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| author | Alon Shepon Patrik John Gustav Henriksson Patrik John Gustav Henriksson Patrik John Gustav Henriksson Tong Wu |
| author_facet | Alon Shepon Patrik John Gustav Henriksson Patrik John Gustav Henriksson Patrik John Gustav Henriksson Tong Wu |
| author_sort | Alon Shepon |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | The industrialized world has entered a new era of widespread automation, and although this may create long-term gains in economic productivity and wealth accumulation, many professions are expected to disappear during the ensuing shift, leading to potentially significant disruptions in labor markets and associated socioeconomic difficulties. Food production, like many other industrial sectors, has also undergone a century of mechanization, having moved toward increasingly large-scale monoculture production—especially in developed economies—with higher yields but detrimental environmental impacts on a global scale. Certain characteristics of the food sector and its products cast doubts on whether future automation will influence it in the same ways as in other sectors. We conceptualize a model of future food production within the socioeconomic conditions created by widespread automation. We ideate that despite immediate shocks to the economy, in the long run higher productivity can free up human activity to be channeled toward more interactive, skill-intensive food production systems, where communal efforts can reduce industrial reliance, diversify farming, and reconnect people to the biosphere—a realization of human well-being that resembles the classical philosophical ideal of Eudaimonia. We explore food production concepts, such as communal gardens and polyculture, and the economic conditions and institutions needed to underwrite them [e.g., a universal basic income (UBI)]. However, arguments can be raised as to why social-ecological systems would benefit from more labor-intensive food production. In this paper we: (1) discuss the current state of the food system and the need to reform it in light of its environmental and social impacts; (2) present automation as a lever that could move society toward more sustainable food production; (3) highlight the beneficial attributes of a Eudaimonian model; and (4) discuss the potential challenges to its implementation. Our purpose is to highlight a possible outcome that future research will need to refine and expand based on evidence and successful case studies. The ultimate aim is to promote a food system that can provide food security while staying within the safe operating space of planetary boundaries, produce more nutritious diets, enhance social capital, and reconnect communities with the biosphere. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-13T03:26:40Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-a5c220faec7b40dd9ad2fd846c965483 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2296-861X |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-13T03:26:40Z |
| publishDate | 2018-11-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Nutrition |
| spelling | doaj.art-a5c220faec7b40dd9ad2fd846c9654832022-12-22T00:01:15ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Nutrition2296-861X2018-11-01510.3389/fnut.2018.00104389674Conceptualizing a Sustainable Food System in an Automated World: Toward a “Eudaimonian” FutureAlon Shepon0Patrik John Gustav Henriksson1Patrik John Gustav Henriksson2Patrik John Gustav Henriksson3Tong Wu4Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, IsraelStockholm Resilience Centre, Stockholm University, Stockholm, SwedenWorldFish, Jalan Batu Maung, MalaysiaThe Beijer Institute of Ecological Economics, The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, Stockholm, SwedenSchool of Life Sciences, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, United StatesThe industrialized world has entered a new era of widespread automation, and although this may create long-term gains in economic productivity and wealth accumulation, many professions are expected to disappear during the ensuing shift, leading to potentially significant disruptions in labor markets and associated socioeconomic difficulties. Food production, like many other industrial sectors, has also undergone a century of mechanization, having moved toward increasingly large-scale monoculture production—especially in developed economies—with higher yields but detrimental environmental impacts on a global scale. Certain characteristics of the food sector and its products cast doubts on whether future automation will influence it in the same ways as in other sectors. We conceptualize a model of future food production within the socioeconomic conditions created by widespread automation. We ideate that despite immediate shocks to the economy, in the long run higher productivity can free up human activity to be channeled toward more interactive, skill-intensive food production systems, where communal efforts can reduce industrial reliance, diversify farming, and reconnect people to the biosphere—a realization of human well-being that resembles the classical philosophical ideal of Eudaimonia. We explore food production concepts, such as communal gardens and polyculture, and the economic conditions and institutions needed to underwrite them [e.g., a universal basic income (UBI)]. However, arguments can be raised as to why social-ecological systems would benefit from more labor-intensive food production. In this paper we: (1) discuss the current state of the food system and the need to reform it in light of its environmental and social impacts; (2) present automation as a lever that could move society toward more sustainable food production; (3) highlight the beneficial attributes of a Eudaimonian model; and (4) discuss the potential challenges to its implementation. Our purpose is to highlight a possible outcome that future research will need to refine and expand based on evidence and successful case studies. The ultimate aim is to promote a food system that can provide food security while staying within the safe operating space of planetary boundaries, produce more nutritious diets, enhance social capital, and reconnect communities with the biosphere.https://www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fnut.2018.00104/fullautomationfood systemfood securityagroecologysocial-ecological systemEudaimonian food system |
| spellingShingle | Alon Shepon Patrik John Gustav Henriksson Patrik John Gustav Henriksson Patrik John Gustav Henriksson Tong Wu Conceptualizing a Sustainable Food System in an Automated World: Toward a “Eudaimonian” Future Frontiers in Nutrition automation food system food security agroecology social-ecological system Eudaimonian food system |
| title | Conceptualizing a Sustainable Food System in an Automated World: Toward a “Eudaimonian” Future |
| title_full | Conceptualizing a Sustainable Food System in an Automated World: Toward a “Eudaimonian” Future |
| title_fullStr | Conceptualizing a Sustainable Food System in an Automated World: Toward a “Eudaimonian” Future |
| title_full_unstemmed | Conceptualizing a Sustainable Food System in an Automated World: Toward a “Eudaimonian” Future |
| title_short | Conceptualizing a Sustainable Food System in an Automated World: Toward a “Eudaimonian” Future |
| title_sort | conceptualizing a sustainable food system in an automated world toward a eudaimonian future |
| topic | automation food system food security agroecology social-ecological system Eudaimonian food system |
| url | https://www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fnut.2018.00104/full |
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