Are obese people causing environmental problems?

Agricultural activities are major drivers of climate change. For instance, The U.S. food system contributes nearly 20 percent of the nation's carbon dioxide emissions. Usage of fertilisers and pesticides releases pollutants and greenhouse gases into the environment. Not forgetting the costs of food distribution.

The idea that over-consumption of food is causing environmental problems seems like a legitimate one. Since people consume more food, more are produced to satisfy their demands hence obese people generally will have a larger footprint. Especially since population in increasing exponentially, over-consumption of food would be major problem of tomorrow even if it is not today.

However we can argue that it is over-production of food that caused environmental problems – not consumption. Since food is a basic necessity, nations would like to be self-sufficient instead of importing food from other nations. In the world where free trade is encouraged, governments have to take protectionist measures in the forms of subsidies, food storage for surpluses, etc. to ensure that food products produced by their nation remains competitive in the global market. As such, the ‘invisible hand’ will no longer be able to work its magic, resulting in too many producers in the market, contributing to the problem of food wastage. A report estimated that a third of food produced in the world is never consumed, and these unconsumed food results in an array of other environmental issues.

With the noble notion of solving world hunger, many different food product markets such as GMOs have been introduced due to technological innovation. Food industries are more productive than before, yet world hunger persists due to unequal distribution of food resources. Are technology introduced for the sake of using technological production methods? Or is it simply a ploy of the large firms. For instance, Golden rice is pegged as a solution for Vitamin A deficiency. However, there are many other sources of vitamin A such as sweet potatoes, which delivers around 150% more tonnes of food per hectare than Golden rice and 15 times the beta carotene of the best performing Golden rice variety. Some markets in agriculture exists as large firms manipulate poor farmers to continuously purchase seeds that are unable to reproduce. Usage of pesticides and fertilisers have improved food crops in terms of quality and quantity but has adverse effects on the environment and human health. Simply put, why would you consume something even pests are avoiding? What are the chemicals they put in the pesticides that deters pests and most importantly, how are these chemicals affecting our body? The answers to this question could become an industrial secret, or are unfound. Yet our farmers are using these products as there are insufficient scientific proof that these products are harmful (or rather there is not much funding given to such research).

In general, the markets in agriculture have failed, and are not operating at which the ‘invisible hand’ would guide them to. Paradoxically, it is not due to increased demand for food products, but increased supply driven by rich firms and even the governments.