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504 Sustainable Cities and Communities Design Handbook

chain are among the priorities, as we will see in the chapter devoted to
these topics.
A different point of view, focusing on human beings’ survival, refers to the
sustainability in terms of food security: sufficient food for a growing popu-
lation, as pointed out at the international level by FAO (2010), whose concern
is regarding recent estimates that indicate a world population expected to grow
up to 9 billion in 2050 (Godfray et al., 2010).
Obviously, these two approaches overlap when considering the conse-
quences of a lack of sustainability and focusing on the causes.
For a better organization of the present contribution, sustainability will be
analyzed in relation to social, economic, and environmental frameworks. The
first and the second focus on human beings needs, whereas the last takes into
consideration a more comprehensive approach that refers generally to
ecosystems.

SOCIAL IMPLICATIONS
From a social point of view, sustainability deals with food security and food
safety, as mentioned earlier. Summarizing the concern, we still face the
problem of how to feed the entire world population with enough and safe food
(see FAO, 2010; Godfray et al., 2010).
Despite the concern on the expected increase in number, the attention of
many organizations focuses on the problem of human feeding that is already
present now: 15% of the population cannot access a sufficient protein and
energy resource in terms of available food (with respect to their purchase
power). Even more people seem to be currently affected by malnourishment.
Therefore sustainability in terms of food security (at global level) deals with
how it is possible to sufficiently feed the entire population of the earth at
present and in future.
In most wealthy countries, despite a lower growth rate of population, the
higher income available pushes up the demand for high-value food like pro-
cessed food, meat, and fish. Such demand pattern (like the one that China and
India are showing since the recent past) is characterized by a strong con-
sumers’ preference toward food requiring a greater use of natural resources
and a lower efficiency in land use (animal husbandry has a conversion of
around 10% of grassland food into meat). Such products seem to give to
consumers a higher level of satisfaction (utility achieved from the consump-
tion of goods), and accordingly their consumption grows as the income rises.
This is why emerging countries show a development path characterized by
a strict positive correlation between the per capita income and demand for
high-protein diet, like the Western countries show, although healthy diet is
adopted only by the richest and smallest part of the population, able to value
the health implications of an unbalanced diet. The result is a frightening dy-
namics: hunger (among the poorest), obesity, and protein excess, due to the