Nutritional quality foods: Lessons in sustainability and health

AISHA ANSARI, Capella University, USA
Purpose: The dual purpose of this paper is first, a polemic argument that, with the exception of Genetically Modified (GM) foods, our reliance on nutritional value is naturally present in whole foods, especially grain, for health and sustainability. Secondly, this paper will argue that outbreaks and food scares are often associated with food safety, and therefore are a threat to sustainability and public health behavioural change.
Design/Methodology/Approach: Empirical results found in literature reviews, research in food scares, and behaviour in consumerism, with a specific focus between 1998 and 2008, were used in examining and analysing sustainability in global food safety.
Findings: This paper submits that grains, and foodstuffs made from grains, are necessary nutrition for complete health, based upon ethics in religion, tradition and culture. For example, a condition known as ergotism linked to bacteria found in grains, causes damage to fingers, toes and extremities, and is known to incubate during winter months through vasodilation.
Originality and Value: Arguing that green behaviour as practiced in solar farming and consuming locally grown food, use of solar energy, and cloud technology are indeed sustainable collective actions fit for green behaviour, policy making and global strategies. This paper also offers considerable opportunities for extended research and improvement in examining psychology in green behaviour and global food safety.
Keywords: diseases; ethics; food scares; food contamination; green behaviour; North Carolina food safety.