2. Contexts of sustainable production risk
Risks arise from every endeavor, which humans attempt. Life is worthwhile because of its challenges. Doing business has no profit without risk, rewarding those who best understand systems and take what turns out to be the best way to manage these risks. The editorial team addressed risk management as applied to production in the food we eat, the energy we use to live, and the manifestation of the global economy via supply chains.
2.1. What we eat
One of the major issues facing human culture is the need for quality food. Two factors need to be considered: human population growth and threats to the environment. We have understood, since Malthus, that the human population cannot continue to grow exponentially. Some countries, such as China, have been proactive in seeking to control their population growth. Other areas, such as Europe, are documenting decreases in population growth, probably due to societal consensus. But other areas, which include India and Africa, continue to experience rapid increases in population. This may change as these areas become more affluent (see China and Europe) (Panayotou, 1996). But there is no universally acceptable way to control the growth of human population. Thus, we expect to see continued increase in demand for food due to increases in the population and due to changes in diets, which demand more animal products.
Agricultural science has been relatively effective in developing better strains of crops, through a number of methods, including bioengineering and genetic science. This led to what was expected to be a ‘green revolution,’ which originated a generation ago. As with all of mankind's efforts, the best laid plans of humans involve many complexities and unexpected consequences. North America has developed the means to increase production of food that is free from many of the problems that existed a century ago. However, people from different countries are concerned about new threats arising from genetically modified agricultural crops. Thus genetically modified food is another example of human efforts which were supposed to provide improvements but are causing new dangers, or unintended consequences, with great disagreement about what is the truth about short and long-term human health and eco-system impacts of genetically modified organisms.
A third factor that complicates the food issue is the distribution. North America and the Ukraine have long been fertile producing centers, generating surpluses of food. This connects to supply chains issues that are addressed in Section 3. But the challenge is the interconnected global human system with surpluses in some locations and food scarcities in others. Technically, this is a supply chain issue. But more importantly it is an economic issue of sharing food, which is based upon a series of political issues. Contemporary businesses with heavy reliance on international collaborative supply chains, lead to many risks arising from shipping, as well as to other factors such as political stability, physical security from natural disaster, piracy on the high seas, and changing regulations. Sustainable supply chain management has become an area with pressure potentially applied by governing agencies, customers, and the various corporate entities involved within a supply chain (Seuring and M?ller, 2008). These interests can include industry cartels such as OPEC, regulatory environments such as the Eurozone, industry lobbies as in the sugar industry, and so forth that make international business on the scale induced by global supply chains complicated.
Water is one of the most abundant assets on the Earth, probably next to oxygen, which chemists know is a related element. Rainwater used to be considered pure. The industrial revolution caused the unintended production of acid precipitation with numerous unanticipated consequences, locally, regionally and globally. Water used to be free in many places. Only 30 years ago, paying for water would have been considered the height of idiocy. Managing water is recognized as a major issue in that less than 3 per cent of the world's water is fresh (Lambooy, 2011). Lambooy called for more work on wastewater management, management of freshwater consumption, and groundwater quantity and quality management. Water management is increasingly an economic issue, leading to the political arena. Wherever water is scarce, it induces political efforts to gain a greater share for each political entity, involving allocations not only for drinking water for cities, but also for agricultural irrigation and for maintaining sustainable levels to enable river navigation.