Water and Climate Security
4.3 Climate Change and Food Security in the Future
You now have a pretty good understanding of the water cycle and how climate change is impacting our water supply. However, there are other social impacts that also affect our water right here on the ground. The following lecture extracted from my doctoral research in the Creston Valley of BC, an agricultural area in south central BC, discusses the powerful effects of climate change on food security in the Creston Valley. Forest fires from land degradation have had devastating effects on climate change globally but it also effects local food production systems through flooding and erosion, not to mention the terrible effects of smoke on our foods and health. Other contributions to food security come from development and technology, and the need to procure energy for fast growing populations. Hydro developments along flood plains not only have necessitated entire farm communities to relocate but have caused fish populations to collapse bringing food insecurity to Indigenous Peoples who once relied on this most abundant and natural food source.
What is Climate Change – How does Climate Change affect the Global Food Supply? (5 videos)
The following collection of videos provides an overview (primer) on how climate change is affecting our food supply and those who provide and produce food. It discusses how some producers are adapting locally and in some videos, it discusses what we need to do globally.
Please view the Required 5 YouTube Videos for a total of 30 minutes.
1. Global Warming Affects Crops, Food Supply – Required
The following video describes how climate changes has affected local crops in the state of Maryland, US. Crops are changing family farms and global crop production. And developing countries closest to the equator will be most affected. Africa is the main worry. Maize, soybeans, will be most affected for some of the most marginalized peoples in this part of the world. Insects, and weeds increase due to Greenhouse gasses (GHGs). Farmers are adapting however while Canada is one of the worst contributors to global GHGs. Total time is 3:52 minutes. Be prepared to offer a discussion in one of the methods in this video in your Substantive question and Weekly reflections.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=UW1Z_FIS9zY%3Ffeature%3Doembed%26rel%3D0
2. How to feed the world in 2050: actions in a changing climate – Total time is 6:00 minutes. Required
The following video discusses agricultural production globally from a large macro-economic and climate change analysis. Climate change really began to hit in 1850 and since that time, growing demand for food and bioenergy crops, and water resources. Crop yields are declining. Given your new knowledge about food security, water security, climate change, food sovereignty, Indigenous food sovereignty, and local food systems, please listen very carefully to this narrative and think about how the thesis argument states that “we” (who is We???) will need to produce more food for populations (which populations) who are hardest hit. What types of agriculture can “feed the world”? Is it industrial or local agriculture and which type of agriculture contributes most to GHGs? Are GMOs the answer? What does intensification of agriculture mean exactly? And how is sustainably intensification mean? Is this an oxymoron? Remember how many of you have argued in your discussions and reflections that we need our food supply to be focused on supplying local food security.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=gjtIl5B1zXI%3Ffeature%3Doembed%26rel%3D0
3. Understanding Climate-Smart Agriculture – Total time is 2:46 minutes – Required
The following short video from the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization (UNFAO) discusses “Climate Smart Agriculture while also discussing global food security. The graphics in this video are interesting in that they use images of small-scale agriculture (horticulture) as a way to explain their message. I like this way of indicating that small scale farmers are affected by climate change but can adapt and mitigate against climate change within their local communities and regions. Remember that community or local food security based on food sovereignty principles is how I define food security, locally, nationally, and globally. The message in this video is currently the basis of research being conducted right here in BC!
https://youtu.be/lUdNMsVDIZ0
4. Future of Food: Farming in the age of climate change –Total time is 7 minutes – Required
The following interesting video begins talking about the future of food. Based on a South Dakota family farm which has converted to organic farming from mono culture cropping cites economic reasons for doing so. In particular they discuss composting which replenishes the soil rather than using petro chemicals and other chemicals that render the soil inert and unfarmable in some cases…it can cause dust storms. It also shows an indoor farm that doesn’t even use dirt and uses technology to mimic the earth. Canada largely practices mono culture using conventional or industrial methods of growth. Do you agree with the speaker at 5:22 who discusses traditional agriculture and/vs exotic agriculture? This video also addresses food waste which many of you mentioned in your discussions and is predominantly a problem within affluent countries. Be prepared to discuss the arguments posed in this video in your upcoming discussions and reflections.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=Tjr6z1GMDqc%3Ffeature%3Doembed%26rel%3D0
5. The Great Challenge: Farming, Food and Climate Change – Michael Pollan – Total time is 30:26 minutes. Required listening. Some of the Discussion and Reflection guided topics, and quiz questions will be based on this video.
Michael Pollan requires no introduction and I will let his lecture stand on his own. The first 15 minutes is required viewing but the rest of his lecture is also most interesting. Many of his topics are what have already been covered in this course thus far and tangentially relates to upcoming topics.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=eSjHN8zefak%3Ffeature%3Doembed%26rel%3D0
What is Climate Change? – What are the Future Impacts that Climate Change is Likely to Have on Global Food Security? (Reading)
Required Reading: Climate Change Threatens the World’s Food Supply, United Nations Warns
Anticipated Time Commitment: 20 Minutes
Please read the following article and using the following reading guide be prepared to offer a comparative analysis in your weekly Discussions.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/08/climate/climate-change-food-supply.html
Reading Guide:
- The destruction of what two resources coupled with what dire situation is impeding the ability of humanity to feed itself?
- This article delivers some dire statistics about “global” food security. The author states:
“Overall if emissions of greenhouse gases continue to rise, so will food costs, according to the report, affecting people around the world. “You’re sort of reaching a breaking point with land itself and its ability to grow food and sustain us,” said Aditi Sen, a senior policy adviser on climate change at Oxfam America, an antipoverty advocacy organization. In addition, the researchers said, even as climate change makes agriculture more difficult, agriculture itself is also exacerbating climate change.”
- How does industrial agriculture contribute to climate change? And is industrial agriculture a way to “feed the world”? What must happen in order for food security to happen at the household, community, and local level?
- The article shows a picture of cattle in Lagos, Nigeria. Methane is a powerful GHG. Industrial agriculture is apparently feeding the world with an ever-growing desire for meat-based diets for the affluent growing upper classes in the global ‘south’. However, local meat suppliers are also feeding their local consumers but without the deleterious emissions involved in shipping their products worldwide. Industrial agriculture that produces coconuts and palm oil is also contributing to climate change and rain forest degradation…I just think about how my coconut chips are produced. Please choose the food group that you most identify with. This course is meant to be inclusive and respectful of all personal choices and all diets .
- I am probably beginning to sound like a broken record about small-scale agriculture vs large scale agriculture. However, what is your personal opinion about mitigating against climate change, and adapting to climate change? This is a BIG question with many facets and dimensions that one course can simply not address but try to engage some of the theories we have learned together as a group thus far.
Food Security, Climate Change, and COVID – Food Security and Covid (Reading)
Required Reading: Climate Change and Food Security in the Future
Anticipated Time Commitment: 30 Minutes
Please view the following Video and Radio interviews for a total of 10 minutes.
I was interviewed by the University of British Columbia’s media which was then picked up by various media sources who interviewed me for television, online e-news stations, radio, and print. Please listen to or read the following media reports about Covid and Food Security and what the effects of Covid have had on prices, beef, migrant workers, food security and how food producers have adapted in this global pandemic. At the end of this list of media reports is a list of extra readings which you do not need to read. And following this are some statistics about Covid.
UBCO researcher looks at food security during COVID-19: https://news.ok.ubc.ca/2020/08/05/ubco-researcher-looks-at-food-security-during-covid-19/
