Food Security and Global Environmental Change -theme for project work 2016

Gunilla Almered Olsson

Human Ecology, Global studies, GU

Core theme: Food Security and Global

Environmental Change Concepts : GEC ; Land use change; Globalization; Urbanisation; Food

security; Food sovereignty; Food systems; Food consumption pattern

1. SDG: Food, Nutrition & Sustainable agriculture

2. Food security FS & Factors affecting FS

3. Development of agriculture

4. Human nutritional needs and food consumption pattern

5. Food sovereignty – def; Food consumption in the ’North’ driving

hunger in the ’South’

6. Is there enough food for 9 billions?

7. Food systems

8. Food consumption pattern – culturally reflected – today de-linked

from local environmental conditions and human nutritional needs

9. Future prospects – what is needed for global Food security?

10. Literature

Sustainable Development Goals

Goal 1. End poverty in all its forms everywhere

Goal 2. End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition, and promote sustainable agriculture Goal 3. Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages

Goal 4. Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote life-long learning opportunities for all

Goal 5. Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls

Goal 6. Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all

Goal 7. Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable, and modern energy for all

Goal 8. Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all

Goal 9. Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation

Goal 10. Reduce inequality within and among countries

Goal 11. Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable

Goal 12. Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns

Goal 13. Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts* *Acknowledging that the UNFCCC is the primary international, intergovernmental forum for negotiating the global response to climate change .

Goal 14. Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development

Goal 15. Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss

Goal 16. Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels

Goal 17. Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the global partnership for sustainable development

Definition of Food Security

FAO 2008

Food security and Human development

• FS and human development hand in hand

• 1 billion in hunger + 1 billion undernourished

• 29 millions died from hunger 2014

• 694 millions obese persons 2014

• 574 ton food waste 2014

What is affecting Food Security?

Supply side pressures

Global Environmental Change

Urbanisation

Globalisation

Demand side pressures

Urbanisation

Population increase

Poverty

Constraints on access

Inequality

Consumption pattern in the North

Time dimensions of human food acquisition systems

100.000 BP Homo sapiens – collector and hunter

12.000 BP agriculture Middle East

10.000 BP domesticated sheep, goats Middle East; Deglaciation in N Europe

6.000 BP agriculture – moving arables, Scandinavia

1.500 BP agriculture - permanent arables

60 BP agriculture – independent of local ecosystems

25? BP agriculture - globalised production

Olsson 2002

100.000 10.000

Human nutritional needs

• Basal needs for growth, development & regeneration of human body and mind

• 2100 kcal daily

• Food habits – consumption pattern – CULTURE?!

Swedish meat

consumption in 2010:

85 kg per capita and

year

Swedish Agricultural

Board 2010

Influence of production method on resource use…

Godfray et al. 2013. in

Science

Nitrogen and Phosphorus

• Essential nutrients for biomass growth,

agricultural fertilizers

• Deficit of N, P – no growth -> death of

organisms

• Excess of N, P -> Pollution of ecosystems ->

Decrease and disruption of ecosystem

services and climate stability.

• N as gas (78%) in the atmosphere –

inaccsessible for most organisms.

Synthetically produced today – chemical

fertilizer

• P in bedrock and sediments in lakes, sea

Unprecedented change in structure and function of ecosystems

More land was converted to cropland in the 30 years after 1950 than in the 150 years between 1700 and 1850

Changes to ecosystems have provided substantial benefits

– Food production has more than doubled since 1960

– Food production per capita has grown

– Food price has fallen – until 2003

MA 2005

Increasing agricultural yields…

Rising food prizes...

• Competing demands on agricultural land: peaking resources… biofuels, agro regimes…

• Degraded land

• Climate warming

• Changing food patterns

Steffen et al.

2011

Can we feed 9 billion people on this planet?

• Production capacity

• Distribution and Environmental justice

• Power and equality

• Globalization

• ’Consumption pattern in the North is driving hunger in the South’

Effects of industrial agriculture – rising yields…

• Climate – local and regional – driving global climate change • The global nutrient cycles: Nitrogen and Phosphorus • Water availability - different scales: arable and landscape

scales • Degradation of Soil fertility – less organic content, degraded

capacity to store and circulate nutrients • Biological diversity – different scales: arable and landscape

scales; Protection and resilience to pests and deceases • Crops – the genetical material: resistence to diseases,

genetic variation gives resilience to environmental change; seed banks; agro-industrial complex…..

• Animal raising and meat production…?

Effects of globalized food market See Kneafsey et al. 2013

• Transports between contintens of food products; feed, fertilizers, energy…

• Effects in the North, in Europe, on resilient food production?

• Effects in Europe on vulnerability ?

• Effects in the South on resilient food production? Vulnerability?

Global land use for consumption…

Seitzinger et al. 2012

Effects on resources of food production methods

Sustainable and resilient food production today and tomorrow?

Chappell & La Valle 2011; Björklund et al. 2012; McKenzie & Williams 2015

• Vulnerability of food production increased by Climate change – GEC. This demands less vulnerability in other factors & more resilient food systems

• Independent of environment and biodiversity?

• Food to 9 billions – by yield increases from technological factors?

• Other factors more influential: access; culture, ecology, knowledge, participation …

Björklund et al. 2012

Food sovereignty

Food sovereignty is defined as the right of peoples and sovereign states to democratically

determine their own agricultural and food policies

IAASTD. 2008: International Assessment of Agricultural Science and Technology for Development , an intergovernmental panel; United Nations and World Bank

Food system approach?

• Help in identifying the range of involved issues and actors

• Provides a framework to address multiple vulnerabilities

• Assist in determing main limiting factors for food security

Food systems and their drivers

Ericksen 2008

Key Critical Issues for Sustainable Food production

Literature Chappell, M.J. & La Valle, L.A. 2011. Food security and biodiversity: can we have both?

Agriculture and Human Values 28:3-26.

Björklund, J et al. 2012. Ecosystem-based agriculture combining production and conservation—a vilable way to feed the world in the long term? Journal of Sustainable Agriculture 36: 824-855.

Ericksen P. 2008. Conceptualizing food systems for global environmental change reserach. Global Environmental Change 18: 234-245.

Ericksen, P. et al. 2009. Food security and global environmental change: emerging

challenges. Environmental Science & Policy 12: 373-377.

Godfray, H.C. et al 2010. Food security: the challenge of feeding 9 billion people. Science 327: 812-818.

IAASTD .2008. International Assessment of Agricultural Science and Technology for Development , an intergovernmental panel; United Nations and World Bank

IPCC 2013. IPCC 5th Assessment Report 2013. http://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar5/wg1/

Kahlouto et al. 2014. Taking planetary nutrient boundaries seriously: Can we feed the people?

Global Food Security 3: 6–21.

Kneafsey, M. et al. 2013. Consumers and food security: uncertain or empowered? Journal of Rural Studies 29: 101-112.

McKenzie, F.C. & Williams, J. 2015. Sustaiable food production: constraints, challenges and choices by 2050. Food Security 7:221-233.

Misselhorn, A. et al 2012. A vision for attaining food security. Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability 4:7-17

Olsson, E.G.A. 2002. Forests and Grasslands as Cradles for Agriculture. In: The Role of Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries in Human Nutrition. Ed. V.R. Squires. ENCYCLOPEDIA OF LIFE SUPPORT SYSTEMS. UNESCO. PARIS

Schmidhuber, J. & Tubiello, F.N. 2007. Global food security under climate change. PNAS 104: 19703-19708.

Seitzinger, S. P. et al. 2012. Planetary Stewardship in an Urbanizing World: Beyond City Limits. AMBIO 41:787–794

Steffen, W. et al. 2011. The Anthropocene: From global change to planetary stewardship. AMBIO 40:739-761.