Author Archives: alant5

Reflection on Climate Change and the World Food System

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My group had the opportunity to work with the Citizens Climate Lobby, the CCL is a grassroot, non-profit and nonpartisan environmental group primarily focused on the passage of the Energy, Innovation, and Carbon Dividend Act. The act aimed at reducing the use of fossil fuels and encouraging industries, companies and people within the United States to reduce their carbon footprint and find alternative methods that are cleaner for the environment and cheaper for both the companies and the American people. With climate change becoming more impactful and disruptive in our lives and the world food system that we live in, it is now, more imperative as ever, to address the problem of climate change before it truly does irreparable damage to our world food system and our livelihoods. 

The Energy, Innovation, and Carbon Dividend Act aims to drive down American carbon pollution and fossil fuel usage in order to bring climate change under control.

Climate change has already caused direct damage to the world food system and to how some people can live their lives. This experience is documented by Kirk Semple in his article “Central American Farmers Head to the U.S., Fleeing Climate Change.”. Within that article, Semple notes that climate change in Central America has led to large amounts of crop failures, especially in coffee plants, the economic lifeblood for many in these Central American farming cooperatives. With these failures, many farmers and workers in these coffee plantations fear that with nothing to sell, they cannot pay for food leading to hunger among families. This has led to many to migrate to the United States hoping to escape hunger and find better economic opportunity. 

Graph showing immigration change from Central American nations to the United States. Coincides with the increase in climate change that has occured in Central America causing harm to farming cooperatives.

These Central American farmers are not the only ones affected by climate change, as noted by Dr. Litfin in the 2nd Contemplative Practice on Systems Thinking, our food systems has developed from what was once a local endeavor, into one that is international and large in its scale and effects. We see this interconnectivity in an article by Thin Lei Win called “Climate Shocks in Just One Country Could Disrupt Global Food Supply.”. Within the article, Win notes that researchers found that if American wheat production and supply underwent a four-year drought, then the 174 countries in which America exports wheat to, would see their reserves decrease, despite not suffering from failed harvests themselves. 

How Climate Change such as global warming can effect production of agriculture and lead to food shortages, in this case: Corn.

With the interconnectivity of our world food system and with the dangers climate change poses for our future. It is time to take action whether that be joining the CCL in their June 13th virtual conference “A Community Stronger than CONVID” where you can talk to your local congressional representative about actions that need to be taken on climate change or simply reusing bags when grocery shopping. It is important to take action for the sake of ourselves and the world food system.

Thoughts on Food Waste and Inequality

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I was reading through Sydney’s post “Tons of Hungry People and Tons of Wasted Food.” about the high amount of food waste being produced by American farms. I wanted to add to the discussion on food waste and food insecurity introduced by Sydney by discussing the inequality present in our current international food system. While America sees about 40% of the food it produces going to waste (63 million tons), there are growing concerns from the chief of the UN’s food relief agency that the world could be facing a widespread famine of “biblical proportions.” Reports indicate that 30 nations, all from the developing world, are under threat of undergoing widespread famine, with 10 of these nations already having more than 1 million people on the brink of starvation. 

Map of areas where food insecurity is a concern, darker colors indictating the severity of the threat of famine.

This inequality when it comes to access and availability of food has been discussed in Clapp’s paper “Agricultural Trade Liberalization.” Clapp notes that trade policies employed by wealthy nations such as export subsidies and pressuring developing nations to lower tariffs on goods have led to producers in these more prosperous nations receiving better access to economic markets and, therefore, profit. This has led to an adverse effect on the economic and agricultural sectors of developing nations as these developing nations lose economic tools like tariffs and export taxes to strengthen their agricultural sector. At the same time due to export subsidies employed by wealthier nations, products from these richer nations have pushed out domestic agricultural producers leading to poverty and growing threats of hunger and famine as people in these developing nations are unable to pay for food due to their source of income being taken away due to import surges. 

Sydney’s article illustrates the luxury of food production and food waste in America and richer nations, which stands in stark contrast to the fears of food insecurity in the developing world. Due to economic factors and fear of angering domestic producers, it is unlikely that richer nations will take the necessary steps to address the inequality in trade and politics between them and developing nations. Yet, could these richer nations not take steps to help alleviate the threat of famine by shipping excess production and “food waste” to these developing nations? 

Thoughts on Bananas and Interconnectivity

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Bananas in the Supermarket.

I ate a banana in the morning. It wasn’t a particularly special banana. It was mushy in some parts. It tasted exactly like a bunch of other bananas I’ve eaten before. I bought it during one of my trips to the store because my mom said that our home was low on fruits. That banana was just one of the millions of bananas harvested around the world. Like those millions of bananas, it was packaged. Then it was shipped across the globe by various means of transportation before ending up at that fateful store where I bought it. 

It’s easy to not think about where our food comes from and mindlessly buy it and consume it, but the fact that I can buy bananas harvested in China before going the next aisle over and picking up a can of coffee beans harvested from Colombia and then going to the produce aisle to get some meat that came from a local Washington farm. Just imaging and contemplating that interconnectivity, it’s stunning that our society and our food system has evolved so quickly from being a primarily local endeavor to one that is international in its scale. 

However, it raises questions and worries; our food system is more interconnected than ever. However, it’s also more vulnerable than ever because no longer are problems like bad harvests confined locally; they are now problems that have to be dealt with internationally. Not only that, but this interconnectivity has allowed for abundance, some would even say overabundance of food into our lives. Yet, we still have people in areas going hungry because this abundance is not shared equally amongst the international population. These problems raise the question, has our interconnectivity widened the gap between the haves and the have-nots?, If so is there even a way to make meaningful change is such a large and interconnected food system? 

COVID-19 and the Problems Present in the Food Supply Chain

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With the increasing spread of COVID-19 necessitating widespread shutdowns to locations such as restaurants, schools, and theme parks. These closures have left produce growers scrambling to find new areas of demand for their products as the food supply chain comes under substantial disruption. 

The problem within the food supply chain it seems is that there is a growing need in food banks that is not being addressed for numerous reasons. These reasons include grocery stores being unable to donate any produce due to their shelves becoming bare in the wake of panic shopping in the wake of COVID-19. In a Guardian article talking about the disruption in the global food supply chain, produce growers expressed concern financially take the huge losses that come from harvesting, packaging, and shipping to food banks when they are already facing losses from being unable to sell their produce, leading these farmers to ask for the US Department of Agriculture to step in and buy up the produce to donate to food banks to avoid hurting the finances of farms. 

However, in that same article food suppliers like Brent Erenwart, CEO of Houston Cold Storage, a food supplier have mentioned that food banks are full noting that “the supply chain is the grocery stores seem to be pretty heavy on product, farmers are throwing away stuff, and food banks are full. We don’t know where the demand lies”. 

These contradictory situations highlight how broken down the food distribution system is within the United States as food banks that desperately need the products are unable to find donations due to people purchasing large quantities of foodstuffs with only themselves in mind and economic realities making it tough for farmers to help alleviate the financial burden that comes from planting, packaging and shipping new produce. Finally, even if those problems can be solved, it fails to answer how food banks suffering from shortages can get produce sent to them consistently and reliably.  

These problems likely require some government intervention whether that be buying produce from the farmers to give to food banks which could help alleviate the financial burden of these farmers or helping direct food distribution that allows for produce to go into the hands of food banks that are suffering from food shortages, it remains to be seen if the government will take these steps. Still, it is vital that problems with the food distribution system must be addressed. 

Boxes of food are set up for a drive-through food distribution run by Food Bank for the Heartland on March 16 in Council Bluffs, Iowa. Photo Credit: Food Bank for the Heartland.