Category Archives: Biosphere

Salish Center Group Project

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This course was a learning experience in how to deal with stress and uncertain times. Like also it shed a tremendou light on how our food system works. I was incredibly surprised how many times I would be excited to talk to my friends or family about what I am learning. The reason for that is during COVID food is on a lot of people’s minds. Whether we will have food in our grocery store the next day or month, etc. 

 

Going into the group project I was excited to see what I could do to help a food NGO and apply the knowledge I learned in class. That’s why I wanted to do the Salish center as my group project as I love seafood tremendously. I wanted to learn how a NGO can impact seafood supply chains. We had our first set of meetings and were able to get the goals from our advisor Riley Starks, The Executive Director of Salish Center. He talked about how the Salish Center goals which were the following:

  • PDO (Protected Designation of Origin)
  • Increased consumer knowledge of their seafood’s source. 
  • Long term goal of protecting the Salish Sea.
  • Promote regional food

Learning about these goals we had a set number of objectives. Riley wanted us to contact as much outside organizations such as churches, companies, restaurants etc to gain funding and lobbying towards Salish Center efforts. Also he wanted us to bolster the NGO social media. When doing the objectives I could not feel motivated. My work was to find the churches in Seattle and surrounding cities and contact them. I got zero contact back from the churches or anyone for the matter and it was demoralizing. Also felt like I couldn’t concentrate on anything other than the events happening around me.

 

I learnt from the group project about my worst and what it means to deal with tremendous stress from other parts of my life. My regret is not figuring out a way to deal with that stress to help my group members in a manner that is representative of my best. I hope that this class serves as a lesson in how to deal with uncertain times and hopefully I grow from it. 

Lobbying for Climate and the Unknown about Industries

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In this class, I had the chance to examine the world food system from closer perspective. Indeed, the system thinking that we have been discussing all along the quarter perfectly applies to the industrial system.  Industries and companies are quintessentially looking for a maximum profit by using additives, pesticides, and fertilizer to increase the yield and minimize losses. Without looking at the consequences, for instance, food additives that are always used by industrials company are harmful for our body, causing obesity and other diseases, and also have an impact on the biosphere such as monocrops cultures, declining wild fish stocks, GMS crops, biofuels uses, etc.

However, the real wrongdoers in this situation are all people, especially politician, who know what is happening but do not lift a finger to change our mode of production, and therefore consumption. In fact, it is the role of our politician to establish regulation and make sure that companies who are not respecting norms and rules will be punished.

In these ideas some of my classmates and I decided to join a group of lobbyists who support the Energy Innovation Act. This Act should reduce America’s emissions by at least 40% in the first 12 years, and create 2.1 million new jobs, thanks to economic growth in local communities across America. Such results could be attained by taxing all companies who are producing greenhouse gas and giving benefice to U.S consumers. Therefore, consumers are not the one paying for a better carbon footprint. Nonetheless, this regulation has exemptions for fuels used for agriculture, the U.S army, and others. Otherwise, it could have the impact of a bomb in all the mass food industries such as in production of pesticides and fertilizers who are required to keep high yield. This policy will force industries to adapt their greenhouse emission effectively in order to keep making money as they meant to do, but with a better respect for our planet.

Until now politics are protecting industrials processed food because it brings a low food price to the population (U.S spend under 10% of their income on food). Therefore, industries in generals have very few regulations to leave the room for them to produce mass cheap food such as the industries who are not constrained, therefore polluting the environment further. Indeed, if a majority of us are showing support and interest to new type of regulation such as the Energy and Innovation act, we will force industrial companies to adapt their mode of production. Let’s not be naïve and wait for industrial companies to deliver us real food and be sustainable!

https://citizensclimatelobby.org/energy-innovation-and-carbon-dividend-act/

https://beef2live.com/story-americans-spend-under-10-income-food-0-124534

Picture 1: https://www.carbonpricingleadership.org/blogs/2019/2/3/bipartisan-carbon-fee-and-dividend-bill-now-before-us-congress

Picture 2: http://www.ecobase21.net/Lesmotsduclimatsmartphone/Companies.html

Carbon Farming and Systemic Thinking

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In response to Adeline Ellison’s “Spare the Till – Carbon Farming’s Impact on the Climate”

In her post, Adeline discusses an article that highlights carbon farming as a potential opportunity to mitigate environmental damage and combat climate change. Adeline states, “the excitement of a revolutionary idea (and the potential for profit) can get ahead of the actual science.” She goes on to say that there is “potential for groups to continue to back a science that may not be entirely sound”. The science does however seem to be “sound”, as the article itself stated that the National Academies of Sciences’ research suggested that soil sequestration could remove 250 million metric tons of carbon dioxide per year in the US, and could provide nearly 10 percent of carbon reduction needed to avoid a 2-degree increase in temperature if implemented globally (Popkin).

The idea of implementing practices that contribute to soil regeneration and thus a carbon sink should be a non-issue. I do agree that systemic thinking is required, especially since stopping CO2 creation at the source is more effective than attempts to tend to the issue with a band-aid solution. Monica Price’s system mapping video and class visit demonstrated that complicated issues need be regarded in whole systems approach. She discussed root causes, feedback loops, and causal loop diagraming. Understanding feedback loops can help mitigate the tendency for people to blame stakeholders in a system. For example, farmers should not be blamed, as they are simply acting rationally in a capitalist society and have their own livelihoods at stake.

In addition, it is also important to consider that adjusting one part of a system can have a domino effect to other connected issues. If policy encourages soil regeneration, local economies can be revitalized and boost the overall wellbeing of communities.

Monica Price Food Map:

https://kumu.io/monicapc/food-system-vision-2050-oct2019#food-system-vision-2050/quality-amount-of-soil-and-water

Original article:

https://thefern.org/2020/03/is-carbon-farming-a-climate-boon-or-boondoggle/

In Response to “A Plague Overlooked: The locust crisis lurking in the shadow of COVID-19”

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In response to this blog post.

I chose to respond to Cameron’s blog post because it uncovers a serious crisis currently in the shadow of COVID-19 news. Their post describes the large swarms of locusts overtaking farmland throughout the Horn of Africa. As of May 13th the locusts continue to spread rapidly; officials warn they may migrate east as far as the Indo-Pakistan border and even to West Africa.   

Map showing possible Desert Locust Spread, fao.org

How international organizations are addressing this crisis closely relates our study of the global food economy. Developing countries (like those on the Horn of Africa) face comparatively more severe repercussions from an agricultural crisis like this than in developed countries. Agriculture comprises a much higher portion of their GDP and they lack sufficient resources to respond to such a disaster. The locust swarms are also infesting extremely food insecure nations like South Sudan. Then why has funding been slow and insufficient? Historically (and still today) international trade institutions are manipulated so that the world food system works in favor of developed nations. As discussed by Clapp,  developed countries dump their subsidized food in global markets while developing countries struggle to compete with the cheap costs. There seems to be little international movement towards helping the region during this crisis. Developing countries continue to lack influence in intergovernmental organizations like the U.N yet are facing increasingly devastating environmental crises like this one.

Locusts swarm through East Africa

This issue therefore clearly connects to the idea of “triple inequality” discussed in class. As Cameron mentions, climate change has been linked to the locust swarms. The affected countries have had little historical influence on global warming, yet pay the brunt of the climate costs while having little capacity to adapt and respond to this disaster. The “triple inequality” theory, in combination with the structuring of international organizations and the world food system overall, elucidates how the system is stacked against these developing countries. Sufficient funding should be provided in response to this crisis, but we must also think of larger reforms that reshape these global systems by putting power into the hands of climate change threatened countries. How can we reform these systems so that they are fair, just, and work for all, not just the most powerful?