Food is Fundamental
What did you eat today? Was it enough? Was it healthy? Was it fairly priced? Can you rely on it always being available when you want or need it?
October 16 is World Food Day.
Food is one of our basic needs, along with water (which food needs) and shelter (which some plants need). Most people can last a couple of months with water but no food, but there are a few extreme cases where people have lasted much longer. Insufficient food or poor nutrition can cause stunted growth in children, and diseases such as rickets or scurvy in children and adults.
"Who controls the food supply controls the people; who controls the energy can control whole continents; who controls money can control the world."
- Henry A. Kissinger
When I was a child, we ate well without a supermarket in sight. Even the local shop was a fair cycle away. The meat and vegetables came to us every week or two. We bought a chicken once a year from a local farmer, ordering next year's when this year's was delivered. Mum made her own pies and cakes. We also grew some of our own fruit and vegetables. Meat and two veg might sound boring to people raised on the enormous variety offered at supermarkets and takeaways, but mum was a good cook and I don't recall ever feeling deprived. We also occasionally went foraging, looking for blackberries or wild strawberries or sweet chestnuts.
Then when I was working age there were spells when I worked long hours and commuted long distances, and was heavily reliant on ready meals and food out of cans. These were not only expensive but also not very healthy. I consumed far too many sugary things and my teeth have suffered as a result.
Now I work from home and am vegetarian. I get most of my food from Riverford Organic Farmers, supplemented by fruit and veg I grow myself, the village shop and only the occasional visit to a supermarket. At an age when I should be looking forward to putting my feet up, I am busy expanding my food garden to increase my food security.
I grew up in farming country. We weren't farmers, though. Dad owned the garage. He was the one who worked through the night to fix the combine harvester so the crop could be harvested before the weather broke, and was willing to supply fuel at all hours if necessary. He was the one who first introduced mini tractors to the farmers. We kids helped out with some harvests.
Food security
There's no such thing as food security. Throughout human history, local drought and desertification have wiped out civilisations and caused wars. Drought ended the Hittite and Mayan civilizations and others. Floods, which brought fertility to the Nile valley, can also take it away as happened in Greece recently. An expanded lake Karla has permanently drowned almond groves.
Climate change exacerbates heatwaves, droughts, wildfires and floods.
UK
The UK imports about 30% of its food from the EU, especially fresh vegetables and fruit - around 50% in winter and considerably less in summer. Most comes by lorry via Calais, so if there is a problem there - as there was at one point due to covid - there are shortages. There have also been occasions when the shelves were empty because yields were down in Europe and Britain lost out because of the extra hassle since Brexit, not to mention fresh foods being delayed in transit. The USA imports around 20% . Some imports are to provide year-round variety rather than an ability to grow food. But some countries need to import for food security.
The UK will face greater food insecurity due to global warming. Farmers are already ripping up orchards. British apples could die out. Mediterranean droughts could endanger healthy diets in Britain. Even beer could run low. Variety after variety of fish has been taken off the menu due to overfishing. Schools and NHS caterers have been told to stop farmers overusing antibiotics.
Currently 4 million UK children are in food poverty. Demand for food banks has skyrocketed.
The UK government is said to be sleepwalking into a crisis, and farmers in the UK are treated so badly by the supermarkets as well dealing with all the other problems that many are likely to give up. Food shortages due to climate change could cause civil unrest.
USA
The USA is also facing a food crisis thanks to the war in Ukraine. America is having to change the foods it grows. Climate change is affecting Texas pecan and California almond growers.
According to the EPA, climate change will cause:
Changes in Agricultural Productivity
Impacts to Soil and Water Resources
Health Challenges to Agricultural Workers and Livestock
According to the USDA, "Climate change is likely to diminish continued progress on global food security through production disruptions that lead to local availability limitations and price increases, interrupted transport conduits, and diminished food safety, among other causes." It expects sugar production to fall because of the heat.
California has suffered both droughts and floods and is likely to continue to do so.
World
The only reason the Earth has been able to feed its burgeoning population so far has been oil. Oil is used to make fertilisers, to fuel farm machinery, for transport to market and for refrigeration where necessary. Poor countries cannot always afford good roads, transport and refrigeration so a percentage of food does not make it to market in a usable state. We need to cut greenhouse gases from food production, which accounts for a third of human-caused emissions. Worryingly, a recent study showed that crop failure risk is underestimated in climate models, and a UN expert says that global heating is likely to hit the world food supply before 1.5C. We will probably hit 1.5C for the first time this year.
Wars can prevent countries growing their own food, and also from exporting it, as has happened to Ukraine's grain. The Ukraine war could cause a global food crisis. Not everyone is unhappy about this though - the top 10 hedge funds have made £1.5bn profit.
Some of our food comes from the oceans. This is threatened by overfishing, excess CO2 emissions making the oceans more acidic, destruction of the sea bottom by trawling and dredging. Pollution, radioactivity (for example by Fukushima water) and plastics which may be thinly spread out can be bioaccumulated up the food chain until they threaten our health. This can also happen in rivers, which are also polluted by sewage and antibiotics, rendering fish caught there unsafe to eat. Sometimes what is done to get seafood on your plate is downright criminal.
Some countries choose to export food even though they cannot grow enough for themselves, our economic system is so screwed. For example Kenya sends runner beans and other produce to Britain.
Another way our economy leads to food shortages is because it allows people to speculate on basics such as food, and they can drive the price out of reach of ordinary people. We have also allowed middlemen to become monopolistic, so they can raise their prices out of reach.
Droughts have always resulted in food shortages locally, and sometimes to protest (e.g. Arab Spring), rebellion, war and/or mass migration. The difference now is that many more places are experiencing drought or flood now, and it will only get worse as we fail to reach net zero and the weather gets wilder and sea level rises. The world's food supply is threatened.
And spare a thought for the wildlife whose food we have taken for ourselves.
We need to make changes
All this exporting leads to a lot of food miles, including sea miles (e.g. lamb and apples from New Zealand to Britain) and air miles, which is crazy.
Some crops are grown in unsuitable places, for example if they need so much irrigation that farmers are extracting too much water from rivers or aquifers. Some crops will have to be moved as climate change makes their current homes no longer suitable. We've done this before, for example with grapes, but we will have to move faster now as global warming has hit record levels. Two years ago, NASA was predicting a global climate change impact on crops expected within 10 years, but we are already seeing it.
Our supply chains are very fragile. We've seen this when COVID restricted movement, when bottlenecks are blocked as when the Ever Given blocked the Suez Canal. Global warming is also a threat.
Also of concern is the packaging of our food, which often involves wasteful single-use plastic which can contain dangerous PFAS chemicals.
As many of us as possible need to grow some of our food and freeze or can it, so we won't starve if our fragile growing and delivery systems stutter, and to grow herbs and spices so we can make our meals more interesting if there is a reduction in variety. Perennial vegetables are best. Reducing our meat intake will free up more land for growing food for humans, as land is not only used for grazing animals, but also growing crops such as alfalfa for animals. There is also competition for land from biofuels.
Sometimes political decisions can disrupt food supplies. For example, the UK is missing up to 75% of seasonal farm workers needed for harvest thanks to Brexit, and the additional costs and bureaucracy and tariffs and delays at the border have caused some to give up importing or exporting food, or to move their business to the EU. Worker shortages drive up food prices and lead to food shortages.
There's been drought in China and Africa, floods in Australia, fluctuating temperatures in Spain, a heatwave in Europe .
Some of what we eat is ultra processed, and not very healthy at all, as it often contains a lot of sugar and/or salt and other additives such as preservatives.
As well as affecting which crops can be grown where, climate change affects their pests. For example, currently insect pets flying over to Britain from the continent get killed off by our cooler winters, but that may not be so for much longer.
Let's feed ourselves better
Food is essential for life. For most of us in the west, it also comes in great variety and healthy food is available for those who can afford it. Let's enjoy what we have, but not take it for granted. Growing some of your own not only increases your food security, but fresh fruit and veg are healthier than much-traveled fruit and veg or processed food, and tastier too! It increases your food security, can cut costs, and you can grow organic, making it far more sustainable. Choosing where your food comes from helps - try to avoid air freight entirely. Buying locally is usually better unless, for example, a lot of fossil fuels have gone into heating greenhouses.
Enjoy your healthy food with a clear conscience.