Climate Myopia
What we're missing about hunger when we focus too much on climate change
Hello!
🌍As the world gears up for the 28th UN Climate Change Conference (COP28), we're diving into a hot topic: food and climate. But with all the buzz about climate change and farming, are we dropping the ball on other big food issues? Like, who's getting their fair share and who's not? 🌱🔥🤔
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Cheers,
It's 2023, and 783 million people still go to bed hungry each night. Around 260 million of them face serious levels of hunger. How can this be?
If asked two years ago, the answer would have revolved around COVID, the uneven recovery and the precarious world of “essential workers”, from farms to factories to front doors.
One year ago, all signs pointed to the invasion of Ukraine and the steep climb in the costs of food and fuel.
Today, we’ve noticed those stories quietly retreat in favor of a new narrative: increasing climate shocks as the key culprits driving hunger.
We don’t debate that climate-related hunger is real.
The impact of the climate crisis on food systems is shocking. Climate change is more than increasing temperatures; it's a cascade of more frequent droughts and floods, dwindling water supplies and rising sea levels, wreaking havoc on crops and livestock.
At the same time, the way that food is produced, processed, consumed and disposed of contributes about one-third of greenhouse gas emissions – creating a vicious cycle that accelerates global warming.
Without action, experts worry that falling crop yields will push more people into poverty and hunger. Of the countries most at-risk to the impacts of climate change, 27 are already experiencing extreme rates of food insecurity.
The #hungryforaction campaign from Global Citizen asked people about their lived experience of hunger. One entry from Nigeria reads:
"Farmers go through a lot of challenges, because of the impact of climate change. We need to support them as much as possible. Yes, because the livelihood of a nation depends on the farmers for food production and therefore food security and sovereignty is so essential."
Sounds compelling. So, what’s the problem?
There are two issues we’ve noticed with how the climate and hunger narrative plays out in real life.
First, discussions on the impacts of climate change on food systems are overwhelmingly focused on food production, which is only one part of the hunger problem. Second, the constantly shifting narratives of hunger lead us to abandon existing initiatives and solutions, as we all rush to carve out space in whatever new area is getting all the funding and attention.
The discussion on the impacts of climate change on food systems are narrowly centered on the need to grow more food. Headlines focus on how climate change threatens to cause synchronized harvest failures and how the El Niño phenomenon drives hunger around the world. The worry is that as climate change accelerates, we will not be able to produce enough food to feed the planet. Responses end up being about how to increase yields. Even work to help smallholder farmers adapt climate change is often about protecting or increasing their harvests.
In reality, the world already produces more than enough calories for everyone to enjoy a healthy life (and then some, with 2,300 calories available per person). And while we don’t know how climate change will impact this — it’s clear what kind of foods we produce, how much waste we can reduce and how food gets distributed are just as important issues to growing more corn, wheat and soy.
Hunger is equally (if not mostly) a function of the food system’s ability to equitably distribute affordable, nutritious, safe food. In this, the food system is already broken. But we know what needs to be done to improve it. Which brings us to the next point….
The world has already created numerous hunger initiatives and identified solutions that we are not following through on. By the world, we mean governments, academics, civil society and even private companies. These solutions were identified during COVID times and the global food crisis, among other tough moments. Because the narrative of the debate shifts so often, we are not investing enough in the many already identified actions that we know could help improve the efficiency of food systems and reduce food insecurity.
This is true about plans to restructure food markets, ensure smooth trade flows and abandon some of the worst excesses of the industrial food system.
We will not belabor it here, but if you’re interested, scroll below the post for a sample list of solutions we already have today.
Are shifting priorities a symptom of how difficult it is to transform food systems?
In an exploration of “why the great food transformation might not happen”, the authors remind us that shifting the status quo is always difficult. Those who benefit from the current system will work to uphold it, and try to direct attention and investment to the areas that maintain the existing order as it is.
This seems true of the food and climate debate, where the focus is on incremental adjustments and tech fixes that allow us to keep on with business as usual while managing the impacts of extreme weather events on food production.
Not enough of the food and climate debate is about addressing fundamental inequalities or unsustainable consumption or power structures — issues that must be addressed to create healthier and more equitable food systems.
The UN estimates that there will still be 600 million hungry people in the world in 2030. What excuse will we be using by then?
Bonus: A sample of impactful solutions that we could invest in to transform food systems and address food insecurity.
The global community has identified the need to:
1. Address the tendency for countries to implement export restrictions to protect national food supply that in turn can drive rates of hunger in other countries. More than 26 countries have either restricted or limited trade in food as part of the global food crisis. This IFPRI portal keeps track.
2. Reduce food loss and waste across the board. WRI has written extensively on solutions.
3. Provide adequate safety nets for those who need it, when they need it – especially when we can predict hunger “hot spots.”
4. Reconsider industrial crop and animal production (and consumption). From reconsidering support to industrial agriculture to modest proposals for no meat before dinner.
5. Improve gender equity, which is much easier to say than to do. This FAO report has concrete suggestions on how, including improving women’s ownership of land and better access to child care.
6. Tackle corporate consolidation. 60% of the global seed market is controlled by three companies. Just a handful of companies sit at critical points of the food system. There is a lot that governments can do to revive antitrust laws and break exploitative market structures.
7. Repurpose harmful subsidies. $540 billion is spent annually to support agricultural producers in ways that often harm nature and health. Can we use it better?
8. Prevent sovereign debt crises, which have been partly driven by sustainable food systems. IPES Food has a deep dive with suggestions.
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