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The Environmental Impact of the Food System
- 1. The Environmental Impact of the Food System My Truong
- 2. An Introduction to Global Warming & Climate Change global warming: steady rise in Earth's surface temperature climate change: significant long-term change in the expected patterns of average weather of an environment over a significant period of time.
- 3. Climate Crisis ● rising sea levels ● intense weather changes ● greenhouse gases ● melting of the Earth’s ice sheets
- 4. The impact of climate change on the food system Intense weather changes affecting the growth of crops ● Extreme precipitation ● Flooding ● Heat waves
- 5. The impact of climate change on the food system ● Parasites ● Weeds, pest and fungi ● New strains of disease
- 6. plastic packaging pollution, microplastics rubber ducks How the food system adds to the climate crisis
- 7. How the food system adds to the climate crisis livestock production environmental footprint meat production red meat
- 8. How the food system adds to the climate crisis pesticides in agriculture honey bee population frogs bats Florida Everglades Honeybee communities are plunging nationwide Male frogs exposed to atrazine become females Pesticides are related bat die-offs Endosulfan flow from tomato fields endangers the fish that sustain ibises, storks, and egrets
- 9. Direct Action Proper education Media coverage Promote, support, protect
- 10. Direct Action direct action by every individual lobbying for change small changes in the lifestyle
- 11. Direct Action direct action from the government carbon tax addressing corporations legislation
- 12. Works Cited "The Causes of Climate Change." Global Climate Change: Vital Signs of the Planet, climate.nasa.gov/causes/. Accessed 20 Oct. 2019. Carrington, Damian. "Global food system is broken, say world's science academies." The Guardian, 28 Nov. 2018, www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/nov/28/ global-food-system-is-broken-say-worlds-science- academies. Accessed 20 Oct. 2019. Cho, Renee. "How Climate Change Will Alter Our Food." State of the Planet, 25 July 2018, blogs.ei.columbia.edu/2018/07/25/climate-change-food-agriculture/. Accessed 15 Nov. 2019. Little, Amanda. "Climate Change Is Likely to Devastate the Global Food Supply. But There's Still Reason to Be Hopeful." Time, 28 Aug. 2019, time.com/5663621/climate-change -food-supply/.Accessed 20 Oct. 2019. Ramberg, JJ. "How to fix our broken food system." BBC, ww.bbc.com/future/bespoke/follow-the-food/how-to-fix-our-broken-food-system.html. Accessed 20 Oct. 2019. Woodward, Aylin, and Morgan McFall-Johnsen. "Our food system accounts for a whopping 37% of greenhouse-gas emissions, a UN report found. But it could also offer a solution to the climate crisis." Business Insider, 8 Aug. 2019, www.businessinsider.com/ "12 Things You Can Do To Start An Eco-Food Revolution." Greenpeace, www.greenpeace.org/usa/sustainable-agriculture/eco-farming/12-things-you-can-do/. Accessed 20 Oct. 2019.
Editor's Notes
- When you look at the news, these days, it seems like there’s always another fire in California or extreme temperatures during seasons of the year that are abnormal. These changes in our environment can be attributed to global warming, which is a steady rise in Earth's surface temperature. Many believe that global warming and climate change are synonyms; however, climate change is defined as any meaningful change in the conventional patterns of weather of a area over some time.
- The fast acceleration in greenhouse gases causes a change in the climate quicker than most living things can adapt to. Earth's ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica are beginning to melt, causing sea levels to rise significantly and quickly. Scientists predict that sea levels are going to rise between one and 2.3 feet by 2050 as the glaciers melt. Global warming is going to lead to more intense storms with the rain followed by longer, drier droughts. These weather conditions will provide a challenge for crops as plants and animals can only live in a state of an environment that is suitable for them. With the loss of a stable environment and food to consume, the survival of all living things on Earth will become a crisis.
- With the problems that the climate crisis brings, they threaten to decrease the quantity and quality of the world's food supplies. As rainfall is an important part of growing crops, climate change altering rainfall patterns around the world will directly damage crops and decrease yields every season. As tropical storms intensify, flooding caused by them will drown crops. These floods transport sewage, manure or other pollutants from civilization into the food that humans' consume. Hotter weather is related to faster evaporation, therefore creating more droughts and water shortages for irrigation that is needed. Despite all the cons, global warming may benefit some crops, such as potatoes in Northern Europe and rice in West Africa that thrive in warmer conditions. Despite these few oddities, climate change will provide a challenge in raising traditional crops because conditions for these plants are often strict and unforgiving. With the need to shift to higher altitudes, the soil may not be fertile enough for the plants and there will be less land available for growing. In addition, heat waves are expected to become more frequent, making livestock less fertile and more vulnerable to disease. As cows that produce dairy are sensitive to heat, milk production would also decline.
- In warm, moist conditions, parasites and diseases will target livestock. This may lead to livestock ranchers handling parasites and animal infections by using extra chemicals and veterinary drugs that will enter the food chain. Climate change will allow weeds, pests and fungi to increase with earlier springs and milder winters giving more time for them to increase in population. Plant diseases and insects that are new to an area could damage crops that haven’t had time to evolve a form of defense against them.
- Most foods are made of plastic and after one use, most people throw them in the trash. Even if they attempt to be a good citizen and recycle the plastic, only about 9% of the plastic waste produced between 1950 and 2015 was recycled. Plastic is found everywhere, from the Arctic to Antarctica. Even on remote islands and the deepest spot on Earth, Mariana’s Trench, plastic can still be found. With the sheer amount of plastic on Earth, it is affecting wildlife. Plastic can be found in the stomach contents of more than 90% of birds, lodging inside the digestive tract of marine animals such as sea turtles as well as choking whales. As plastic never truly become absorbed into the Earth, humans ingest microplastic particles in the food and drinks that they consume everyday. On average, people ingest 2,000 microplastic particles every week, which is about 5 grams of plastic. This is the equivalent of eating a credit card every week! In 1992, 28,000 rubber duckies plunged into the sea after the freight ship fell into the ocean from Hong Kong to the United States. Those plastic bath toys can even be seen today. They wash ashore from time to time even in completely different oceans. They have been spotted on the coasts of Ireland and Britain as well as the eastern seaboard of the United States. The plastic ducks are joined by millions of other plastic items flowing through the ocean currents. The ducks are a demonstration of how long plastic will continue to pollute our planet if there is no change in the mass manufacturing of plastic products.
- Yes, meat is tasty but it’s also horrendously nottable for spreading pollution, creating waste and making the lives of animals miserable. Livestock farming has a vast environmental footprint. It contributes to land and water degradation, biodiversity loss, acid rain, coral reef degradation and deforestation. Livestock farming contributes 18% of human-produced greenhouse gas emissions globally. This is more than all emissions from ships, planes, trucks, cars and all other transportation systems added together. Meat production is extremely inefficient, especially with red meat. One kilogram of beef requires 25 kilograms of grain and about 15,000 litres of water. In addition, 30% of the earth's land surface is used for livestock farming.
- Pesticides wreak havoc on the environment, threatening biodiversity and diminishing the natural systems living creatures depend on to survive. Most notably, America’s honeybees started dying – populations have declined by 29% - 36% each year since 2006 but the amphibians were the first to decline in numbers, showing a strong association to pesticide endangerment. With bats being the most recent victims, they are very susceptible to deadly diseases (white-nose syndrome). Their immune systems are weakened by pesticides and they end up dying on the floors of the caves they reside in. Pesticides also seep through the soil into groundwater. poisoning fish and other organisms. The run-off is unregulated and can last for days, weeks, months – even decades.
- Most people don’t know the extent of the state of the environment and with better education about the issue, more people will be more likely to make changes in their lifestyles as well as lobby for action from the government. With more media coverage about this topic, more Americans are starting to understand that climate change is happening and it won’t be stopping any time soon. But at the same time, Americans are not any more willing to pay money to fight climate change that they were 3 years ago. With education. people will become more encouraged to use energy and water more efficiently as well as recycle household waste. People with more education tend not only to be more concerned about the environment, but also to become involved in actions that promote and support political decisions that protect the environment. Such pressure is a vital way of pushing governments towards the type of binding agreement that is needed to reduce greenhouse gases and control emission levels.
- As individuals, there are many ways to reduce your carbon footprint and your waste output. Ways to become more sustainable may include reducing your meat intake, saying no thank you to plastic bags, bringing you reusable coffee mugs to shops, bringing a water bottle, choosing metal straws over plastic, eating seasonally and/or locally, having shorter showers. Lobbying for change will also provide the government that you support legislation of bills that will provide action towards climate change.
- Many economists support a carbon tax, a policy that makes polluters pay for emitting greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. This tax could help support renewable-energy R&D or public-transit improvements. But even then, most people are not willing to spend much. This tax will help polluters from continuing their actions and preventing the addition of extra carbon in our atmosphere. Just 100 companies have been the source of more than 70% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions since 1988. ExxonMobil, Shell, BP, Chevron, Gazprom, and the Saudi Arabian Oil Company are some of the notable names that are in the companies that add to greenhouse gas emissions. If the fossil fuel industry and high-polluting nations are not required to improve, humanity will be on course to increase global temperatures by 4°C by the end of the century. Governments can establish legislation that could control industries to remain within sustainable emission limits. Governments could also make renewable energy generation, from solar panels and wind turbines that will be affordable to all consumers. More must also be arranged by rich and powerful industries to encourage and enable poorer countries to moderate and accommodate climate change.