Food and climate: on the way to the balance needed for the planet

Sustainable food

In recent years, the food system has become one of the main elements in the fight against climate change. What we eat, far from being anecdotal, plays a crucial role, since the food sector accounts for around a third of greenhouse gas emissions worldwide and the effects of global warming are increasingly affecting the planet’s food security. With this article we analyse this link and continue the series of publications in which we want to make visible the links between food and other contemporary challenges.

Food is considered one of the sectors with the greatest potential to contribute to climate change mitigation and adaptation and, at the same time, as confirmed by the Paris Agreement, it is a “fundamental priority to safeguard food security and end hunger, and the particular vulnerability of food production systems to the adverse effects of climate change”.

At the Daniel and Nina Carasso Foundation, we address the fight against climate change in a transversal way in all our actions, as a constant that moves us. Our sustainable food line is one of the areas – along with citizen art – in which this commitment is most evident and where the effects of applying a systemic transformation are most tangible.

“Sustainable food has an extraordinary potential to propose measures and solutions that face the challenge of the climate emergency, as demonstrated by a large number of projects that the Foundation supports, thanks to the participation of agents in this sector, the interest of some public entities and civil society. Therefore, reforming our food system is a necessary part of the solution.”

Isabelle Le Galo, director for Spain of the Daniel and Nina Carasso Foundation.

The agri-food sector and its impact on climate change

According to the Advance of Greenhouse Gas Emissions for 2020, published by the Ministry for Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge (MITECO), greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture in Spain represent 14.1% of the country’s total (1.2% more than the previous year), within which livestock accounts for 9.1% and crops for 4.9%. This increase in emissions is caused, for example, by manure management or the use of inorganic fertilizers.

Beyond the agricultural and livestock activity itself, as the most visible aspects, the implications of the food sector extend from the energy needed for its development to waste management, including transport and other elements of the food chain. Economic links converge in them that are also called to play a fundamental role in the protection of the environment, since as a whole they have a notorious impact on the climate. For example, emissions from agricultural, forestry and fishing machinery constitute 4.6% of total national emissions and, according to MITECO data, in 2020 they increased compared to the previous year, due to the increase in the consumption of diesel B.

In short, according to the report “Greenhouse gas emissions in the agri-food system and carbon footprint of food in Spain” by the Royal Academy of Engineering, the total carbon footprint of food in Spain – from the production of inputs to waste management – has multiplied by 3.8 in total terms and by 2.4 in per capita terms between 1960 and 2010. going from 1.5 to 3.5 tons of CO2 per capita per year. It also considers that this activity represents a third of global emissions.

Given these data, the transformation towards a more sustainable food sector, respectful of the planet and people, requires a great global effort based on local and regional projects and policies that have an impact on this objective. All actors and sectors in the food chain, from production to consumption, can contribute to this path, as well as governments whose climate change mitigation plans are beginning to contemplate reducing emissions from this sector. The projects and initiatives that we support from the Foundation show that the transition is already underway, but it requires the sustained commitment of public administrations in particular to establish itself definitively.

The Glasgow Declaration on Food and Climate, signed by more than fifty local and regional authorities from around the world, is a positive step forward in this regard. It calls on national governments to establish supportive policy frameworks and multi-level and multi-stakeholder governance mechanisms that enable coordinated decision-making on food systems, as well as to assess targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions from food systems.

At the same time, the declaration – which seeks to influence the decisions to be taken at COP26 in Glasgow at the end of this year – insists on appealing to the resilience of our societies and economic sectors, so that changes in patterns of production, distribution, consumption and waste management are consolidated with balances of social justice. economic development and well-being.

Food System Mitigation and Adaptation

The contribution of Working Group 1 to the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) “Climate Change 2021: Physical Basis”, presented last August, warns that global warming of 2°C would cause episodes of extreme heat that would reach critical tolerance thresholds for agriculture and health in all regions of the world. The study reports an unprecedented increase in global warming of 1.1ºC compared to the period 1850-1900 and the increase in extreme weather events, with the urgent need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to limit the temperature increase to 1.5ºC.

In Spain in particular, according to recent assessments considered by MITECO, an increase in extreme weather events is expected, such as frosts, droughts, intense rainfall, floods, forest fires, alteration in rainfall cycles and modification of the seasons, all with diverse impacts on agricultural production and economic losses.

The special situation of vulnerability in which the Spanish agricultural sector finds itself makes it even more essential to develop initiatives that limit the impacts on the sector and enhance its capacity to fight climate change. The food sector, which is fundamental for Spain, has a great challenge: mitigation and adaptation to climate change.

The potential to address this is based on the sector’s intrinsic relationship with the care of the land and biodiversity, and their capacity as carbon sinks. Also in other efforts such as the improvement of energy efficiency throughout the food chain, the use of traditional crop varieties and native breeds, or the implementation of practices based on agroecology, as demonstrated by numerous projects and initiatives, some of them supported by the Foundation.

“The very nature of these projects – agroecological and linked to Territorialised Food Systems (SAT) – enhances their capacity to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and their resilience to the impacts of climate change, being very inspiring examples for other initiatives that are being launched”.

Pilar Martínez, Project Coordinator – Sustainable Food

There are efforts such as that of Ramats de foc, which take advantage of grazing to try to reduce the risks and the spread of fires in the province of Girona. An innovative project that brings together the forestry and livestock sector, with the support of the local guild of butchers and restaurants, to market the meat products produced on the livestock farms involved.

From another perspective, the loss of biodiversity that is accelerated by climate change has a response with the work of recovering local varieties of seeds, traditional peasant knowledge and the collective management of the biodiversity cultivated in Andalusia, carried out by the Andalusian Seed Network “Cultivating Biodiversity” (RAS). Cultivated biodiversity and, in particular, protecting and enhancing the use of indigenous seeds are important because they are more resilient to adverse climatic events

The principles of food sovereignty and nature conservation in the south of the province of Córdoba provide the basis for the alternative model of organic production and consumption, accompanied by a short distribution channel, promoted by Subbética Ecológica and with which it also strengthens the socioeconomic fabric of the region.

A tool with great potential is the design of public policies on food, such as the work promoted by the Network of Cities for Agroecology to build local, environmentally friendly, sustainable, inclusive, resilient, safe and diversified food systems, in line with the perspectives of agroecology and food sovereignty.

In the same line of networking, inspired by SDG 17, our commitment is framed in the Climate Foundations Pact, which we promote in collaboration with the Spanish Association of Foundations (AEF), to promote networking and generate a commitment at a philanthropic level in the face of the climate emergency.

It is time to act with urgency, but also with hope. The crises we are currently facing and the results demonstrated from practice and research, consolidate our conviction that sustainable food is a relevant and essential lever of transformation to respond to the climate emergency and the needs of our society. In addition, the set of projects supported by the Foundation to date clearly and documentedly marks the paths of transition and their viability. We can move towards a food system that respects the planet and people, an instrument of health and the future for future generations. It’s in our hands.

Glossary

Food sovereignty: Food sovereignty is considered as the right of peoples to define their agricultural and food policy, both at the local, regional and national levels, which includes production, distribution and consumption. Food sovereignty organizes food production and consumption according to the needs of local communities, giving priority to production for local and domestic consumption. It provides the right for people to choose what they eat and how they want to produce it. The concept was proposed by Via Campesina at the World Food Summit in 1996 and is supported by numerous agricultural and social entities around the world.
Agroecology: FAO views agroecology as a scientific discipline, a set of practices and a social movement. As a science, it studies how different components of the agricultural ecosystem interact. As a set of practices, it seeks sustainable agricultural systems that optimize and stabilize production. As a social movement, it pursues multifunctional roles for agriculture, promotes social justice, nurtures identity and culture, and strengthens the economic viability of rural areas.
Locally produced foods: These are those that are produced, processed, distributed and consumed in a nearby geographical area, which contribute to the economy and strengthen the communities linked to these practices.

Bibliography

Aguilera, E., Piñero, P., Infante Amate, J., González de Molina, M., Lassaletta, L., Sanz Cobeña, A. (2020). Greenhouse gas emissions in the agri-food system and the carbon footprint of food in Spain. Royal Academy of Engineering.
MITECO, Informative Note on the Advance of Greenhouse Gas Emissions for the year 2020.
World Health Organization. (October 2015) IARC Monographs evaluate consumption of red meat and processed meat.
IPES-Food and Nourish Scotland. (2020) The Glasgow Food and Climate Declaration.
Pontijas Ramiro, Beatriz. Diagnosis of the sustainability of meat in the food system. Analysis of the agroecological potential of protein flows in the Spanish food system. Daniel and Nina Carasso Foundation.
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations-FAO. (2021) The impact of disasters and crises on agriculture and food security: 2021.
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Climate Change Report 2021: Physical bases. 2021.