An unsustainable reliance on fossil fuels is emerging as what might be the proverbial straw that breaks the back of an already severely insecure global food system which faces overwhelming challenges from runaway population growth, uncontrolled climate change, and extreme and unpredictable weather.
In a report issued last month, the UN appointed panel which was assembled to frame, quantify and qualify the post Rio Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) emphasized the intricate link between the health of the environment and the innate needs of a healthy human population for sustainable energy, water, food, and natural resources.
The Post 2015 Agenda, which replaces the eight Millennium Development Goals with 12 SDGs targets a daunting 54 issues, while specifying that addressing food security, climate change and the rapid depletion of natural resources are tantamount to adequately meet the global nature of both the economy and ecology of the planet.
Nowhere is the the link between food security and a thriving network of urban farms more evident than in UNICEF's Urban Interactive World Population Map which suggests urban populations will increase to 5.2 billion by 2050.
Currently, UNESCO reports, cities are expanding by some 60 million annually. Yet by the middle of the 21st century, urban populations in developing countries are expected to double, increasing from 2.5 billion in 2009 to almost 5.2 billion in 2050. Developed and industrialized countries are not expected to experience a significant increase in population density, with population perhaps even declining or remaining static were it not for an expected significant shift in immigration patterns to urban environments. Momentum for Change: 'Lighthouse Activities' Signal Hope for Sustainable Urban Develpment
Even more alarming is the
UN 2013 World Economic and Social Survey (WESS), which warns that current methods are insufficient to prevent post-2050 urban slums balooning up to 7 billion.
Fossil Fuels and Food
Since 1950, the industrialization of agriculture has more than tripled the world grain harvest, employing massive amounts of petroleum to ‘fuel’ farm machinery and produce pesticides and fertilizers.
Fossil fuels are utilized in nearly every aspect of industrialized food production –harvesting , transportation, storage and preparation. (See Energy Use in the US & Global Agri-Food Systems: Implications for Sustainable Agriculture)
In a 2009 report Energy-Smart Food for People and Climate, FAO stressed the need for the international 'agri-food' chain to shift to an ‘energy-smart model.”
The food sector both requires energy and can produce energy — an energy-smart approach to agriculture offers a way to take better advantage of this dual relationship between energy and food, it says.
The food sector (including input manufacturing, production, processing, transportation marketing and consumption) accounts for around 95 exa-Joules (1018 Joules), according to the report — approximately 30 percent of global energy consumption — and produces over 20 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions.
On-farm direct energy use amounts to around 6 exa-Joules per year, if human and animal power are excluded — just over half of that is in OECD countries.
On farms, energy is used for pumping water, housing livestock, cultivating and harvesting crops, heating protected crops, and drying and storage. After harvest, it is used in processing, packaging, storing, transportation and consumption.
But Wes Jackson, executive director of
The Land Institute, is optimistic. "“We have a chance, for the first time in history, to have a conceptual revolution in agriculture,"
he says.”
Located in Kanas, The Land Institute's lofty goal is to solve "the 10,000 year old problem of agriculture — soil loss and degradation, ecosystem destruction are equally beneficial to the farmer and the farm. The new system envisions a shift in agricultural practices to correct issues such as high greenhouse gas emissions; the degredation of air, land, and water; the increasing shortage of readily accessible sources of petroleum; and rising levels in ocean "hypoxic zones."
“Agriculture is the largest threat to biodiversity and ecosystem function of any single human activity,” according to the U.N. Millennium Ecosystem Assessment.
Taking it Local
In Washington, DC, a group of women from Just Harvest are taking on the gargantuan and far reaching tentacles of the US farm lobby and its cohorts with the launch of a network of organic farms designed to adapt to severe weather while still providing affordable and healthy food to residents in poor urban zones.
Free Speech Radio News (FSRN) DC correspondent Alice Ollstein is researching urban farming "by talking with members of Congress, climate experts, farmers and food justice advocates for a Labor Day documentary and the network is looking for contributions to produce this program.
FSRN needs to raise $2000 to complete this program. With just 29 days remaining, they have currently raised $180.
Click here to put your money where your mouth is.
8:49 PM PT: Just Harvest project via FSRN just made the necessary $2000 to meet their budget!!!