[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gjtIl5B1zXI]
This is an interesting take on the interplay between food production and climate change. The video defines a ‘safe space’ defined by the boundaries on how much food we need, how much food we can produce at given levels of climate change, and how that increased food production will further affect climate change.
Their suggestions to increase the safe space:
- reducing global food needs by eliminating food waste, ensuring more equal food access, and shifting to vegetable-rich diets;
- increasing the possible food production by investing in agricultural research to boost yields, adapting crops to future climates and carefully matching crops to where they are grown; and
- limiting agriculture’s impact on climate change by reducing greenhouse gas emissions through sustainable intensification and reducing deforestation.
Overall, while there are certain buzzwords involved that might need to be defined more carefully (what is meant by sustainable intensification? By crop adaption?), I feel this is a really balanced perspective that manages to translate a very complex issue into an understandable concept.
Bonus: The video was produced by the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS). The CGIAR in turn describes itself as a “Global Agriculture Research Partnership” (the acronym stands for the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research, which it grew out of). Read the CCAFS’ Report on Achieving Food Security in the Face of Climate Change here.