Food resilience
The security of food supplies is threatened by many factors, including multiple processes of global change (e.g. climate change, rapid urbanization, population ageing), unexpected shocks (e.g. natural disasters, financial and political crises), and unexpected responses of food systems themselves to such processes (Tendall et al., 2015). So how can we work towards a more resilient food system?
What is a resilient food system?
To understand this you must first understand the the food system and then understand resilience. The food system is the natural environment (sun, water, soil); production (our farmers, fishers and growers); manufacturing (processing and making products); retailers; and then ultimately our consumers or people with or without access to food. There’s also transportation and distrbution across the system and waste.
Socio-ecological resilience is the capacity of our systems to absorb disturbances (such as hazards or climatic events or social, economic or political instances) and re-organise through these periods of change, but still be able to essentially retain our same functions and structures
In Aotearoa the cultural component of social is important, tikanga Maori, sovereignty, and of course, all people living here. The ecological part is not just terrestrial but also our marine environment.
We must also distinguish resilience from sustainability: Sustainability implies we are preserving the capacity of our system to continue to function for future generations whereas resilience implies we are continuing to provide a funciton over time despite disturbances and hence forms an essential part of what enables sustainability (Tendall et al., 2015). Resilience is not a steady state but we’re able to buffer and withstand disturbances over time.
The end goal of a resilient food system is food security. The end goal is therefore important: providing food to people. Some may have forgotten that this is why produce food in the first place. In Aotearoa, 1 in 5 children live in households with severe to moderate food insecurity. They don’t have reliable access to healthy or nutritious food.
We don’t have a resilient food system in Aotearoa. To enable a resilient food system in this country, we need every single person to work harder towards this. What we are all doing is not enough.
When there’s a shock to the system, like an earthquake, a war, or storm, the vulnerability of our food system becomes apparent. In New Zealand’s recent memory is the Christchurch earthquakes and the lack of food faced by so many in the city; the realisation that within a few days supermarkets are empty; those who were used to a secure supply of food had it taken away.
Why is resilience important?
The biggest threats to our food system are nuclear war and climate change. I’m not going into nuclear war here. But I’m certainly going into climate change. Adaptation is all about resilience.
Food systems are affected by climate change impacts and also contribute to climate change through emissions. While mitigation, namely reducing greenhouse gas emissions, is needed, most of the pressing work required for the food system value chain to withstand the impacts of climate change, is in the need for it to adapt and be resilient (FAO, 2017).
Extreme weather events that destroy crops, such as floods, droughts or storms, have become more common (OECD, 2019). Pests, diseases and viruses also move to different areas and affect crops, livestock and fisheries. Farmers rely on predictable weather and a sufficient growing season for crop and livestock production, which is not guaranteed with climate change scenarios (OECD, 2019).
Globally green house gas emissions attributed to the food system from agriculture production is 14% and if emissions related to land use changes are accounted for, this rises to 24% (IPCCC, 2014). For New Zealand, as we know, that’s closer to 50% (48%) of our national emissions from agriculture. This does not incorporate the entirety of the food system: processing, transportation etc. Data is missing on what it truly amounts to.
Transforming the food system through farming practices that mitigate climate change and allow farmers to adapt will be key to meet climate change reduction targets and to take necessary climate action (Caron et al., 2018). Agro-ecology, regenerative agriculture, and innovative climate-smart farming practices can help the resilience of land use practices (FAO, 2018; Caron et al., 2018). Marine reserves, no take zones and periods of rest for ecosystems can help resilience of our marine practices.
Every level of the food system value chain (not only farming) will be affected in some way by the extreme events associated with climate change and the slow onset impacts (FAO, 2017). Storage, processing, transportation, ports and other food facilities are not yet adequately designed to be climate resilient.
A food systems approach can help to identify hotspots and what measures and interventions are needed to have the greatest impact (FAO, 2017).
Let’s go back to what I said at the start, that is about social and ecological resilience: it’s about the communities and the land and water – including our marine ecosystems.
Across New Zeland right now there is hope. Two of our strengths for this are that we have our indigenous culture’s connection to land (whenua) and food (kai); and that we live on a tumultuous fault line that causes us to be prepared for the next disaster.
For centuries Maori lived in balance with ecosystems and cultivated gardens and orchards as well as fishing. That is not the ecosystem we have today but we have the knowledge and skills to learn from this.
We are already a disaster prone country. What have we learned from natural disasters like volcanic eruptions and earthquakes? The lessons from Christchurch and other emergencies we can apply to this.
Around the country there are thousands of individuals and organisations working on the ground, seed saving, running Crop Swaps, growing their own gardens, creating urban gardens, feeding kids in schools, taking food that would be wasted and feeding people, teaching traditional ways of growing and eating, working with youth and incarcerated people to help them learn to grow food, running composting workshops, sharing and supporting each other in regenerative agriculture and permaculture techniques, and creating communities of practice. Guiding principles of the para kore movement and community based projects such as Common Unity, in the Hutt Valley show us the scale and nature of what can happen when communities and networks mobilise together to be more food resilient.
At a governance level we have food policy councils, food charters (e.g. Good Food Dunedin Charter, Christchurch Food Resilience Charter) community led groups (Kai Auckland, Kai Western Bay of Plenty, Kai Rotorua); and also a group of council practitioners supporting each other to better understand the role of municipalities in this.
What we haven’t ever done before is mobilise on scale or, properly frame what we are doing and why we are doing it. One of the best examples of this mobilising is the para kore movement across Aotearoa. Aotearoa Food Resilience Charter – a collective space to connect and unite people, has begun this discussion to broaden the people involved.
Because, the time has passed when you can either 1. Ignore the state of the environment and society in relation to food and 2. Not realise that the food system has an impact but can also be part of the solution to many of our problems.
We know this is true because we work in it every day, with that mindset, and if everyone approached it in the same way we’d move mountains. To enable a resilient food system in this country, we need every single person to work harder towards this. What we are all doing is not enough.
What does this mean for you?
Think about where you fit into the food sytem. Consider your supply chain for a moment. If you’re a food business, think of your reliance on imports for ingredients, where do they come from? Understanding your food business and it’s role in the food system is critical. Ask yourself, how is your role contributing to a resilent food system?
If you’re interested in the work we do on food resilience, please contact emily@spira.nz to find out more.
References
Caron, P., Ferrero y de Loma-Osorio, G., Nabarro, D. et al. (2018). Food systems for sustainable development: proposals for a profound four-part transformation. Agronomy for Sustainable Development, August 2018, 38-41. doi: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13593-018-0519-1
FAO (2017). Climate Smart Agriculture Sourcebook. Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations, Rome, Italy. Retrieved from http://www.fao.org/climate-smart-agriculture-sourcebook/production-resources/module-b10-value-chains/b10-overview/en/
FAO (2018). Transforming food and agriculture to achieve the SDGs – 20 interconnected actions to guide decision makers. Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations, Rome, Italy. Retrieved from http://www.fao.org/publications/transforming-food-agriculture-to-achieve-sdg/en/
IPCC (2014). Climate change 2014: synthesis report. Contribution of Working Groups I, II and III to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Editors R.K. Pachauri and L.A. Meyer. Geneva, Switzerland, 151. Retrieved from https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar5/syr/
OECD (2019). Understanding the Global Food System. Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Retrieved from http://www.oecd.org/agriculture/understanding-the-global-food-system/how-we-feed-the-world-today/
Tendall, D., Joerin, J., Kopainsky B., et al. (2015). Food system resilience: Defining the concept Global Food Security 6, October 2015, 17–23.