Reading other people’s blog posts inspired me to delve a little deeper into the affects of food and the Earth’s climate. As a major foodie, this topic is extremely fascinating to me. Are we going to run out of food? Will the diets of humans change?
Starting with the ground, agriculture is being affected in two major ways, increase and decrease. According to The United States Environmental Protection Agency, the increased temperatures and carbon dioxide help some plants grow, but the severe/extreme warming and droughts reduces the overall crop yield. Surprisingly, the United States alone is responsible for twenty-five percent of grain production in the world. With rising temperatures and droughts, this percentage is slowly on the decrease. In 2011 the National Academy of Sciences reported, for every degree Celsius that the global thermostat rises, there will be a 5 to 15 percent decrease in overall crop production. The quality of the grains will also decrease because studies show that barley, wheat, potatoes and rice have 6 to 15 percent lower concentrations of protein when grown at higher levels of CO2. As the quality of grains decreases, so does the quality of livestock that is consuming those grains. The livestock may is at risk, due to increased heat stress and from reduced quality of their food supply. The United States Environmental Protection Agency also stated that he earlier onset of spring and warmer winters could allow some parasites survive more easily. In areas with increased rainfall, moisture-reliant pathogens could thrive and affect the livestock living there.
Another odd phenomena is transportation and weather. In 2012, the Mississippi river experienced a major drought that disrupted the shipping and transportation of crops. However, in the spring of 2012, the Midwest experienced major flooding that also disrupted the food transportation systems. Having unreliability in the weather also creates unreliability in food access, security strategies, and utilization. The increase in water and sea levels also increases the incidence of pathogens and of marine diseases in species such as oysters and salmon.
Is climate change slowly changing society’s diet?
As stated earlier, CO2 in the atmosphere is actually making our fruits, vegetables, and agriculture less nutritious by speeding up photosynthesis and adding more sugar and less calcium, protein, zinc, and important vitamins. This is extremely important because humans could become deficit in some vital micronutrients. Not only are our diets become less nutritious, but as the population grows at alarming rates, the carbon footprint that diets leave are becoming larger.
BBC News released an interactive website that takes regular foods that you eat on a daily basis and translates it into how much it affects the environment.
Try it yourself: https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-46459714
For example, a daily meal for me would be:
Breakfast: two eggs and an avocado with coffee
Impact and Annual Greenhouse Gas Emissions: Avocado: 72kg, Eggs: 202kg, Coffee: 155kg
Lunch: Peas, Fish, and Berries/Grapes
Impact and Annual Greenhouse Gas Emissions: Peas: 6kg, Fish: 683kg, Berries/Grapes: 44kg
Dinner: Chicken, tomatoes, and bread
Impact and Annual Greenhouse Gas Emissions: Bread: 21kg, Chicken: 497kg, Tomatoes: 60 kg
With that being said, if I ate this way everyday for a year, my annual greenhouse gas emissions would be around 1,740kg. Using another calculator from The United States Environmental Protection Agency, (https://www.epa.gov/energy/greenhouse-gas-equivalencies-calculator) 1,740kg of greenhouse gas emissions is equivalent to 196 gallons of gasoline consumed, 221,871 smartphone charges, and two acres of forests in one year. Based on the current diet trends of society, the carbon footprint is increasing substantially. If more people became aware of their footprints caused by their diets, would people change the way they eat?
Works Cited:
https://www.wfp.org/climate-change/climate-impacts
https://archive.epa.gov/epa/climate-impacts/climate-impacts-agriculture-and-food-supply.html
https://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/2018/07/25/climate-change-food-agriculture/
Nicole,
I thoroughly enjoyed reading your take on food and climate change. We have talked about this topic before, but you offered a new perspective on the subtle effects that climate change can have on our food sources. I was truly baffled by the fact that a one degree celsius increase can reduce 5 to 15 percent of the overall crop production. With a growing population worldwide, we will need more food as we progress through time, but the reduction of crop yields poses another problem for society and ending world hunger. Thus, I decided to search for potential solutions to maintain our agricultural needs. The Alliance for Science suggests that farmers can use agricultural technologies to address the challenges of climate change. Genetically Modified Seeds, aka GMOs, can possibly combat climate change while increasing crop yields. A study found that “these improved seeds have been bred to include traits that confer tolerance to stresses like drought, salinity, pests and diseases” (Alliance for Science). Thus, the seeds will be more resistant to extreme weather changes or pests naturally. This allows farmers to stop using pesticides and other processes that harm the environment. Now, I know that there is a huge debate on GMOs, but the use of GMOs can potentially alleviate climate change and increase crop yields. Therefore, we must adapt to the changing climate and adjust accordingly if we wish to sustain our food sources and reduce our footprint. Adopting these technologies with the potential to increase productivity while combating climate change is a crucial step that we must take.
Finally, I really found the carbon footprint link interesting, so I tried it myself. The first item that I inserted was chicken because I eat chicken everyday. Interestingly, my consumption of chicken produces 2,000 kg of CO2 which is equivalent to 5,000 miles of driving… YIKES! As I put more items in, it only became worse, and my carbon footprint kept rising. Nonetheless, by the end of the interaction, it estimates that I produce about 6,000 kg of CO2 which is terrible. I was really baffled by this number, and it certainly made me more aware of my choices and the resulting consequences. Overall, your blog was very enlightening and provoked me to do more research about solutions and my footprint. Great job!
Sources:
https://allianceforscience.cornell.edu/blog/2018/04/agricultural-technology-can-help-curtail-climate-change/
I agree with you that it is surprising that the global temperature rising just one degree can have such an impact on crop yield. For my issue brief, I am talking about sustainability and the urgent need we have to save our environment. With doing research for that, I found that our global temperature is forecasted to rise three to five degrees by 2100. This is so crazy to me because I find myself almost speechless knowing that we are harming our earth that much. Not only will this affect our food supply, but also will destroy our coral reefs, harm many animal species, and increase the occurrence of natural disasters, just to name a few. I found it interesting that GMOs would potentially save our food production issue in the future, although I hope that is not the case as I don’t want to be eating GMOs. I think this is an issue that will take lots of deliberation and planning to solve. I also tried the link and found it pretty shocking that so much harm is done simply by eating, a human necessity.
Links used: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-climate-change-un/global-temperatures-on-track-for-3-5-degree-rise-by-2100-u-n-idUSKCN1NY186