To mark 50 episodes on the podcast, I share my own evolving thoughts on food. I reflect on the state of agriculture and on what sustainability might mean in the food movement today.
My experience over the last half decade engaging with the food movement has been that debates are all too often reduced to soundbites on social media. Complex arguments are reduced to 280 characters on Twitter, angry posts on Facebook, and rants on YouTube. We're talking past each other. That's unhelpful.
By sharing my thoughts, I hope to encourage more honest, open and nuanced discussions with whoever is listening.
In this episode, I briefly discuss:
- The failed promises of industrial agriculture
- The winners and losers of our food system
- Food sustainability through different lenses
- Agriculture and humanity's relationship to nature
- The future of farming through Charles C. Mann's Prophets and Wizards
- The land sharing land sparing debate
- Funding: where does all the money flow?
- Agroecology and its critics
- The dilemmas of cell-based and plant-based meat
References (in chronological order):
- World Health Organisation (WHO) - Obesity and Overweight Fact Sheet
- Lappé, Francis M., Fowler, Carey and Collins, Joseph (1977) Food First: Beyond the Myth of Scarcity
- White, Allen (2016) - 'Solving the 10,000-Year-Old Problem of Agriculture: An Interview with Wes Jackson' In These Times Online
- Jackson, Wes & Berry, Wendell (2011) Nature as Measure: The Selected Essays of Wes Jackson
- Ritchie, Hannah (2021) 'Cutting down forests: what are the drivers of deforestation?' Our World In Data
- United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) (2021) 'Our global food system is the primary driver of biodiversity loss'
- Mann, Charles C. (2018) The Wizard and the Prophet: Two Remarkable Scientists and Their Dueling Visions to Shape Tomorrow's World. Knopf publishing.
- Barretto, Alberto & Berndes, Göran & Sparovek, Gerd & Wirsenius, Stefan. (2013). Agricultural intensification in Brazil and its effects on land-use patterns: An analysis of the 1975–2006 period. Global change biology. 19(6). 10.1111/gcb.12174.
- Holt-Giménez, Eric & Shattuck, Annie & Altieri, Miguel & Herren, Hans & Gliessman, Steve. (2012) We Already Grow Enough Food for 10 Billion People … and Still Can't End Hunger. Journal of Sustainable Agriculture 36. 595-598.
- Biovision Foundation for Ecological Development & IPES-Food (2020) Money Flows: What is holding back investment in agroecological research for Africa? Biovision Foundation for Ecological Development & International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems
- De Schutter, Olivier & Vermeylen, Margot (2020) The share of agroecology in Belgian official development assistance: an opportunity missed
- Meier, M. S. et al. (2015) Environmental impacts of organic and conventional agricultural products – are differences captured by life cycle assessment? Journal of Environmental Management 149, 193–207
- Van der Werf, H.M.G., Knudsen, M.T. & Cederberg, C. (2020) Towards better representation of organic agriculture in life cycle assessment. Nature Sustainability 3, 419–425
- Declaration of the International Forum for Agroecology (2015) Nyéléni, Mali. Via Campesina website
- IPES-Food (2016) From uniformity to diversity: a paradigm shift from industrial agriculture to diversifed agroecological systems. International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food systems.
- Levidow, Les (2016) Agroecological Innovation. International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements (IFOAM).
- Cook, C.D., Hamerschlag, K., and Klein, K. (2016) Farming for the Future: Organic and Agroecological Solutions to Feed the World. Friends of the Earth.
- Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. (2009) 1.02 billion hungry.
- Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. (2009) The state of food insecurity in the world. Rome, Italy: Economic and Social DevelopmentDepartment Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
- Reganold, J., Wachter, J. (2016) Organic agriculture in the twenty-first century. Nature Plants 2, 15221
- Rodale Institute (2020) The Truth about Organic. Kutztown, PA.
- Galloway McLean, Kirsty & Castillo, Ameyali & Rubis, Jennifer. (2011). Indigenous Peoples, Marginalized Populations and Climate Change: Vulnerability, Adaptation and Traditional Knowledge
- Debal Deb (2009) "Valuing folk crop varieties for agroecology and food security", Independent Science News (26 October 2009).
- United Nations (2015) United Nations General Assembly, Right to Food, UN Doc. A/70/287
- Philpott, Stacy & Lin, Brenda & Jha, Shalene & Brines, Shannon. (2008). A multi-scale assessment of hurricane impacts based on land-use and topographic features. Agric Ecosyst Environ. Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment. 128. 12-20.
- Rosset, Peter & Sosa, Braulio & Jaime, Adilén & Avila, Rocio. (2011). The Campesino-to-Campesino Agroecology Movement of ANAP in Cuba: Social Process Methodology in the Construction of Sustainable Peasant Agriculture and Food Sovereignty. The Journal of peasant studies. 38. 161-91.
- Poux, X., Aubert, P.-M. (2018). An agroecological Europe in 2050: multifunctional agriculture for healthy eating. Findings from the Ten Years For Agroecology (TYFA) modelling exercise, Iddri-AScA, Study N°09/18, Paris, France
- Fairlie, Simon (2010) Meat: A Benign Extravagance. Permanent Publications, Hampshire, UK.
- Carrington, Damian (2019) '$1m a minute: the farming subsidies destroying the world - report' The Guardian.
- The Food and Land Use Coalition (2019) Growing Better: Ten Critical Transitions to Transform Food and Land Use. The Global Consultation Report of the Food and Land Use Coalition.
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