We all know that the state of the world is not right: there are many complex challenges, and no one seems to agree on which one is priority: climate change? Resource depletion? Economic and social inequalities and injustices? Energy crises? Financial crises? Social crises? Health crises like obesity and diabetes, malnourishment and chronic hunger?
But among all this discussion, there’s something that everyone would agree with: everyone, absolutely everyone in this planet, eats. We all need food to survive and better, to thrive. And not only humans: animals, insects, fungi, plants…anything “alive” needs food!
Food is also the reason why many of the above crises and challenges started in the first place. If not the only or main reason, food has affected how these challenges have become worse or more complex, food is also affected by these issues, as availability and access may be compromised and, as it turns out, food may be also at the center of the potential solutions!
Think about it: the way food is produced and/or manufactured, packaged, transported, distributed, consumed and eventually disposed offers key elements that relate to at least one of the challenges we have today:
- Big scale produced crops damage the long-term ecology of the soil, contaminate waterways, depend on machinery, fossil fuels and artificial pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers that create even more dependency on fossil fuels and pollute the environment. Food produced in big scale is not resilient nor regenerative.
- Meat consumption is one of the biggest contributors to climate change and ecosystems degradation through deforestation, methane emissions and mistreatment of animals. It is also the culprit of many cardiovascular diseases, to name just one health-related issue.
- Manufactured food is one of the main culprits of the increase of obesity, diabetes and malnourishment; it is also one of the main reasons behind the pollution of seas and ecosystems with plastic and other similar packaging items.
- Transportation and distribution of non-essential and/or non-local foods creates an unnecessary burden by polluting and the use of fossil fuels. At the same time, these foods tend to be tasteless and to displace local production and therefore local food resilience. As many of these items may not be sold on time, they also contribute to food waste and the consequent contamination with methane and pollution of landfills.
The above are only a few factors to demonstrate our point: that food is at the center of most of today’s complex challenges…and as such, also at the center of the potential solutions!
In this blog and through the past three months, we have emphasized some ideas that would create food security in the region and in each household that adopts or supports them.
In systems theory and sustainability design, it is said that a solution is truly sustainable if we can address many problems at the same time, by targeting a key component.
That component, we believe, is food.
If we re-localize food production and consumption, we will not only address climate change and ecosystems pollution and destruction: we can address:
- Employment: as more people would be engaged as urban or rural farmers and producers, transporting and selling the food locally.
- Community resilience: as people wouldn’t depend on far away markets and production
- Biodiversity and ecosystems health: because we would grow diverse, locally appropriate and resilient crops, through poly-cultures that care for the soil and waterways.
- Crime and isolation: because people who grow and share food together tend to protect each other and bond with each other, as well as protect their neighbourhoods
- Resilience against climate change: because we would be part of the solution, reducing the dependency on fossil fuels and artificial inputs, machinery, etc.
- Health issues, including malnourishment and hunger: because people would have access to local, seasonal and healthier whole foods, including food from their own gardens and neighbourhood food forests
- Social justice issues: because food security is intersectional, meaning that issues like hunger, access to appropriate food, income to buy the food; skills, etc. are associated to ethnic background, skin colour, gender, sex, ability, etc. if food is re-localized, we would be caring more directly for the peoples who live here, through sound housing, employment, health and social policies and services, and empowering everyone to be part of the solution
In the next weeks, we will explore what initiatives are already happening in our bioregion and what has been their impact. We want to collect real stories from real people making a difference in their communities, households and the world by making changes related to food.
We invite you to start a conversation around how food impacts and is in turn impacted by the factors and challenges quoted above. If you are part of an initiative or know of a great initiative, please connect with us, we want to hear from you!