Module2_Lecture3_Food and Sustainability, transcript
Apr 21, 2021
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Welcome to the third and last lecture of the course climate change, food systems
and planetary Health in this lecture the lecture number three, we are good. We will
see the relationship between food and greenhouse gas emissions. And also we are going to discuss the social-cultural and economic aspects of climate
change and how we can mitigate climate change. So let's get started.
Environmental extremes and climate variability enhance the chances of numerous
stresses on agriculture. Climate change affects crop production by means of direct
indirect and socio-economic effects. In this lecture, we are going to focus on the
socio-economic effects of climate.
The therm anthropocene was created to designate a new geological era that defines
Humanity as the main Force for the transformation of the planet causing alteration
and degradation of the ecosystems. Modern livelihoods advances in technology and
the development of Agriculture medicine and industrialization lead to a massive
population boom.
The advancement of humanity in several areas was possible due to development
of Science and industrialization like, food technology, science, communication, energy
and transport. However, such a grow exerted important pressures on the planet:
for example, in causing massive urbanization, intensive exploitation of Natural Resources,
Also technologies that
Decisively alter natural characteristics, like, fossil fuels, means
that means of obtaining energy, episodes of nuclear bombs, Agricultural intensives,
among others.
The development of human society has caused impact on the environment, which are
reflected in extreme weather events. As we have seen in previous lectures loss of
biodiversity and pollution of air, Soil and Water and through sustainable development.
It is possible to avoid the depletion of the natural resources to produce consume
and dispose of it in a responsible and prudent manner while meeting the needs of
the
current population and without making the existence of future generations and
unfeasible.
In addition, medicine and industrialization have led to explosive population growth
as we compare from the initial of the Industrial Revolution, when we had 700
million people in the world for the 20 Century with six
billion people therefore the question that comes up is how much more food will we
need by 2050? So the
Answer is that according to the World Resources Institute the world will require 70
percent increase in food production to feed approximately 9.7 billion world population.
Considering the increasing demand for food in the next few years, we
need to start thinking of how we are going to do this, and this study of the Lancet
commission, which I would recommend you reading, it shows the dietary changes
higher mitigation potential in various scenarios demonstrating the environmental
effects of implementing measures considered for reducing environmental effects of
food production. So in this table,
we see that the colors indicate whether environmental effects transgress
food production boundaries. The red cells indicate above upper range
values, orange cells indicate above boundary, but below upper range value, in light
green cells indicate below or equal to boundary, but above lower range
value. So, we can see that the
the green ones and the dark green ones is when we have the potential on dietary changing
showing that changing our diets it's a more efficient way to
reduce the environmental effects of food production.
Therefore, an important consequence of climate change is the loss of food production
and changes in food composition which will increase the challenge of ending hunger
and achieving food and nutrition security worldwide.
By 2030 if actions not implemented you urgently the future of food and farming will
be hugely affected by climate change particularly in the small scale producers in
poor countries. They will need most support to adapt, such as disaster relief, Farm
Insurance and weather forecasts.
And crop and pasture yields are likely to decline in many places. For example, wheat
will drop 9 to 14 percent in Central America in Northeast Brazil respectively. Also
adaptation will be the key for crops livestock and Fisheries temperate regions will
benefit more from adaptation than tropical regions on the livestock sector. For
example key adapt actions for a small-scale producers.
as we will include matching animal numbers to changes in posture more Farms to more
firms that mix crops and livestock controlling the spread of pests weeds and diseases.
and for Fisheries adaptations will include switching to more abundant species
restoring habitats and breeding sites like mangroves and is strengthening infrastructure such as
Ports and Landing sites.
Discussing about the impacts on food production we see in this image that they are
very interconnected. the number of weather events in low-income countries, including
for example, extreme heat draughts floating and changes in rainfall patterns, as
we saw on the previous lecture. All of these extreme heat events has doubled since
the early 1990s with an average of
213 events during the period period between 1990 and 2016 climate change is already
affecting the production of the main food crops such as wheat rice and Maize in
in which regions in regions of tropical and temperate. So Droughts causes more than
80 percent of damage in total losses in agriculture, especially in the sub sectors
of livestock and crop
Ian also the production of fruits and vegetables it is also vulnerable to climate
change as the stress due to heat reduce fruiting and accelerates the development
of vegetables resulting in product production losses and a negative impact on nutritional
quality of these Foods in sub-Saharan Africa a region that already recorded lower
agricultural yields worldwide, Rising temperatures
reduced yields of maize, sorghum and peanuts. Well, in addition it is important
to point out that agricultural production itself also interferes in the climate
generating a feedback that we need to pay attention to. we have discussed this in
the two previous letters and this is the main questions that we that we come up
of this course well in addition to production climate
Change also interferes with food composition in studies show that greenhouse gasses
such as carbon dioxide emitted mainly by human actions. They have effect on the
growth and development of plant physiology. This means that high concentrations
of carbon dioxide can reduce the content of iron and zinc in Grains and
in addition to these also the the content of calcium
Magnesium in Root vegetables in addition the increasing in CO2, carbon
dioxide can lead to an accelerated ripening in fruit which may induce
a greater deterioration increasing food waste, which is also another problem correlated
to food and food production.
The changing the nutritional quality of food puts food and nutritional security
at risk by increasing the chances of micronutrient deficiencies in the population.
So these deficiencies which are already a problem today can become even more frequent
The Accelerated ripening of fruits can lead to the loss of crops which impacts both
the availability and the price of food.
These fruits can also be lost from transportation to Holmes configuring another
waste on the food production when food is wasted, all natural resources necessary
for its production, such as, water and soil are also lost. all of these accounting
for food waste.
So this is another important paper from the the Lancet commission to look in details.
climate change is also presenting the contest of Union. the terms endemic that is
presented in this paper indicates, the combination of the world the words Synergy
and pandemic and characterizes the synergic interaction between two or more
health conditions in view of a common
Socio-economic context.
Thus, the global syndemic is the combination of the pandemics of obesity malnutrition
and climate change. the three arising mainly from the current global agri-food system.
and among the causes are the commercial interests that guide the model of the Global
agri-food Systems, the lack of will on the part  of political leaders
and the low involvement involvement of society in general in effective actions.
Because of these the need for Solutions is your urgent and should be considered
together that is accessing at least two pandemics at the same time and the common
factors of this Global's endemic. He's the food combined with urban designed
and transport and land. Use these combinations are common factors of the global
Union that I was discussing in the beginning of this is light. So these in turn
are shaped.
It by policies economic incentives or disincentives and Norms established through
government and governance mechanisms. The most or Capital looking at the macro level
governance, which is the national government. They collaborate with the global the
global syndemic when for example provides agricultural
subsidies.
support monocultures and beef and dairy cattle finances the transport infrastructure
that prioritize roads in the in detriment of the the qualitative and active transport
also promote economic growth policies driven by consumption instead of sustainable
consumption and does not have a regulatory system that restricts
marketing of unhealthy food and drinking for children, for example

Environmental extremes and climate variability and enhance the chances of numeracy
stresses on agriculture climate change effects, Crop Production by means of direct
indirect and socio-economic effects in this lecture. We are going to focus on the
socio-economic effects of climate the Thurman triple scene was created to designate
a new geological era that defines Humanity as the main Force for the
Mission of the planet causing alteration and degradation of the ecosystems model
The great environmental impact of these activities is at the root of extreme extreme
weather events, like droughts and changes in agriculture that result in higher temperatures
compromising the production of fruits and vegetables in which can make these products
these products more expensive and provoke changes in
patterns food favoring consumption of ultra-processed food as we discussed previously
and also climate change can cause food shortages, which is directly related to The
increased risk of areas with desserts and the increase in food insecurity and as
a consequence in hunger So per in turn
Fetal an infant malnutrition increase the risk of obesity in adulthood. So those
are the two main effects of obesity and malnutrition and what is affecting and it's
causing it.
And what are the sources of greenhouse gas emissions from different food? So we've
seen previously that Food Systems currently contribute about a quarter of the global
greenhouse gas emissions and with generational and individual dietary choices influencing
the magnitude of associated greenhouse gas emissions and those data are from a paper
from Poor and Nemecek
In 2018.
When we look into that 25 to 30% we observe that red meat contributes to about 30
percent of the greenhouse greenhouse gas emissions as we can see in this figure
and more if we considered milk and dairy production, which in this figure is accounts
to 18% We sum up nearly half of the greenhouse gas emissions Associated to food.
So 30 plus eighteen percent. It's about a quieter.
Mardon acquired Terror of the the food production
So in this second part of this lecture, we are going to discuss some of the food
with higher greenhouse gas emissions as an example on how are our choices over our
food choices can be made if we have the appropriate information about the food that
we eat first. Let's look carefully into the environment impact of the red meat.
So observing this chart beef and lamb most known examples of red meat are on top
first emissions representing about
The kilograms of CO2 equivalent per kilogram of food. And this means the green God
greenhouse gas emissions of those those foods and this is followed by milk and dairy
production as we can see on the chart. So red meat and dairy are top-three greenhouse
gases in emitting foods, but why beef and lamb really so much carbon emissions
So this is because part of the energy eaten by ruminants like cows is burped out
as methane a powerful powerful greenhouse gas.
Well, let's explain this in details to for to clarify what we are talking about.
So calls are part of the group of animals called ruminants. What is ruminant ruminants
have stomachs with four distinct Chambers?
But also sheep goat and giraffes are also ruminants have did the same stomach the
same design of that the morphology of these stomach. So ruminants such as cattle
release large quantities of digestive meat and methane through examining and Eric
irritation, which is burping in belching about 5% of methane is released from their
do
In fart cows produce methane via microbes in their stomach these Chambers in on
those chambers as they digest they are fibrous food mainly grass in a process a
little like fermentation. So this process this fermentation is called enteric fermentation
and takes places in one of these chambers called rumen. That's why they are called.
called ruminant
That's when bacteria break down complex carbohydrates into sink into simple sugars
the end products of enteric fermentation by bacteria include volatile fata acts
acids called VFS as well as Gases such as carbon dioxide and methane. So the volatile
fatty acids are absorbed through the walls of
The rumen and transported to the liver where the animals use them for energy and
this is the the enteric fermentation.
So a cow, I mean, it's 500 litres of methane per day equivalent to a 10% of the
energy she would otherwise used for a performance and milk production a dairy cow.
For example produced three tons of carbon dioxide per year in the form of Aunt Erica
methane well, but methane is a shorter lived in the atmosphere then carbon dioxide
carbon dioxide, but but
It is more than 30 times as effective in trapping heat making it a major greenhouse
gasses as we've discussed previously. It's much more potent potent potent than carbon
dioxide but scientists have been working on studies trying to to make this process
less impact on in the environment. So feeding cows seaweed could cut there.
Methane emissions by 82% as some study says so researchers found counts belched
out belched out 82 percent less meeting after putting a small amount of seaweed
in their feet for five months according to one of these studies. The type of seaweed
is called asparagus asparagus peas, taxi forms and can partially counter counter
attacked these
some calls they hope the thing the scientists hope that the seaweed can inhibit
these specific enzyme and that enzyme is involved in the production of methane while
the cows digest its food, but those studies are still ongoing and they have Premier
Premier Li results, but they are also working on for example in the
taste of the milk and the taste of the beef and also the challenge of finding renters
and off supply of the of the seaweed.
A second way why cows have a large impact on the environment is for all milk and
dairy. So in the 20th 20th century, I know the Innovations in pasteurization refrigeration
and the manufacturing of pounder dried milk led to milk per cow milk products becoming
a household staple today milk butter cheese yogurt ice cream and other dairy products
are o bhikkhus and consumed by
Arden 6 billion people worldwide worldwide but as demand for dairy grows, so does
it impact grows and increase dairy cows in their manual produce greenhouse gas emissions
which contribute to climate change and we've seen these for cattle as well. So milk
production takes place all around the world global demand for dairy continues to
increase in large part due to the population grow Rising incomes urbanization and
the westernization  of diets in countries such as China and India
with this increase in demand for dairy. There is a growing pressure on natural resources,
including fresh including freshwater and soil that is needed on this production
milk production impact the environment in various ways. So and the scale of these
impacts depends on the practice of the Dairy Farmers and defeat
Rovers
we're handling of manner and fertilizers can degrade eight local Water Resources,
for example, and the unsustainable Dairy farming and food production can lead to
the laws of the ecologically important areas such as prairies and wetlands and forests.
So cheese as is a dairy product from cow and is also consider a higher emissions
food. One reason is because it takes about 10 kilos of milk to make only one kilo
of cheese. So accounting all we've said about cow production we can also add that
the cattle production requires much more feet and lunge than other types of food
the the conversion of land for beef production in
And animal production and animal feed sorry is a leading cause of deforestation
in many tropical regions including in the Amazon where a recent spike in forest
fires in clearing has been linked to the cattle ranching the cutting down of tropical
forest causes the releases of long-held stores of carbon and tropical deforestation
as a whole accounts for around 80 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions grazing
cattle need plentiful supplies.
Of grass meaning that farmers often use nitrogen fertilizer on their fields to stimulate
plant growth. So the production of nitrogen fertilizer causes the release of carbon
dioxide and the potent greenhouse gas nitrous oxide.
The resource intensive nature of cattle cattle rearing also explains why on average
cheese and other dairy products have a higher climate cause than pork and poultry
also chickens chickens and pigs are not human intense. And so do not produce as
much methane. So that's why there is a huge discussion worldwide of the production
of Keto and how these
Impacts on the environment well accounting for around 2.5 percent of all Global
human induced greenhouse gas emissions Rises climate footprint is comparable to
that of the international Aviation. Wow, rice production is estimated to be responsible
for 12% of the total methane Global emissions mainly due to it anaerobic decomposition
during its production process rice grows more.
Mostly in flooded Fields called rice paddies the water blocks oxygen from penetrating
the penetrating the soil creating ideal conditions for bacteria that emits methane
the longer the floating lasts the more those bacterias build up.
And this is why it increases the gringa the greenhouse gas emissions Associated
to to rise.
But entire regions depends highly on these staple food. So the solution rather than
quitting framing rice could be to produce any time a a more climate-friendly way.
And while there are some initiatives pointing in that direction there is still space
for many more.
There are three major barriers that are blow up blocking progress one is absence
of financial infrastructure to billions. The second one is upfront investment that
sustainable companies need to making their value chains. And the third one is the
lack of public financing.
Well now that we looked a little bit about the foods that contributes most for the
greenhouse gas Emissions on the environment. We are now discuss a little bit about
the planetary Health that Health diet so findings from the eat lands commission
Lancet Commission on healthy diets from sustainable food system provides the first
scientific targets for a healthy diet from a sustainable food production.
Some that operates within the planetary boundaries for food the report promotes
diets consisting of a variety of plant-based foods with low amounts of animal based
foods refined grains highly processed foods and added sugars. And also we found
saturated Raider than saturated fats.
The planetary Health diet therefore aims to help people with better while at the
same time creating a more sustainable world. So and let's discuss exactly how we
are going to save the planet by changing the way we eat and according to science
and according to to the planetary Health diet proposed by the eat Lancet Commission.
Three things we should know about the planetary health health diet first. It is
a plant-based diet. No surprise here and the planetary Health diet all but entirely
nix's meat from from the equation so meals on the the the plan are built around
vegetables fruits and nuts while cutting down significative Ali
Significantly, sorry on animal protein and Sugar by doing these the researchers
believe people can decrease their risks of several life-threatening disease include
including coronary heart disease stroke and diabetes. In fact, according to the
Easter Lancet commission. Unhealthy diets now pose a greater risk to morbidity and
mortality than unsafe.
Sex alcohol drugs and tobacco use combined second point to mention that you can
actually eat more not less as people usually think the typical daily recommended
calorie intake for women is about 2,000 calories, but the planetary Health diet
herbs that recommendation to 200 in two thousand and five hundred so about 500 more.
The bulk of dot count as Shona as shown on this image that we see on this slide
so would be veggies fruits whole grains and plant Source protein, like legumes legumes
and nuts and with small amounts of added sugar is starchy veggies, very eggs and
animal Source protein. So according to the report you can
Call VTEC as a flexitarian diet, which is largely plant-based, but might include
some fish meat and dairy. So you don't need to quit on red meat or in fish and dairy.
You just need to reduce it. And number three is that in order to get on a sustainable
Track by 2050 one that prioritizes human health and the environment a substantial
dietary shift is required. So we know that this is
Acquired by now global consumption of fruits vegetables nuts and legumes will have
to double and the consumption of food such as red meat and sugar will have to be
reduced by more than 50% This is a reality. We know this from from from this report.
And if we are successful, they study says some about 11 million deaths caused by
unhealthy food choices could be prevented every year. So it is a big deal when we
should consider this when we do our food choices and concluding all of this discussion
about the planetary health health diet in comparison to meat and dairy plant based
foods have much smaller carbon footprint.
So as we discussed a little bit before and on average emissions from plant-based
foods are 10 to 50 50 times is smaller than those from animal products according
to these and other studies as well. When what we can take away from from this lecture
and so in comparison to meat and dairy plant based foods have much smaller carbon
footprint on average emissions from plant-based food.
Food as we've discussed our 10 to 50 times the smaller than those from animal products
sustainable diets run through the health of people and also the health of the planet.
We should consider the planetary Health on the planetary Health. We consider not
only the health of the planet but also the health of the people and they are very
connected as we've discussed and it should should consider economy and food supply
environment.
Not three Asian society and ethics People's Health and many other factors as we
can see in this image. We consider the economy and food supply some aspect on the
very a lot of aspects on the environment some aspects on the nutrition aspect of
the society and attics and other food related Health aspects as well and there are
so
Many things we can do to help to tackle climate change and taking care of the planetary
health. So for example industry for example can reduce or avoid food waste can introduce
labeling for example, grass-fed meat and dairy products and also work out the package
reduce moment governments can establish changes in maneuver example in schools and
hospitals and support Farmers to grow more plant-based protein.
And US individuals as individuals, we can choose more carbon friendly food wasting
less at home also considering eating local and seasonal and finally avoiding vegetables
and fruits are frightened. So those are the main takeaways of this lecture and finally,
I should say that we should get the most important thing is to get accurate information
as much as we can in order to make more conscious choices and being more being more
aware of the environment around us. And also whether it will be regarding our food
and our day environment.
Well now we are ready to to put this on practice with the second activity activity
of our course and I title it blowing up balloons for the climate change. And this
is kind of trying to to make a correlation between something that is easy for us
to see for instance blowing up balloons and it will have this correlation with how
much
Packed some foods cause on the environment. That's why we are working out as seeing
the the balloons to have this relationship with the emissions on the environment
details on these activities on the guidance notes. So we have a series of food a
group five groups of food for instance meat.
called salmon beans and rice and we are going to work out the the greenhouse gas
emissions for those foods and then making a correlation of how many balloons this
food these emissions represent for each food on the environment and discuss a little
bit with which food has more impact on the environment and less impact on the environment
and some of these discussions
So, please go to the the the guide notes and you see more details of the activity
in there. Thank you with this lecture 3 we finished our course on climate change.