The Climate Chap: It’s all about food

CLIMATE CHAP

10 Mar, 2023

By 2050 Mangawhai, and the world, will be very different from today. Change is inevitable and thankfully invariably positive. Just think that 30 years ago there were no iPhones, social networks, eCommerce, ATMs, digital photography, Smart TVs, electric cars, heat pumps, Uber rides and MMP governments. Winston Peters was however an MP back then.

So it is inevitable that over the coming 30 years people, science and technology will deliver innovations that will enable us to lead healthier, safer and better lives.

As you know Aotearoa is committed to vastly reducing the harmful impact of fossil fuels and methane generated “greenhouse” gasses. This journey started in 1992 and we have until 2050 to finish the job.

I have previously highlighted the three major trends that our planet has experienced since 1900, these being the population explosion, the massive exodus from rural to urban living, and the global escape from abject poverty.

Central to each of these trends, and indeed critical for our future survival is food. It was a miracle back in biblical times when five loaves and two fishes fed the 5000 (Matthew 14) and there was some food left over. Back then the world’s population was 300 million, and by the time I was born the population had risen to 2.5 billion. It’s now 8 billion and predicted to be 10 billion by 2050. Will there be enough food?

It’s impossible to have sufficient industrial food production in cities, therefore we will continue to farm and produce food in rural areas and transport to the metropolises. Will there be enough food? As more and more people escape abject poverty, they will seek a greater quantity and variety of foods and sadly probably adopt a “western diet”. Will there be enough food?

I readily accept that come 2050 you will be driving electric cars, have homes run on renewable electricity, and spend far more time socialising and communicating without leaving your home. However, the biggest change to your lifestyle will be the food you eat.

Globally the production of food is under great threat. Heatwaves, droughts, floods and urban expansion are negatively impacting the availability of land for generating foodstuffs. Meat and dairy farming are becoming “sunset industries” due to vast quantities of methane gasses being generated. Over 50 percent of all the major grains produced globally are fed to cows so as to produce protein-rich flesh for human consumption. Far better that these grains feed people directly. Far too much food is manufactured resulting in the fast food and junk food industries and associated health catastrophes. With changing climate vegetables, fruits, wine and fishing are all subject to having to relocate.

Sadly, food has become a component of warfare. For example, the Ukraine tragedy is having an enormous impact on the people of Peru who are no longer able to import wheat and fertilisers. Civil war is the result.

In Aotearoa we could be self-sufficient in food if we had to be. Make it our goal. It is inevitable that we will need to rely more upon local produce as the costs of importing food will become increasingly prohibitive and especially as foreign countries will also be relying upon their own locally produced foods. Furthermore, it is likely that overseas sanctions will be applied if we do not vastly reduce our greenhouse gas emissions in time.

We need to be far better at maximising access to food and minimising wastage. In poorer countries half the food never gets to market whilst in prosperous countries half is wasted between market and your table.

With 10 billion mouths to feed in cities every day, more and more food will be plant-based and “manufactured”. Our excellent new supermarket already has an extensive range of foods that are free of flesh and dairy. Burgers, chicken, sausages, ice cream – lovely. In the UK 30 percent of milk consumed is now made from soy.

In case you haven’t noticed, food is getting incredibly expensive. Not much change from $20 for a steak, slice of salmon, or 1kg block of cheese now. We simply need to produce quality foods using less land, less labour, less chemicals, less water, and cheaper to process and get to your kitchen.

Food for thought.

Will there be enough food? Globally the production of food is under great threat. PHOTO/MARIA LIN KIM/UNSPLASH