Ugly Fruit & Veg

Firstly, Happy New Year! Today's post is going to be a quick one about food waste. As you may already know, this is a topic that keeps coming up here on Picnics Past & Present and for good reason. In my eyes, food waste is an extremely important environmental issue and is one that everybody can easily get involved in. 

The "Ugly Carrot", part of
 Intermarché's campaign for "Inglorious Fruits and Vegetables"

A few posts back we touched on the global food waste issue when we talked about the close relatives of perfect produce: the ugly fruit and veggies. EndFoodWaste have recently launched a new campaign on twitter and Facebook that focuses on aesthetically imperfect fruit and veggies (or "uglies"). Their campaign aims to rally the public to demand ugly fruit and veggies at major retailers worldwide in a fun and interactive way. According to their website, at least 20% of all produce is wasted because of its size, shape, colour, or appearance. The group have created an information sheet outlining 10 reasons why people should support ugly fruit and vegetables, which range from world hunger to climate change. To take part in this great new campaign (and to have some fun!), follow #UglyIsBeautiful on twitter and post your own pictures of your ugly beauties to @UglyFruitAndVeg - the best pics will be retweeted!

Recent tweet from @UglyFruitAndVeg:
"I refuse to be the butt of your jokes"

If you want to go one step further and support the food waste cause, you can join the Feedback movement and pledge to reduce your food waste here. Feedback is the environmental organisation that campaigns to end food waste at every level of the food system.

Environmental Impacts of Cocoa Production

Chocolate has been in the spotlight over the past few weeks. You'll undoubtedly have seen headlines such as this one, where leading chocolate producers like the Barry Callebaut Group and other industry experts warn about potential cocoa shortages by 2020. Demand for chocolate products is increasing, most notably in Asia over recent years, and experts fear that the crop simply won't be able to keep up. This isn't really news, however. Concerns over cocoa shortages have been repeatedly voiced over the last years, with some experts even predicting that chocolate will eventually be equivalent to caviar (The Independent, 2014).

Cocoa tree with cocoa pods (Source: the Telegraph, 2014)

With this exploding interest in cocoa, one may wonder what might be the environmental impacts associated with cocoa production across the globe? I certainly have been, especially after my recent visit to Kew Gardens where I learnt about the history and uses of Theobroma cacao. A recent study by Ntiamoah and Afrane (2008) directly addresses this question using a life cycle approach for the Ghanaian cocoa industry. Before delving into the details, let's first uncover a few quick facts about cocoa.  

Cocoa Facts

The genus Theobroma originated in South America millions of years ago, and includes a total of twenty-two species (cacao being the most widely known). Archaeological evidence of T. cacao as a domesticated crop can be traced to the Maya. The recipe for hot chocolate was brought to Spain by Hernan Cortés in 1528, though the drink did not gain popularity in Spanish courts until sugar was added to the recipe (ICCO, 2014). 

Today, T. cacao is an important cash crop that is grown in the humid tropics (in countries 10ºN and 10ºS of the equator). The largest producers of T. cacao, in order of importance, are Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana and Indonesia (FAO, 2001). 

Map showing countries where T. cocao is grown (Source: Rainforest Alliance, 2014)

The climatic conditions which favour the growth of T. cacao are high temperatures (max. mean 30-32ºC, min. 18 - 21ºC) and high moisture. T. cacao is particularly sensitive to rainfall, and thrives in locations which receive 1500-2000mm/year. The crop has traditionally been grown in shade, as the species is capable of making optimum use of available light (ICCO, 2014). In 2001, approximately 6.5 million hectares of land were planted with the crop in a total of 57 countries. The average yield is of 400kg beans/ha/year (FAO, 2001).

Cocoa is harvested by removing ripe cocoa pods from the trunk and branches of the cocoa tree, and opening the pods to remove the wet cocoa beans. The harvested cocoa beans are then fermented and dried out. Cocoa beans then undergo processing to be transformed into chocolate products (the processing procedure can be viewed here) (ICCO, 2014).

Environmental Impacts of Cocoa Production and Processing in Ghana

According to the ICCO (2014), an estimated 70% of world cocoa production is grown by smallholders in low input and low intensity agricultural systems. Because cocoa requires shade and forest cover and has relatively few inputs, it has the smallest impact of all the tropical cash crops. However, widespread clearing of forests for intensive cocoa production has the potential to result in the destruction of ecosystems, the loss of biodiversity, soil erosion, stream sedimentation and health/environmental issues related to agrochemicals and runoff (ICCO FAQs, 2014).

Cocoa beans ready for sale and distribution (Source: CNN, 2014)

In their recent study, Ntiamoah and Afrane (2008) used a life cycle approach to identify the environmental impacts of cocoa production and processing in Ghana, the world's second largest producer of cocoa beans. In Ghana, the government has recently implemented the Cocoa Disease and Pest Control Project (CODAPEC) which aims to address the issue of pests and diseases on cocoa farms. The ultimate goal of the project was to improve the livelihood of farmers and reduce poverty by boosting cocoa production. Under CODAPEC, insecticides and fungicides were sprayed across Ghanaian cocoa farms free of charge. Though Ntiamoah and Afrane (2008) acknowledge the benefits of the programme, their work raises valid concerns about the environmental impacts associated with a growing cocoa industry.

In order to identify the potential environmental impacts associated with cocoa production in Ghaha, Ntiamoah and Afrane (2008) used a life cycle assessment (LCA) tool in accordance with the ISO 14040-14043 series procedural framework. The system was divided into 3 main stages, namely cocoa production, transportation, industrial processing of cocoa beans. The functional unit used in their study was 1kg of processed cocoa beans.

Overall, the authors reported that freshwater aquatic eco-toxicity, human toxicity, and global warming potentials were the most significant environmental impacts associated with the system. Below is a summary of their results, grouped by the three mains stages.

Cocoa Production Stage

Cocoa production makes the largest contribution to eutrophication, ozone layer depletion, freshwater aquatic eco-toxicity, human toxicity, and terrestrial eco-toxicity (average contributions greater than 96%). Ntiamoah and Afrane (2008) identified the production and use of fertilizers and pesticides as a major cause of environmental burden. Emissions of halogens and CFCs during pesticide production were identified as the main source of ozone layer depletion. Eutrophication was found to be caused by nutrient leakage during cultivation and emission of phosphates. For the toxicity groups, the main source was heavy metal content in phosphorus fertilizers and leakage of pesticides. Other impacts identified by the authors were solid waste in the form of pod husks and loss of biodiversity from clearing of original vegetation.

Cocoa pod husks (Source: Sustainable Review, 2014)

Cocoa Processing Stage

In terms of cocoa processing, Ntiamoah and Afrane (2008) identified industrialised processing of cocoa beans as the most important contributor to photo-chemical ozone creation potential, global warming potential, atmospheric acidification potential, and abiotic depletion potential. The production and combustion of fossil fuels were identified as the principal cause of the environmental impacts of this stage. 

Transportation Stage

The authors reported that the transportation stage was the most environmentally-friendly, with no significant contributions to the impact categories.

In addition to quantifying the environmental impacts associated with the three main stages of cocoa production in Ghana, the authors put forth several recommendations. Among the most important recommendations were the replacement of diesel fuel by natural gas in the cocoa processing stage and the exclusive use of compost instead of inorganic fertilizers.

I certainly learnt a lot about cocoa production, and was impressed by the use of an LCA tool by Ntiamoah and Afrane (2008) to quantify the environmental impacts of the cocoa industry in Ghana. I was also rather surprised by some of the environmental and health impacts that result from this industry. It's definitely going to be something I think about the next time I purchase a chocolate bar! Were you surprised by the results of the life cycle analysis, or about any of the cocoa facts we talked about today? I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Intoxication Season at Kew Gardens

Last week I had the opportunity to visit Kew Gardens. For my overseas readers, the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew were founded in 1759 and named a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2003. The garden's mission is to "inspire and deliver science-based plant conservation world-wide, enhancing the quality of life". The site is home to numerous impressive greenhouses, different plant ecosystems and habitats, and a large number of seasonal exhibitions.

For my first visit at Kew Gardens, I went to see a very interesting exhibition called The Intoxication Season. The exhibition showcased the history behind intoxicating plants and fungi, and highlighted the ways in which plants can be used as both medicines and intoxicants. Throughout the garden, specific plants were indicated by a poison symbol, and information was provided on the ways they have historically been used as either medicines or intoxicants. In addition to the various displays throughout the gardens, guided tours were given, including the Dark Side of Plants Tour which I attended. The tour was delivered by one of the garden's excellent volunteers,  who brought the group around different parts of the garden unveiling the dangerous secrets hiding behind the exteriors of many beautiful plants. We talked about the celebrated and well-known effects of plants including Cofea (coffee), Theobroma cocoa (chocolate), Aconitum (wolfsbane), Papaver somniferum (opium), Artemisia absinthium (absinthe),  Ephedera (epinephrine), and Salvia officinalis (sage), among many others. 

The part of the tour that particularly struck me was the guide's emphasis on the fact that plants produce their intoxicating or medicinal properties for their own benefit - not for the benefit of humans or other animal species. Although these chemicals and compounds have been of great use to humankind for millennia, they were not particularly intended for our use, and above-all serve the plants themselves, often through defensive mechanisms. The guided tour ended at a greenhouse that was entirely devoted to The Intoxication Season, which housed some of the most mind-altering plant varieties, including Cannabis (marijuana), Coca (cocaine), Salvia divinatum (salvia), Agave (tequila), and many more.

Throughout the tour and my visit at Kew Gardens, I found that I had a lot of questions about these special plants, besides their particular mind-altering properties. It's great that we have been able to tap into the benefits of such truly remarkable plants - but what are the environmental consequences of our preference for certain species? How has the rapid expansion in demand for certain products affected the environment? How are these plants produced on large scales? In light of these unanswered questions, I will be devoting the next few blog posts here at Picnics Past & Present on the environmental impacts of the production of some of the mind-altering species I saw at Kew Gardens. I also plan to focus on some of my personal favourites - coffee and chocolate!

UN Climate Summit & Meat Free Mondays

There's certainly been lots going on in the climate change front over the last week. I find this extremely exciting, especially as a recent graduate in the climate change field. It's really wonderful to see that both individuals and international governments are taking climate change seriously, are pushing for action, and are acknowledging that it isn't a "far-away" problem. The world-wide demonstrations preceding the UN emergency Climate Summit in New York last weekend were truly inspiring - and it looks like governments have heard us. For those of you that aren't familiar with the 2014 UN Climate Change Summit, below is a short summary (a longer one can be found here on the UN website):

-The purpose of the summit was to "raise political momentum for a meaningful universal climate agreement in Paris 2015 and to galvanize transformative action in all countries to reduce emissions and build resilience to the adverse impacts of climate change".

-Leaders from government, business, and civil society were asked to build a global vision for low-carbon economic growth and to advance climate action via various pathways.

-The main points of discussion for the global vision on climate change were the following: convergence on a long-term vision; cutting emissions; moving markets and mobilizing money; pricing carbon; strengthening resilience; and mobilizing new coalitions.  

-100 Heads of State and Government attended the Summit.

What does all this climate change talk have to do with food? Well, as we've talked about in previous posts, the food industry is heavily intertwined in our complex climate change problem. On the one side, large-scale food production is a dominant greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions contributor, and therefore a major contributor to anthropogenic climate change (Vermeulen, 2012). On the other side, climate change threatens global food production through its negative effects such as drought and limiting water resources (IPCC, 2007). 

Something else really exciting happened this week. Ahead of the UN Climate Summit, Sir Paul McCartney released an original song, Meat Free Monday, in order to promote his campaign on the reduction of meat consumption to combat climate change.  You can listen to the song in the video below - I hope you'll enjoy it as much as I did! If you're interested in pledging your support for this campaign, you can do so here. 

Buddha Pears

Good afternoon dear readers,

I came across an interesting article today by Rebecca Rupp of the National Geographic's The Plate about pears shaped like baby buddhas. Yes, you heard me correctly, pears shaped like baby buddhas!

Pear shaped like a baby buddha (photo from the National Geographic)

A while back we talked about a National Geographic series, the Future of Food, which aims to investigate how food will change with increasing pressures such as climate change and growing global populations. This article on buddha pears is part of this series, despite its rather light and airy tone (in case you're wondering, the pears are shaped this way thanks to specially designed molds in which the pears are grown). However, the article isn't all about funny-looking fruit. The main message that Rupp is trying to convey is that food is routinely wasted because it doesn't meet society's aesthetic requirements. Rupp goes on to talk about regulations which only allow the sale of produce that conforms with certain aesthetic standards and what certain companies are doing to try to decrease the waste of "imperfect" produce.

Personally, I love it when I buy a bag of carrots to find a forked one, or cutting into a bunch of beets to find that one of them has two heads. On the whole, I don't tend to favour fruits and vegetables which seem more perfect than others. I was wondering how you feel about what your fruits and veggies look like? Do you prefer consuming vegetables and fruits that all fit the same mold, so to speak? I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Food Demand & Climate Change

Have you noticed the food headlines (e.g. here and here) of late? A new study published by engineers, plant scientists, and food specialists from the Universities of Cambridge and Aberdeen used a transparent, data-driven model to demonstrate that projected food demand will drive agricultural expansion, contributing to critical environmental issues such as the loss of biodiversity, climate change and pollution. The authors, Bajželj et al. (2014), warn that it is absolutely essential to find ways to achieve food security without promoting the negative side effects of agricultural expansion and increased greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

Cattle livestock. Source: The Guardian (2014)

Bajželj et al. (2014)'s study aimed to estimate the environmental implications of the projected increase in food demand by 2050. They were also interested in quantifying the extent to which measures including sustainable intensification and demand reduction could reverse these negative effects. The authors' approach was to use a model of the current global land system based on emprical data, with 2009 as a base year. The model included 2 main components, namely an analysis of land distribution leading to the allocation of land-use change, natural ecosystem losses, and GHG emissions, and a map of agricultural biomass flows. Based on their analyses, the authors concluded that an increased demand for inefficient pathways of food supply such as livestock products causes the food production system to become larger and increasingly inefficient. 

The authors then went on to investigate 6 future scenarios based on agricultural intensification, waste reduction and dietary preferences. Their results indicated that increases in agricultural expansion and agriculture-related GHG emissions were only prevented when significant elements of demand reduction were included. Bajželj et al. (2014) suggest the reduction of meat consumption and an overall improvement of diet as potential solutions to avoid reaching dangerous levels of climate change.

We touched on meat consumption in previous posts (e.g. here and here), and saw that demand for animal products has been increasing in recent decades. Based on the evidence presented in scientific studies such as the one described above, would you be willing to decrease your intake of livestock products to take action on climate change? I, for one, am certainly convinced!

I'd love to hear your thoughts on meat consumption and climate change, or any aspect of the food production system at all. Feel free to share in the comments section below. 

The Future of Food

Good afternoon dear readers! 

Just a quick little post for you this sunny Wednesday afternoon. I stumbled upon this National Geographic special series, the Future of of FOOD while taking a break from my pollen analysis (one month to go!). In their eight-month series, National Geographic is investigating the future of food in a world where the climate is changing at an unprecedented rate and global populations are rapidly increasing. You can check out the trailer below to get an idea of what the series is all about, and have a look here for a 15-minute talk summarising each part of the series by Dennis Dimick, executive environment director at National Geographic. I'll definitely be checking out the series on the evolution of diet in particular. I was instantly intrigued when Dennis mentioned "the idea that food is what really made us human" - I couldn't agree more! 

Until next time!

Sustainable Dining

It's been quite a while since my last post here - I admit, things have been quite hectic with school and deadlines, but I am now back from a much needed break. So, where did we leave things off? In short, we took a journey from the past to the present to see how global food production impacts the environment. We covered a really wide range of topics, but there is so much more to the story of how humans produce food. In the next set of posts, we will focus on present environmental issues surrounding food production. I'd like to explore some of the topics I didn't have time to cover in the fall, such as organic farming, pesticides and nutrient enrichment, composting, factory farming, biofuels... this list could go on forever, so please come visit regularly! 

Seeing as it's my first day back from my blog holidays, I'd like to keep things on the lighter side. So let's dig in! 

Salade Niçoise in Nice (you can find a great recipe here)

Have you ever heard of an organisation called the Sustainable Restaurant Association? If you haven't, don't worry - I hadn't either, but was certainly excited to learn that something like this existed. In a nutshell, the SRA is a not for profit membership organisation that seeks to assist dining establishments to transition towards sustainability. In addition, it also assists diners in selecting sustainable options when eating out. The organisation's definition of a sustainable restaurant comes in a lovely three course meal format: sourcing, environment, and society. These values are broken down into various compartments such as supply chain, fair treatment of people, and local and seasonal sourcing, among many others. The SRA's key focus areas can be seen in the diagram below.

SRA's 14 Key Focus Areas (source: SRA)

What's more? The SRA has compiled a guide for sustainable restaurants that is searchable by location! Quickly searing London has brought up something like 22 pages of results - I'm looking forward to combing through the list next time I go out for dinner. Sustainable dining at restaurants is something that has always interested me, but was not something that I have been actively making an effort to do, essentially because I found it challenging to know where to obtain information on the topic. The SRA has made this easy, so I no longer have an excuse! Recently, I visited a Mexican restaurant called Wahaca, which is a member of the SRA, and had a great sustainable dining experience.

What are your thoughts on the work that the SRA does?

What's wrong with our food system?

The other day I came across this particularly interesting video titled "What's wrong with our food system?" The most impressive part - it's given by an 11-year-old kid, Birke Baehr who dreams of becoming an organic farmer! He covers all sorts of issues, such as marketing of food to factory farming and pesticides. I thought the depth of his knowledge was so impressive. I can tell you that when I was 11 years old, I definitely wasn't thinking about where my food was coming from! I hope you all enjoy his talk as much as I did!

A small aside - in his video, Birke mentions that "corn is in everything". If you'd like to learn more on the subject, I strongly recommend Michael Pollan's book The Omnivore's Dilemma. Pollan (2006) follows the food chain through industrial farming, organic farming, and finally foraging. For me, it was really fascinating (and surprising) to learn about corn's colossal presence in the farming and food industry.

Thanks for reading! 

Case Study: the Aral Sea

Today's post on the Aral Sea slightly deviates from the topic of food, but because it is one of the most catastrophic examples of the environmental impacts of intensive agriculture, I thought it deserved a place on this blog. So let's begin...

Abandoned boats scattered across desiccated areas
of the Aral Sea (Photo by Audun Kjørstad)

The Aral Sea, a large saltwater lake shared between Kazakhstan to the north and Uzbekistan to the south, was once the world's fourth largest body of inland water behind the Caspian Sea, Lake Superior, and Lake Victoria (Micklin, 1988). The Aral Sea drainage basin covers 1.8 million km² within seven nations, and is a terminal lake, i.e. it has surface inflow but no outflow (Micklin, 2006). It has experienced dramatic desiccation during the 20th century as a result of the diversion of riverine waters for agricultural irrigation from the Syr Dar'ya and the Amu Dar'ya starting in the 1960's. The Syr Dar'ya and the Amu Dar'ya are the main sources of water to the Aral Sea, and by the 1980's, these two rivers virtually dried up (Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2014).

The Aral Sea basin (Micklin, 2006)

Until 1960, the Aral Sea was a brackish lake (mean salinity of 10 g/L) that was inhabited by freshwater species. It supported a major fishery and was also used as a regional transportation route. In addition, the deltas of the Amu Dar'ya and the Syr Dar'ya supported rich bioligical diversity as well as activities such as irrigated agriculture and animal husbandry, among others (Micklin, 2006). It is interesting to note that the Aral Sea has been repeatedly flooded and desiccated throughout the Pliocene, the most recent replenishment occurring during the Pleistocene around 140,000 years ago. Over the past 10,000 years, fluctuations in the Aral Sea's surface level ranged from 20 to 40m as suggested by evidence such as marine fossils, archaeological sites and the like (Micklin, 1988).

Average annual water balance for the Aral Sea between
1911 and 2005 (Micklin, 2006)

What happened in 1960 that prompted the Aral Sea's tipping point? In the early days of the Soviet Union, communist authorities devised plans to increase the production of cotton, or white gold. Cotton production was increased in the 1920's, and by 1950 hundreds of kilometers of unlined canals from the Amu Dar'ya and Syr Dar'ya were carved into the surrounding desert to irrigate new cotton plantations (Stone, 1999). The effects of the rerouting of the two rivers were immediately felt, with major water deficits occurring by the 1980's, as can be seen from the above figure. Since 1960, the profile of the Aral Sea has been drastically modified due to this irrigation. Between 1987 and 1989, it was split into a "Small Aral Sea" in the north and a "Large Aral Sea" in the south. By 2005, the Large Aral Sea had become separated into three distinct bodies (Micklin, 2006).

Changes in the profile of the Aral Sea (Micklin, 2006)

So, why is all this important? The desiccation of the Aral Sea led to environmental impacts such as the loss of wetlands as a result of reduced river flow and the loss of fish species due to breeding ground destruction and increased salinity (Micklin, 2008). In terms of human impacts, the disappearance of the inland sea prompted the collapse of local fisheries, the end of shipping routes, and the exposure of a seabed rich in salt, pesticides, and other agricultural contaminants which can be transported by toxic dust storms (Micklin, 2008; Stone, 1999). Vozrozhdeniya (Resurrection) Island in the centre of the Aral Sea was once used as a ground for biological weapons testing. In 2001, the island was joined to mainland, creating a risk of human exposure to these weaponised organisms (Micklin, 2008). 

Resurrection Island (Micklin, 2008)

What's been done to alleviate the situation? In the 1990's, Kazakhstan attempted to restore the Large Aral Sea by constructing a dike to block outflow to the south, which was destroyed by a catastrophic failure in 1999. In 2005, however, a 13km earthen dike with a gated concrete dam for water discharge was installed with the aid of funding from the World Bank. This has led to an 18 percent increase in area of the northern portion of the Aral Sea, and fish are now being caught again in the area (Micklin, 2008). The Aral Sea has shown signs of restoration since then (e.g. Pala, 2011), and time will tell if the southern portion of the sea will one day reappear.

To conclude this post, I'm leaving you with this video of Bruce Pengra explaining how Landsat imagery has been used to document the Aral Sea's decline through time. It's truly amazing to see how the lake has transformed throughout the years. The disappearance of the Aral Sea is undoubtedly one of the great examples of global environmental change through time, and has taught humanity lessons on the effects of over-exploitation of natural resources from delicate ecosystems.

Thanks for reading!

GHG Emissions and Agriculture

In a previous post we touched on the livestock sector's impact on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Today, let's examine GHG emissions from the agricultural sector as a whole.

Emissions from agriculture occur in the form of carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), and nitrous oxide (N2O). CH4 and N2O are the most important sources of GHG emissions from agriculture, the agricultural sector contributing over 50% of the total amount anthropogenic emissions of these gases (Cole et al., 1997). Between 1990 and 2005, agricultural emissions of CH4 and N2O increased by 17%, equal to a an average annual emission rate of increase of approximately 60 megatonnes of CO2 equivalent (MtCO2-eq) per year (IPCC, 2007).

Agricultural fields in Brazil as seen from space (source: the Guardian)

Agricultural lands occupy approximately 40-50% of the Earth's land surface (IPCC, 2007), and can be clearly seen from space (e.g. above photo). Food systems today are so important that they contribute between 19 and 29% of the world's human-induced GHG emissions. Together, agriculture and forestry account for as much as one third of global GHG emissions (CGIAR, 2012). In 2008, approximately 9,800-16,900 MtCO2-eq were released from agricultural practices, agricultural production (including land cover change) comprising 80 to 86% of all food system emissions (Vermeulen, 2012).

Global agricultural emissions (CGIAR, 2013)

Various stages in the food production system are responsible for GHG emissions, as can be seen from the diagram above. The main three stages in the production of food include preproduction, production, and postproduction. By and large, the production stage which includes both direct and indirect emissions from agriculture contributes the largest portion of emissions. Within these stages of the food chain, regional variations exists with high-income countries contributing most to the postproduction stage (Vermeulen, 2012). 

Thornton (2012) argues that the effects of climate change will greatly affect the agricultural sector, and examines 22 common agricultural commodities' responses in the face of climate change. He states that "the world's agricultural system faces an uphill struggle", and that it will become a great challenge to feed global populations (as we saw with Foley, 2009). He also finds that the production of the most common commodity crops (wheat, maize, and rice) will be challenged by new weather patterns, as will the raising of livestock and catching of fish (two of the more common sources of protein). The Telegraph recently reported on the fact that the UK is now an importer of wheat because of large swings in weather conditions, exemplifying Thornton's (2012) findings (you can read the article here).

The UK was forced to switch from being an exporter of wheat to an
importer in 2013 (from the Telegraph)

At this point in our examination of current food systems, I'd like to take a little journey backwards in time. Remember when we talked about the origins of agriculture in November? We saw that the advent of agriculture about 10,000 years ago greatly altered human societies, and also the environment. What we didn't talk about was the early anthropogenic hypothesis, proposed by Ruddiman in 2003. Contrary to the popular notion that the Anthropocene began 150 to 200 years ago, altering the climate system by inputting CO2 and CH4 at industsrial rates, Ruddiman suggests that this transition in fact occurred thousands of years ago when agriculture was born. His three main arguments are that a) CO2 and CH4 concentrations anomalously began to increase 8,000 and 5,000 years ago, respectively; b) published explanations exist for mid- to late-Holocene gas increases which reject natural forcing; and c) wide arrays of archaeological, cultural, historical, and geologic evidence are available which point to anthropogenic impacts from early agriculture (in Eurasia in particular). Ruddiman's hypothesis is often criticised (see Ruddiman, 2007), but I thought it was worth mentioning and this post seemed like a good venue.

Regardless of when agriculture began to impact the climate system, it is clear that global food production is greatly contributing to climate change by inputting large amounts of GHGs into the atmosphere. The great challenge will be to produce enough food to feed the growing world, but at what cost? How will we manage to do so without imposing great climate change threats? If you're interested in mitigation strategies, you can read about it in chapter 8.4 of the IPCC's Fourth Assessment Report (AR4).

Thanks for reading, and have a Happy New Year!

Indigenous Fruits and Vegetables

Today's post is a quick little aside before we go on to explore GHG emissions from the agricultural sector as a whole later on in the week...

I was leisurely browsing the online world of food news this afternoon and came across this interesting article in the Guardian. The title, Healthy eating: nutritious indigenous foods you may never have heard of particularly caught my eye given the festive holiday season. After having eaten my fair share of sweets and decadent foods over the past week (and surely for the next week to come), I tend to get overly enthusiastic when I see articles with the word 'healthy' in their titles! 

Perinaldo artichokes (source: the Guardian)

The article describes a list of indigenous fruits and vegetables created by Food Tank: The Food ThinkTank that could present healthier alternatives to modern-day staples. The rationale behind the creation of the list is that the Western diet, which is rich in refined sugars, fats, processed grain and meat has taken over the world over the past three decades (e.g. Bonhommeau et al., 2013). This dietary shift has been linked with increased chronic disease incidence, including obesity and cardiovascular disease (Cordain, 2005). Organisations, such as the World Vegetable Center, are working to catalogue these indigenous foods, because many have been replaced and even lost as traditional diets are being replaced by Western diets. 

Amaranth (source: the Guardian)

The list includes some well known indigenous fruits and vegetables such as amaranth and argan (Africa), artichokes (Europe), okra, mungbean and lemongrass (Asia), and apples (Americas), as well as many others which I'd never heard of before (such as papalo from the Americas, which has a skunk-like smell and is known to regulate blood pressure and relieve stomach disorders).

Given that we recently touched on the Western diet when we examined the livestock sector, I thought that sharing this article would be a nice little break from all the hard-hitting environmental facts surrounding our food system. I'll be back to discuss the very imposing issue of GHG emissions from agriculture in a few days' time, so do check back soon.

For those of you that have come to study in the UK from abroad, are there any healthy traditional foods that are being replaced due to the emergence of a Western diet? I can't think of any examples from Canada off the top of my head, but I'll share in the comments if I come up with anything.

Thanks for reading!