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!

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!

Info Graphic

Once again, I've disappeared from the blogosphere for an extended period of time - my apologies, dear readers! 

After my term papers and exams were completed in the beginning of May, I envisioned myself having much more free time to dedicate to blogging about food and the environment. But things have been in  full swing with my Masters dissertation since then, and I have been spending most of my time in the lab and behind a light microscope examining fossil pollen. For my project, I am reconstructing recent anthropogenic vegetation changes using detailed ultra-high resolution pollen analyses from the Portuguese Margin. I'm really enjoying it so far, but I must admit it's quite the learning curve with these biological proxies of environmental change! Below are a couple photos of some of the types of taxa I typically encounter under the microscope:

    

Figure 1. Light microscope and scanning electron microscope (SEM) images of fossil pollen grains. Left: Compositae tubuliflorae, middle: Pinus (SEM image), right: Tilia. Images courtesy of the University of Arizona.

But all things pollen aside, let's talk about food and our individual environmental footprints. As we touched on in previous posts (for instance here and here), I often think about the environmental footprint of the food I consume and cook with each day. Living in a big city like London, it's all too easy to fall into the "to go" and "disposable" mentality. With a busy schedule and constantly rushing from point A to point B, the thought of washing extra dishes or even cooking a simple meal can seem daunting - especially when all of your heart's culinary desires can be delivered to your doorstep within minutes.

Sometimes all that's needed is a gentle reminder and some simple ideas for more environmentally-friendly food habits. In the spirit of all this, I found this really interesting info-graphic created by Food Establishments Recycling Nutrients (FERN), a Lebanese non-governmental organisation that specialises in facilitating composting and recycling in restaurants (below). 

This info-graphic is filled with great tips and habits that can really improve our individual environmental footprints. My favourite aspects include: "first in, first out", "expiration dates aren't throw-away dates" and the focus on food waste. Personally, I find that making a grocery list and a meal plan and sticking to it is an excellent way to ensure that all the food you purchase is used. I also found the idea of keeping a list next to the garbage can for a week to monitor how much food is wasted is an excellent one - I may conduct the experiment and report my results on the blog, so stay tuned for that!

What are you favourite aspects of this info-graphic? Are there any wasteful habits you'd like to kick? What is your favourite tip on reducing food waste at home?

Until next time!

In need of bean-spiration?

I have a confession to make: I've been in a bit of a cooking rut as of late. As a masters student with quite the busy schedule, meal planning is essential for me to maintain healthy eating habits. Normally, I plan a week's worth of meals and then cook big batches on the weekend. This way, I don't need to worry about preparing meals during the week so that I can focus on other things. I have some recipes that I come back to week after week, month after month. Although I do love my lentil soups and Moroccan-inspired stews, I've started to get bored and uninspired with the usual protagonists. 

Enter this beautiful 15-bean mix. Nothing like this kaleidoscope of colours to rekindle inspiration, eh?

My favourite thing to do with this mix is to cook up a big batch of soup (recipe below). Soups are a great way to use up old vegetables (reducing our food waste impact!), can be prepared in big batches and freeze very well for those busy months. Besides pretty colours to inspire me, I have a lineup of trusted blogs I like to visit when I need to spice things up in the kitchen. Here are some of my favourites:

-Oh She Glows (try this burrito recipe - you won't regret it!)
-101 Cookbooks (this carrot salad was simple and delicious)
-Green Kitchen Stories (these protein bars are great for busy mornings)
-Sprouted Kitchen (I'll be trying these sweet potatoes next)
-Scandi Home (we often make this split pea soup)

There are so many great websites for healthy cooking and eating out there, so if you ever find yourself in a cooking rut, I strongly recommend the above blogs. One thing that I particularly love about these sites is the bounty of gorgeous food photos each blogger features - if these don't inspire you to cook, then I don't know what will! Besides the internet, I also have a small collection of cookbooks that I use almost every week, but I'll save those for another post.

What are your favourite ways to use dried beans? Do you get bored with the usual dishes you prepare on a weekly basis? Where do you turn to for a good dose of culinary information?

Thanks for reading, and enjoy the recipe!

15-bean soup

Serves 8-10

Ingredients:

-1tbsp olive oil

-1 large onion, diced

-1 head of celery, diced

-1.5 cups 15 bean mix, soaked in plenty of fresh water for 12 hours

-1 400g can diced tomatoes

-1 cube of vegetable stock

-8 cups water, or as much as needed

Procedure:

1. Heat olive oil in a large soup pot. Add onion and celery, and cook until tender (about 5 minutes).

2. Add soaked beans, diced tomatoes, as much water as desired water, and vegetable stock cube, and bring to the boil.

3. Reduce heat, and simmer for 1.5 hours, or until beans are thoroughly cooked.

4. Enjoy!

A plant's eye view

Dear readers,

Today I'd like to share a video with you that I found truly inspiring. As I'm sure you've gathered from some of my previous posts here at PP&P, I've always felt a strong connection with nature. Since moving to London and being relatively far away from my beloved Canadian wilderness, I find that sometimes I forget that we are part of a bigger thing: the biosphere. Listening to Michael Pollan talk about looking at the world from a "plant's eye view" really put things back into perspective for me on this grey British afternoon.

Two aspects of this talk particularly struck me. First, the notion that plants manipulate the animal species which rely on them for survival. Pollan (2008) argues that humans are lured and manipulated by plants just as a bee is lured by a colourful and sweet-scented flower blossom, allowing it to spread its genes while the bee gathers nectar from flower to flower. This example is extended to agriculture, with the suggestion that this technique of mass producing food arose as a "co-evolutionary development" in which edible grasses have and continue to exploit humans. Now that's something to think about!

The second most impressive aspect of his talk was his personal account of Joe Salatin's organic farm (Polyface Farms), in Shenandoah Valley, Virginia. Pollan (2008) describes this organic farm which symbiotically raises over five species of animals as well as some forestry products on a mere 100 hectares of land. What is unique about this farm is that it produces vast amount of food products by simply harnessing the desires of each species involved. In this way, the species perform a variety of ecological services for one another. For example, cows on this farm intensively graze fields. After the grazing is complete, Salatin waits three days before introducing chickens to the same fields. This way, the soils are rich with mature grubs for the chickens to feast on. These chickens fertilise and churn the soil, and remove the grubs, allowing for a quick regeneration of the grasses. Each species involved fulfills a specific purpose. 

To conclude his talk, Pollan (2008) leaves his audience with the idea that this form of food production completely contradicts the pre-conceived notion that nature must be diminished in order for humans to obtain their needs in resources. What would happen if we had a food production revolution, in which all farmers harnessed the desires of the species they harvest? I think the world could be a very different place!

What are your thoughts on looking at the world from a "plant's eye view"? Have you ever tried looking at the world in this way? Do you think a revolution in symbiotic food production could change the way we grow food in the future?

Thanks for reading! 

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?

In Review

As most of you know, I've been blogging here as part of my course in Global Environmental Change. As the term comes to an end (wow, the past few months just flew by!), I'd like to take this opportunity to review what we've been talking about here these past few months. So please join me for a cappuccino to look at the term in review...

The aim of this space was to examine the environmental impacts of global food production through time. To do this, we started off by briefly taking a look at the big picture, summarising the very long story of food, from the origins of agriculture straight through to the Anthropocene. Then we set off to examine things in a bit more depth. Using a chronological format, we saw that there are many hypotheses for cause of the origination of agriculture and that agriculture was born in several geographic locations, including the Fertile Crecent. We also learned that the birth of agriculture 10,000 years ago altered the Earth and had its associated environmental impacts. Moving forward in time, we learned that the industrial revolution truly accelerated global food production by harnessing energy with the help of fossil fuels. This allowed us to produce food at rates never seen before, which brought on its own new set of environmental impacts. To examine these impacts, we then moved on to the present era, the Anthropocene. We covered topics such as the livestock sector and its environmental impacts and greenhouse gas emissions associated with intensive agriculture. We also looked at how intensive agriculture can affect hydrological systems such as the Aral Sea. 

Along the way, we time-travelled between past and present, looking into our grocery carts for environmental impacts, digging deeper into current issues like food waste (here and here), and talked about indigenous fruits and veggies and the paleolithic diet. We also cooked up a storm (see the recipe archive), went on a field trip to see food growing in action, and had the opportunity to listen to some really interesting speakers like Will Steffen, Tristram Stuart, Jonathan Foley, and Birke Baehr! 

At the end of November, I wrote a post titled Progress Report where I made a wordle on the blog's content so far. I said I'd come back in the New Year to show how how the picture changed, and here it is! Similar to the last one, the words that showed up the most were agriculture, environmental, and food. Interestingly, some new words have also come into the picture, such as emissions, global change, impacts, waste, and production. The progress between these two word images nicely summarises the evolution of the content of this blog: food production's evolution from the past into the present. It also highlights how intensified the food system has become.

On a final note, thank you all for your comments and for reading my blog. It was really interesting to have your input and to talk with you about food and the environment. I'm really happy that the assignment for this module was to keep a blog - it's been something that I've wanted to do for a long time but never had enough courage to start one - I do hope to continue with this blog in the future, so please come by from time to time and say hello!

Thanks again,

Katherine

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!

The Other Inconvenient Truth

While researching the environmental impacts of increased meat consumption, I came across an excellent TED Talk by Jonathan Foley titled The Other Inconvenient Truth. He describes the current state of the food system and identifies the need for future solutions so that we can feed 9 billion people by 2040. He covers some examples of the environmental impacts of  the modern agricultural system, including the drying of the Aral Sea and rainforest degradation in South America. His talk provides a really nice review of some of the information covered in Are Humans Becoming More Carnivorous? as well as a nice segue into some of the future topics that we'll be exploring here.

If you have twenty minutes to spare, you can check out his talk below.

If not, here's the short and compelling clip that Jonathan shows at the end of his talk.

Thanks for reading!

Are Humans Becoming More Carnivorous? Environmental Impacts

In the previous post, we examined a new study by Bonhommeau et al. (2013) which revealed that global meat consumption has increased over the past five decades. How does an increase in meat consumption affect the environment?

Cows (photo from Living Green Magazine)

The livestock sector lies within the top two or three of the most important contributors to environmental issues, both locally and globally. Despite not being a major global economic player, the livestock sector is beneficial and crucial to society, employing and feeding growing global populations (Steinfeld et al., 2006; Herrero et al., 2009). Livestock agriculture contributes to environmental problems such as land degradation, land use change, climate change and greenhouse gas emissions, water shortage and pollution, nutrient excretion, loss of biodiversity, and competition for human food (Steinfeld et al., 2006; Janzen, 2011). These environmental impacts are driven by growing stresses on global human populations, namely the those of food, water, and energy security, biogeochemical interferences, and habitat (Janzen, 2011).

Let's now examine some of these impacts in a bit more detail. Many of the other impacts mentioned above will be the topics of future posts.

Land Use Change and Degradation

Land use refers to the ways in which land is used for human means. It is "characterised by the arrangements, activities and inputs that people undertake in a certain land cover type to produce change, or maintain it" (FAO, 2013). Land degradation refers to the reduction of resources as a result of processes which act on the land, including soil erosion, deterioration of the properties of the soil, and loss of natural vegetation (Steinfeld et al., 2006).

Deforestation for agriculture in Brazil's Pantanal wetland 
(from JNCC, 2013)

Livestock now represents the largest portion of human land use forms, affecting ecosystems around the world (Janzen, 2011). An example of environmental problems brought on by land use change for agriculture is the degradation of tropical rainforests, such as the Amazon. Two main phenomena are related to deforestation as a result of intensive raising of livestock, the first being the direct conversion of forest to pasture land and the second being the clearing of forest for crop growth to feed livestock (Herrero et al., 2009). Approximately 20-30% of the Earth's land surfaces are used for grazing, while approximately one third of cultivated land area is used to feed livestock (Janzen, 2011). 

GHG Emissions & Climate Change

Climate change is possibly the most pressing environmental challenge that has faced the planet. According to the IPCC (2013), the main authority on climate change, the "warming of the climate system is unequivocal, and since the 1950s, many of the observed changes are unprecedented over decades to millennia". This warming can be seen in the atmosphere, the ocean, the cryosphere, in sea level, and in carbon and biogeochemical cycles. The largest contributor to total radiative forcing is caused by the increases in anthropogenic GHGs, such as CO2, since 1750.

Disintegrating iceberg near West Greenland
(from The Guardian)

Animal agriculture produces GHG emissions in the form of CH4 from enteric fermentation, N2O from fertiliser use, CH4 and N2O from manure management practices, and CO2 from from fossil fuel and energy use (O'Mara, 2011) and land use and its changes (Herrero et al., 2009). Livestock induced emissions account for 2.4 billion tonnes of CO2 per year, and on a life cycle analysis basis, they contribute up to 18% of global GHG emissions (Steinfeld et al., 2006). 

Water Shortage and Pollution

Water is essential for life. Only 3% of the water on Earth is fresh, and surface water only accounts for 0.3% of the total amount of freshwater (this includes lakes, rivers, and streams). Another 68.7% of all freshwater is locked away in glaciers, while 30% of freshwater is located within the pores of the ground in the form of groundwater (US EPA, 2013). Approximately 64% of the world's population is expected to live in water-stressed basins by 2025 (Steinfeld et al., 2006).

Water shortage in China (photo from The Guardian)

Freshwater is extensively used in livestock agriculture, the most significant use coming from the irrigation of crops for intensive feeding operations. The livestock sector is a key player in increasing water use and represents 8% of global human water use (Steinfeld et al., 2006). For instance, approximately 16,000L of water are needed to produce 1kg of beef (Janzen, 2011). In terms of water pollution, the major sources from the livestock sector include animal waste, antibiotics and hormones, chemicals from tanneries, fertilisers and pesticides for feedcrops, and sediments from eroded pastures. These pollutants contribute to freshwater eutrophication, coastal dead zones, and the degradation of coral reefs, among others (Steinfeld et al., 2006).

As I mentioned above, these are only some of the many environmental impacts of livestock agriculture. Livestock's Long Shadow by Steinfeld et al. is currently the most comprehensive study on the environmental impacts of the livestock sector. I strongly recommend flipping through it if you're eager to learn more on the topic.

Having read about some of the environmental impacts arising from the livestock sector, what do you think are potential solutions for a more sustainable food industry? 

Thanks for reading!

Are Humans Becoming More Carnivorous?

Photo courtesy of Farming America

At the beginning of December, Nature News published an article titled Humans are becoming more carnivorous. The article discussed how global meat consumption has increased since the 1960s. The article describes the findings of a new study, Eating up the world's food web and the human trophic level published by Bonhommeau et al. (2013) in the peer-reviewed journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Bonhommeau et al. (2013) used the trophic level concept to quantify human diets. Trophic levels are often used to define the roles of species in ecosystems by describing the energy levels associated with primary producers, secondary producers, and tertiary producers (Kercher and Shugart, 1975). Species belonging to the lowest trophic levels are primary producers (e.g. algae, plants), and species belonging to the highest trophic levels are top predators. When moving from one trophic level to another, a loss in energy occurs (Kozlovsky, 1968). Bonhommeau et al. (2013) calculated the Human Trophic Level (HTL) for the very first time using human food supply per food item per capita per year national data from the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO). The data represent 98.1% of the world population between 1961 and 2009.

Their results indicate a 3% increase in HTL since 1961 (as shown in the figure below). By using a weighted average to represent different countries' populations, the researchers found that much of this increase was driven by China and India (HTL increase of 7.4%). 

A) Trends in the HTC (1961-2009) and B) Map of the median HTC level over 2005-2009 (Bonhommeau et al., 2013) 

Although there is a considerable amount of inter-country variability within the results, cluster analysis has shown that there are five different groups of HTLs:

The first group includes sub-Saharan countries and Southeast Asia and exhibits patterns of low and stable HTLs due to that fact that populations in these regions have mainly plant-based diets. The second group includes countries from Asia, Africa, South America, including China and India, and exhibits low but increasing HTLs. The third group includes Central America, Brazil, Chile, Southern Europe, several African countries, and Japan. It has higher HTLs than group 2 and exhibits an increasing trend. The fourth group includes North America, Northern and Eastern Europe, Australia, and New Zealand, and has high and stable HTLs until 1990 which increase thereafter. Finally, the fifth group possesses the highest overall HTLs and decreasing trends, and includes Iceland, Scandinavia, Mongolia, and Mauritania.

In addition to the trends described above, the results found by Bonhommeau et al. (2013) challenge the classic view of humans as top predators - based on their analysis, humans were placed on the same trophic level as anchoveta and pigs (level of 2.21). The researchers also found that the trophic level of terrestrial animals consumed by humans has only slightly increased, while the trophic level of marine food items has decreased due to declines in the mean trophic level of marine fisheries catches. 

When I first read the article in Nature News, I was a little bit surprised to learn that global meat consumption has increased despite so much recent emphasis on meat consumption reduction, for example through campaigns such as Meat Free Mondays. However, reading through the results, the numbers do add up. When looking at the bigger picture and taking into account the economies of different countries, we still see a growing preference for a western-style diet. 

What does a global increase in meat consumption imply? I'll be back to explore the potential environmental impacts in the next post.

Thanks for reading!

The Anthropocene and the Industrial Revolution

The next chapter in our story of global food production through time brings us to the Holocene, and more specifically, to the last few centuries of our present geologic epoch. Before exploring the modern environmental impacts of global food production, this post will highlight some of the background on modern global environmental change by examining the Anthropocene, the Industrial Revolution, and the Great Acceleration.

Source: Images of the Industrial Era in Great Britain

The Anthropocene

The dramatic increase in human-induced environmental change over the past three centuries has led to the recognition of a new geologic epoch, the Anthropocene (Ellis, 2011; Crutzen, 2002; Steffen et al., 2007; Zalasiewicz et al., 2011). This novel geologic epoch is still informal, and its start date is currently being debated by scientists. However, the term is generally tied to the period of time associated with the alteration of the Earth's lithosphere, atmosphere, hydrosphere, and biosphere by means of collective human activities. The term Anthropocene signifies "the recent age of man" and is derived from Greek (Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2013). One possible starting point that has been suggested for the Anthropocene is the onset of the Industrial Revolution (IR) (Crutzen, 2002; Price et al., 2011; Steffen et al, 2007).  

The Industrial Revolution (Stage 1 of the Anthropocene?)

The IR mechanised the world by altering economies to become driven by industry and machine manufacture. The movement originated in Great Britain between 1760 and 1830, and later spread to other areas of the world. The main technological features of the IR include the use of new base materials (iron and steel), as well as the use fossil fuels (coal, in particular) as energy sources. In addition, the invention of new machines, the introduction of the factory system, improved communication, and the application of science to industry were all central to the revolution. These technological advances allowed humans to harness a significantly larger amount of natural resources. The IR also allowed for major developments in areas such as agriculture, where it became possible to mass produce food to supply the world's growing populations (Encyclpaedia Britannica, 2013).

Though the IR was undoubtedly advantageous for the growth of global economies and societies, it also contributed to the creation of the environmental problems of our time. The exponential increase in the use of natural resources associated with the IR resulted in the increased input of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere (Price et al., 2011), deforestation and conversion to agriculture in the mid-latitudes (Steffen et al., 2007), the diversion of water in rivers by dams (Steffen et al., 2011), and ocean acidification (Tyrrell, 2011), to name only a few. Kasa (2009) argues that current environmental problems have in fact been created as a result of the development that followed the IR. Kasa (2009) further breaks down the IR into five smaller revolutions, and associates them with their specific environmental impacts, as shown in the figure below. 

The five industrial revolutions and their environmental problems (Kasa, 2009).

The massive explosion that was the IR resulted in the skyrocketing of anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuel use over the past 150 years, as can be seen from the figure below. Atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O) have increased to levels never experienced before. CO2 concentrations have increased by 40% since pre-industrial times, attributed primarily to fossil fuel emissions and secondarily to net land use change emissions. Today, it is widely accepted by the scientific community that human influence on the climate system is clear (IPCC, 2013).

Annual anthropogenic CO2 emissions from 1750 to 2011 (IPCC, 2013)

The Great Acceleration (Stage 2 of the Anthropocene?)

Following the Second World War, the human enterprise quickly accelerated, as shown by Steffen et al., (2007). The First World War, the Great Depression, and the Second World War were all factors which had the net effect of slowing global population and economic growth. From the middle of the 20th century, sharp increases in human populations, total real GDP, damming of rivers, and fertiliser consumption, among others, can clearly be seen. According to Steffen et al. (2007), almost 75% of the anthropogenically driven increase in CO2 concentration took place since 1950, and nearly 50% of the total increase in CO2 has occurred in the last 30 years.

The change in human enterprise from 1750-2000 (Steffen et al., 2007)

Final Thoughts

How does this all link back to global food production? In short, the IR industrialised all economic spheres, including agriculture. The use of machinery, factories, and fertilisers in the food system were all results of the IR. The Great Acceleration allowed for an exponential growth in food production, and also allowed for the internationalisation of our food system. 

I hope that trough this post, I have provided the background for future posts here at PP&P. The next set of posts will examine some of the impacts of modern global food production. If there's anything you're dying to learn about or simply would like me to find some information for you, please let me know in the comments below!

To conclude this post, I found this very interesting BBC documentary about why the IR occurred in Britain. I definitely recommend it if you'd like to learn a little bit more on the subject.

Thanks for reading!