JUST 357 Final

Food system

- production, harvest, gathering, etc.
- environmental inequity, racism (labor land, healthy foods)

Global Food Regime

- rule based structure of production and consumption of food on a global scale
- capitalism

1st Global Food Regime

- late 1800s (Great Depression)
- food imports from southern and America colonies fed European industrial expansion

2nd Global Food regime

-Post-WWII
-reversed flow of food from Northern to Southern hemisphere to fuel cold war industrialization in global south (green revolution)

Today's Global Food regime

-(1980s-present): all encompassing agri-food complex
- based on fossil fuels, monopoly market power, global meat production, etc.
- Influences governments and supported by public and private institutions (World Bank, IMP, etc.)

What started the rise of the corporate food regime

1. Colonialism/Imperialism
2. Green Revolution
3. Structural Adjustment Policies
4. Neoliberal Free Tradism

Neoliberal and Food

see hunger and poverty as a business opportunity (privatization and free trade)

Reformers and Food

seek to hold government and industry accountable for policies or enterprises that undermine the human right to food (food security)

liberalization

period of unregulated markets and capital expansion, followed by surpluses and devasting busts

Reformist

period of regulating markets, supply, and consumption to re-stablize the regime

Food social movements

- land reform/food sovereignty
- sustainable and agroecological agricultues
- "good, clean and fair food"

Food Justice

- movement that considers the social and political roots of inequities in the food system
- fair distribution of benefits and risks
- works with CFR to reform mechanisms of production and consumption

food sovereignty

- people right to healthy and culturally appropriate food produced through ecologically sound and sustainable methods and their right to define their own food and agricultural systems
- radically disrupt the global system

Food Insecurity

2020: 1 in 6 US children are hungry
2021: 1 in 8

Who works towards farming and land civil right issues

Ron Finley (garden in central LA video)

Green Revolution

intensify production of worlds principal cereals (maize, wheat, rice)

Green Revolution based on

- high yield varieties (Seeds)
- fossil fuels
- synthetic fertilizers, herbicides, pesticides
- irrigation
- mechanization
- privatization

Green Revolution problem

- plant breeding
- expensive (linked to price of oil and unsustainable)
- increased cost to farmers
- often higher yield (for a single crop under controlled conditions) but lower profit margin

Consequences of Green Revolution

- reliance on costly inputs, fossil fuels
- soil degradation and erosion
- chemicals pollution
- water depletion
- increase in pests and weeds
- displaced human labor
- rural-to-urban migration

Second Green Revolution

- genetic engineering (GM crops GMOs) rather than conventional plant breeding
- roundup weed killer modified to resist herbicides

Food Insecurity

-UN agencies focused on general food supply and theoretical availability
- production oriented policies and incentives
- famine and malnourishment continue
- problem of food distribution and access

Green Revolution summary

- conventional agriculture
-erase Indigenous knowledge
- ongoing process
- increases yield, but not distribution to poor and vulnerable

Instead of Green Revolution.....

- transformative potentials of agroecology and local food systems and economies, could increase global food production by 50%

Agroecology

- the application of ecological concepts and principles to the design and managements of sustainable agricultural ecosystems
- productive and also resource conserving

Agroecology overview

- combines agroecological science with indigenous and other traditional knowledge systems
- enhances food security
- knowledge intensive and emphasizes small farms
- work within local communities

Principles of Agroecology

- Crop rotations
- Polycultures
- Animal integration
- Agroforestry systems
- Cover Crops

Agroecology Benefits

- food security
- more sustainable energy inputs
- efficiency, reduced emissions, pollution and waste

Milpas

3 sisters: maize-beans-squash complex
- corn= structure for climbing beans
- beans add nitrogen to soil
- squash suppresses weeds

Indigenous Agricultural Biodiversity

- 5,000 varieties of potatoes

USDA and food system

gives less than 15% of research and education grants to agroecology

USDA

An ecological production managements system that promotes and enhances biodiversity, biological cycles and soil biological activity. It is based on minimal use of off-farm inputs and on managements practices that restore, maintain and enhance ecological harmony

USDA Certified Organic

- crops cannot be grown with synthetic fertilizers
- cannot be genetically engineered
- animals eat on organic feed
- animals access to outdoors and cannot be clone

Food Apartheid

- FL activists (Karen Washington)
- Black, Latinx neighborhoods, communities
- access structural inequalities as related to food system

Food Justice in Harrisonburg

NCP: Vine and Fig, Jubilee Climate Farm
- Radical Roots Farm
- USDA, VA Dept of Agr., Consumer Svcs

agricultural knowledge

- wealth of knowledge should be targeted towards agroecology strategies that combine resources like soils, water, forests and biodiversity
- research and development efforts must target and include small scale and family farmers since they make up majority of the poor and hungry but also represent major stewards of environment

food sovereignty

puts the aspiration and needs of those who produce, distribute, and consume food at the heart of food systems and policies rather than the demands of markets and corporations (focused on profit and economic growth)

Six pillars of food sovereignty

1. Focuses on food for the people
2. Values food providers
3. Localizes food systems
4. Puts control locally
5. Builds knowledge and skills
6. Works with nature

Implications of Food Sovereignty

- priority to food production for domestic and local markets
- fair prices for farmers
- redistribution of resources
- gender sensitivity
- community control over productive resources (seeds)
- opt out of GMOs
- public investment in local markets
- Distributive, Procedural, and Recognition Justice

What percent of scientists agree that the earth is warming and human activity is primarily responsible

at least 97%

Weather

state of the atmosphere in a particular place over short periods of time
- wind, temp., humidity, atmo pressure, cloudiness, precipitation

Climate

long term pattern of weather in a location or region at a particular time
- regions weather pattern, tracked and compiled for 30+ years

Climate Change equals....

greatest challenge of the 21st century

Polar Vortex

increased temps in artic are disrupting climate patterns in the US causing more frequent and extreme winter events and changing precipitation patterns
- wild artic winds
- changes linked to a decline in yields of 1-4%

9 Facets of Climate Change

1. Global temperature rise
2. Sea level rise
3. Warming oceans
4. Shrinking ice sheets
5. Declining artic sea ice
6. Glacial retreat
7. Extreme events
8. Ocean acidification
9. Decreased snow cover

Which states have dealt with sea level rise flooding

- Venice
- Miami
- Houston

Anthropogenic Causes (human activity)

carbon dioxide, methane, other gases

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)

- scientists from 195 countries
- human influence has been the dominant cause
- limiting climate change= substantial and sustained reductions in greenhouse gas emissions

Disasters due to climate change in the USA

- 72B damage (2023)

Climate Threat Multiplier

- climate change is impacting stability in areas of the world where troops are operating
- Naval Station Norfolk

Theoretical Frameworks

- Anthropocene
- Capitalocene
- Plantationocene

Anthropocene

Anthropo (human), Cene (new)
- recent global environmental changes suggest that earth may have entered a new human dominated geological epoch"
- unprecedented combinations of plastics, pesticides, nitrogen, etc.
- major changes associated with spread of agriculture

Capitalocene

- Jason Moore proposes a capitalocene that begins with the Columbian encounters
- conquest and extractions
- coloniality
- capitalism has re-ordered the global web of life

Plantationocene

- roots the current ecological crisis in the colonial racial-legacies of the plantation
- modernization, homogeneity, and control
- modern relationships to environments, land, race, class, etc. all began on the plantation

Plantationocene Continued

- underlie environmental racism, environmental injustices, the global climate crises and our response to them
- basis for colonialism (Export plantation monocultures)

US climate change counter-movement (CCCM)

- attempt to delegitimize GCC science
- manipulate and mislead the public on GCC science
- Sympathetic media outlets and conservative politicians
- ExxonMobil "dark money"

Politics of GCC

- fossil fuel industries have known about human caused climate change but orchestrate and fund campaigns of denial and disinformation
- political allies attacked scientific consensus and exaggerate uncertainties
-Goal: undermine public support for climate action

Tobacco industry's playbook

strategy, tactics, infrastructure, rhetorical arguments, and techniques used to challenge GCC science (Cherry picking, fake experts, conspiracy theories)

Mitigation (globally responsible thing to do)

- reduce further climate changes
- reduce emissions

Adaptation (locally responsible thing to do)

adapt to/ live with a changing climate
- agriculture, infrastructure

2015 Paris Agreement

- countries should pursue efforts to limit at 1.5 degrees Celsius
- "stocktaking" (mitigation/adaptation) every five years
- opportunities for "ratcheting" (countries ramp emissions cuts)
- trillions spent to adapt

Glasgow Climate Pact

- firm language of goal to limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius
- establishes framework for tracking commitments against real world progress
- goal should be phased down

Race to Zero initiatives

- series of announcements by states, cities and businesses on decarbonization approaches
- non binding declaration halting deforestation

South Africa Deal

3 goals:
1. early retirement of coal plants
2. building cleaner energy sources
3. transitions for coal-dependent regions

COP27

loss and damage fund for developing countries
- compensates vulnerable countries for costs of rising seas, stronger storms, etc.
- agreement only to create fund, DETAILS to be worked out in COP28

Climate Justice (Triple Inequality)

- Responsibility
- Vulnerability
- Response (mitigation/adaptation)

Unevenly distributed climate justice

poorest countries and most vulnerable people will be most affected despite having contributed least

Variability of impacts

- variable physical geographies
- sea-level, coastal erosion
- drought, shifting precipitation patterns
- glacial environments
- variable histories
- uneven development

CBDR+RC

Signatories should act to protect the climate (& economic) system guided by "the principle of equity and common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities, in the light of different national circumstances"

Mitigation

avoid the problem
- low carbon economy (solar wind)
- reduce emissions

geoengineering

fix the problem
- adaptations that mitigate
- uncertain, unproven, risky
- trying to convert airborne CO2 to liquid fuel

Adaptation

live with the problem
- infrastructure (water control)
- agricultural
- land tenure

Climate coloniality maintained through what?

1. Colonial logics of extractivism (continue through neocolonial and development interventions )
2. Ecological unequal exchange (between Global South and Global North)

Rebecca Hall (scholar-activist): Climate justice entails

- a focus on root causes
- making the systematic changes
- addressing disproportionate burdens
- a demand for participatory democracy
- climate justice lies at the intersection of social, economic, and environmental justice

Just Transition

- comprehensive framework for fairness and equity in the transition away from fossil fuels
- proposed by global trade unions
- incentive for decarbonization policies
- potential for integrating economic, climate, energy, and environmental justice

Social movements and political structure based in ideals of justice:

- deep, democracy, cooperation, care, well being, and healthy relationships
- prioritize community rather than profit
- led by workers and communities impacted first and worst
- bolster the rights and inclusion of women, indigenous communities, communities of color

GGC Solutions

- radically increase energy efficiency
- radically increase renewable energy
- radical electrification (move fossil fuels to electricity)
- negative emissions (Goal)

Agroecology as Climate Actions

- integrate trees into productive landscapes
- enhance afforestation and lower rates of deforestation
- protect soils from erosion, sequester carbon, provide fruits

Sustainable intensification

- productive agricultural systems enhancing environmental outcomes
- no land expansion, no net environmental cost, emphasizes outcomes rather than means, etc.

Carbon Credit

permit to legally emit one metric ton of CO2 or equivalent GHG

Carbon Offset

one metric ton of GHG under protection through a voluntary scheme or initiative

Community-managed forests

- out perform "protected" forests
- landscapes managed by indigenous, traditional, and local communities experienced lower and less deforestation rates than protected forests (higher levels of plant and animal biodiversity)

REDD+

- resented by indigenous groups because it commodifies forests and their ecosystem services, exacerbate inequalities, restricts access and economic communities

What percent to indigenous and local communities own of the worlds lands

50%

Policy Ideas

- gradually increase carbon fee
- carbon dividends for all Americans
- border carbon adjustments
- regulatory simplification

Green New Deal

- decarbonize the economy
- federal jobs guarantee and large scale public investments
- just transition

Climate Solutions

complex challenges requiring complex solutions forged in cooperation and collaboration

sustainability

long-term strategies for proliferating life and livelihoods on earth

American energy, jobs, and climate Plan

- 3 GOP senators propose a climate plane to reduce global emissions 40% by 2050