Food and Climate Change
BACK TO: Food System Sustainability Issues
Industrial agriculture, based on chemicals, fossil fuels, and globalized food systems enabled by energy intensive and long distant transport, has a negative impact on climate. Industrial agriculture presently contributes at least one quarter of current greenhouse gas emissions. This dominant system, as promoted by the current economic paradigm, has accelerated climate instability and increased food insecurity. It also increases vulnerability because it is based on uniformity and monocultures, on centralized distribution systems, and dependence on intensive energy and water inputs.
Agriculture is the only human activity based on photosynthesis and has a potential to be fully renewable. Ecological and organic farming mitigates climate change by reducing greenhouse gas emissions and increasing carbon sequestration in plants and soil. Multifunctional, biodiverse farming systems and localized diversified food systems are essential for ensuring food security in an era of climate change. A rapid global transition to such systems is an imperative both for mitigating climate change and for ensuring food security.
- The International Commission on the Future of Food and Agriculture
- United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, 2007
Livestock’s Long Shadow
- Small Planet Institute
Take a Bite Out of Climate Change
- Stanford University Program on Food Security and the Environment
Prioritizing Climate Change Adaptation Needs for Food Security to 2030
- Historical Warnings of Future Food Insecurity with Unprecedented Seasonal Heat - Science Magazine, 1/2009
- The International Commission on the Future of Food and Agriculture
Manifesto on Climate Change and the Future of Food Security
- University of California Davis, Agricultural Sustainability Institute
Assessing Energy Use and Greenhouse Gas Emissions in the Food System
- FoodShare Toronto Research in Action Report
Fighting Global Warming at the Farmers’ Market
- Pew Center on Global Climate Change
Agriculture’s Role in Greenhouse Gas Mitigation
- Environmental Science and Technology
Food-Miles and the Relative Climate Impacts of Food Choices in the United States
- Environmental Health Perspectives Commentary, May 2008
Global Farm Animal Production and Global Warming: Impacting and Mitigating Climate Change
- Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy
Local Foods and Climate Change: An Annotated List of Resources
The Changing Climate for Food and Agriculture: A Literature Review
- Food Climate Research Network, Centre for Environmental Strategy
University of Surrey, England
Research papers
- Cornell University Chronicle
Diet for small planet may be most efficient if it includes dairy and a little meat
- Rodale Institute
Carbon sequestration effects of organic agriculture
- ATTRA National Sustainable Agriculture Information Service
Reducing Food Miles
Agriculture, Climate Change and Carbon Sequestration (Summary)
- Sustainable Table
The Climate Crisis at the End of Your Fork
- The Cool Foods Campaign by the Center for Food Safety
Consumer-oriented documents on the impacts of food production on global warming
