Prelims

Half Title Page

Food in a Changing Climate

Series Title Page

SocietyNow

SocietyNow: short, informed books, explaining why our world is the way it is, now.

The SocietyNow series provides readers with a definitive snapshot of the events, phenomena and issues that are defining our twenty-first century world. Written by leading experts in their fields, and publishing as each subject is being contemplated across the globe, titles in the series offer a thoughtful, concise and rapid response to the major political and economic events and social and cultural trends of our time.

SocietyNow makes the best of academic expertise accessible to a wider audience, to help readers untangle the complexities of each topic and make sense of our world the way it is, now.

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Endorsements

Praise for Food in a Changing Climate

Food in a Changing Climate could not be more timely, as Covid-19 has revealed the enormous institutional vulnerabilities of the existing food system while the Black Lives Matter movement is propelling a long overdue reckoning with the insidiousness of racial capitalism. With impressive grounding in international scholarship, Alana Mann asks her readers to attend to the complex ecologies, cultures and political economies in which food is entwined and commit to a food politics that does not shy away from the difficult questions.

–Julie Guthman, Professor of Social Sciences, University of California Santa Cruz

Don't be fooled, this compact book speaks volumes to the civilizational crisis facing our societies – and to the strategies that can help us put our food systems back on track. Food in a Changing Climate brings together a wide range of data, information and expert opinion – as well as ancient wisdom – for a trenchant analysis of our dysfunctional capitalist food system. Can we feed the world with GMOs? Will fake meat cool the planet? Is the Blue Revolution the answer to overfishing? Alana Mann bravely takes on these issues in clear, no-nonsense language. Uncompromisingly honest, this book is a must-read for students of food studies and food activists seeking the facts and the language to speak truth to the power in our food system.

–Eric Holt-Giménez, Former Executive Director of Institute for Food and Development Policy/Food First

Wielding the food lens brilliantly, Alana Mann issues a wake-up call to the plunder of life-worlds and ecosystems at this geological tipping point. Her comprehensive account of planetary and species damage by industrial food, now intensifying claims to a future of lab-grown nutritionism, is exceptional. She brings her remarkable communication skills to critique the corporate scientism of food engineering and the urgency of restoring sovereignty to diverse food cultures in the illiberal shadow of standardisation. Food in a Changing Climate is a disturbing reminder of the plantation-like mindsets and practices of a globalized food system, and the need to replace it with an ethical world in which many worlds may fit sustainably.

–Philip McMichael, Professor of Global Development, Cornell University

Title Page

Food in a Changing Climate

By

Alana Mann

The University of Sydney, Australia

United Kingdom – North America – Japan – India Malaysia – China

Copyright Page

Emerald Publishing Limited

Howard House, Wagon Lane, Bingley BD16 1WA, UK

First edition 2021

Copyright © 2021 Alana Mann

Published under exclusive licence by Emerald Publishing Limited.

Reprints and permissions service

Contact: permissions@emeraldinsight.com

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without either the prior written permission of the publisher or a licence permitting restricted copying issued in the UK by The Copyright Licensing Agency and in the USA by The Copyright Clearance Center. Any opinions expressed in the chapters are those of the authors. Whilst Emerald makes every effort to ensure the quality and accuracy of its content, Emerald makes no representation implied or otherwise, as to the chapters' suitability and application and disclaims any warranties, express or implied, to their use.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN: 978-1-83982-725-9 (Print)

ISBN: 978-1-83982-722-8 (Online)

ISBN: 978-1-83982-724-2 (Epub)

Dedication

For the food and health workers

Acronyms

ADM

Archer Daniels Midland

AFF

Alliance for Fair Food

AFM

Alternative Food Movement

AGRA

Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa

AMR

antimicrobial resistant

ANAP

National Association of Small Farmers (Cuba)

AoA

Agreement on Agriculture

AOSIS

Alliance of Small Island States

ATSIA

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians

CAFO

Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation

CCD

Colony Collapse Disorder

CDC

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

CI

Conservation International

CIC

Consorzio Italiano Compostatori

CIW

Coalition of Immokalee Workers

CM

Cerrado Manifesto

CSA

Community Supported Agriculture

CSM

Civil Society Mechanism

DDT

Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane

ENSO

El Niño–Southern Oscillation

EOD

Earth Overshoot Day

FAO

Food and Agriculture Organisation

FDA

Food and Drug Administration

FIAN

Food First Information and Action Network

FSC

Federation of Southern Cooperatives (US)

FTA

Free Trade Agreement

GBR

Great Barrier Reef

GBRMPA

Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority

GDP

Gross Domestic Product

GFC

Global Financial Crisis

GHG

Greenhouse Gases

GMO

Genetically Modified Organism

GRSB

Global Roundtable on Sustainable Beef

HFCS

High Fructose Corn Syrup

ICTs

Information Communication Technologies

IFAD

International Fund for Agricultural Development

IMF

International Monetary Fund

IPCC

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

ISI

Import Substitution Industrialisation

ISKN

Indigenous Seed Keepers Network

JIT

Just-In-Time

KFC

Kentucky Fried Chicken

LNG

liquefied natural gas

MACAC

Farmer to Farmer Agroecology Movement (Cuba)

MINT

Minimum-Input No-Till agriculture

MSC

Marine Stewardship Council

MST

Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra (Brazil)

NAFSN

New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition

NCD

Noncommunicable disease

NFU

National Farmers Union (Canada)

OECD

Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development

PCFS

The Peoples' Committee for Food Sovereignty

PETA

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals

PICT

Pacific Island Countries and Territories

POPs

Persistent Organic Pollutants

PPE

personal protective equipment

PRAI

Principles for Responsible Agricultural Investment that Respects Rights, Livelihoods and Resources

RSPO

Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil

R&D

Research and Development

SAP

Structural Adjustment Program

SOFI

State of Food Security and Nutrition report

SoyM

Soybean Moratorium

TEK

Traditional Ecological Knowledge

TNC

Transnational Corporation

UNCTAD

United Nations Conference on Trade and Development

UNDP

United Nations Development Programme

USAID

United States Agency for International Development

USDA

United States Department of Agriculture

WCFS

World Committee for Food Security

WEIRD

Western, Educated, Industrial, Rich, Democratic

WFP

World Food Programme

WTO

World Trade Organisation

WWF

World Wildlife Fund

Acknowledgement of Country

This book was written on the land of the Gadigal People of the Eora Nation, the coastal people of the area we now call Sydney. I acknowledge the traditional custodians of the lands on which I live and pay my respects to ancestors and elders, past and present. I honour Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples' unique cultural and spiritual relationships to the land, waters and seas.

This land was never ceded.

Acknowledgements

In 2020 Earth Overshoot Day (EOD) landed on August 22, according to the Global Footprint Network. This is the day on which our consumption of natural resources met the Earth’s ecosystem’s capacity to renew across the entire calendar year.

It was a good year for the planet – carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuel use were lowered. We logged timber at a lower rate, we traveled less. There was a 9.3% reduction in our Global Ecological Footprint compared to the same period in the previous year, 2019, when EOD fell on July 29.

But to come close to breaking even, we need to go back to consumption levels of 1970, when EOD fell on December 29.

This book joins a chorus of voices that have been demanding, for decades, that we take action to curb our impact on the environment. You include scholars, activists, and ordinary people. It is your work, your stories, and your ideas that make up this book. Thank you for sharing them. Any errors of interpretation are mine.

It is a rare privilege to be asked to write on such an important topic. I thank Jen McCall at Emerald for inviting me to contribute to a series that shares impactful, transformative research with a wide audience.

I am also indebted to University of Sydney graduates Drew Rooke and Justine Landis-Hanley who provided me with brilliant research support and access to their provocative thinking. To Drew, thank you also for your masterful editorial guidance, which kept me on track.