Why, how and where to?

Firstly, I would like to welcome you to my blog concerning climate change and food production! In the course of this blog I will be discussing the implications modern industrial food production has on the global environment, how human dietary choices have a role to play in warming the planet and whether we have hope in escaping the fossil fuel intensive food industry.

While discussing this controversial topic I will be commenting on academic articles, books, movies, social media and any source that I find to be 'blogging-worthy'. In the end of all this I hope that myself and all you readers will have a better idea about how the farming and agriculture sector is damaging our planet. But let me remind you, for me, this topic is a working progress and I am still in the search of right and wrong answers. So I would like to invite you on a journey to discover more about how we can eat better, produce more efficiently and lead our planet to a healthier future!

But why this topic? As a third year Economics and Geography student, this blog is an outlet to my personal interest in the relationship between the planet and human activity. But furthermore, it is a topic still emerging and finding its way to the climate change debate. Looking at today's discussion around global environmental change, it is evident that some sectors take the spotlight: non-renewable energy, transport and heavy industry. Just to give you a taste of how little focus revolves around food and agriculture: in 2008, out of more than 4000 climate change related articles published in the United States, 1% were focused on food and agriculture (Neff et al., 2009). In addition, when we talk about the relation of agriculture and climate change, the discussion tends to focus on how climate change is affecting our food production and not the other way around. However, in recent years, the focus on fossil-fuel dependent agriculture is on a rise and produces many controversial discussions that I hope to cover on the course of this blog. 

Questions to be answered: how does our food system affect the global climate today? How can we make food production and farming more sustainable and healthier for the planet? How do consumers choices enter the picture and how can we be part of the solution?

Here is a video of Mark Bittman, an American food journalist, columnist and author, speaking at a TED conference about what is wrong with what we eat today. It is a interesting story of human food consumption and production and what consequences it has on human and environmental health. It takes you through history from the 1900s and how introducing canned, fast and convenience food has changed the way we eat today. Packed with fascinating and surprising facts, this video is a good introduction for this blog. I hope you enjoy it!

Till next time,

Laura