Food security through the lens of nutrition

Community-based climate change projects in the Pacific typically seek to raise the awareness of locals about the consequences of climate change and changing weather patterns. A key concern is that such activities might be done in an ad hoc manner, with little consideration of local relevance, audience and the integration of local experiences and knowledge. Drawing on the results gleaned from an interactive focus group with 10 climate change practitioners working in the region, this exploratory study investigates why raising awareness about climate change remains crucial, and importantly, how such activities might be done in a more relevant, meaningful and empowering way at the community level in the Pacific. This commentary argues that it is essential for communities to make local sense of climate change, particularly in an ever-changing world where knowledge is continuously expanding and changing. Initial findings suggest that making local sense of and raising awareness about climate change readily comes about with due consideration of approach, audience and context.

Climate change is having a significant impact on agricultural production around the world, affecting crops, cultivated area and yield. These climate changes include changes in temperature and precipitation, extreme weather events, and changes in regional weather patterns. Climate change brings major challenges for agriculture, with a significant negative impact on farmland, productivity and food security. In this regard, it is necessary to adapt through sustainable agricultural practices, the use of advanced technologies and the implementation of climate risk management strategies, to support and improve agricultural production in a changing climate. Climate change is one of the most pressing global issues of our time. They are manifested by significant and long-lasting changes in weather patterns, global temperatures and the distribution of climatic phenomena. The virtual certainty that climate and CO2 will continue to develop in the future raises many questions about food security, one of which is whether the aggregate productivity of global agriculture will be affected. Climate change is not only affecting crop yields, but also the areas where they are grown. Extreme weather events such as storms, heat waves, and floods can damage crops and make certain areas unsuitable for farming. In addition, changes in rainfall and temperature regimes can lead to changes in the geographical distribution of crops, forcing farmers to adapt to new climatic conditions.

Climate change is having a significant impact on agricultural production around the world, affecting crops, cultivated area and yield. These climate changes include changes in temperature and precipitation, extreme weather events, and changes in regional weather patterns. Climate change brings major challenges for agriculture, with a significant negative impact on farmland, productivity and food security. In this regard, it is necessary to adapt through sustainable agricultural practices, the use of advanced technologies and the implementation of climate risk management strategies, to support and improve agricultural production in a changing climate. Climate change is one of the most pressing global issues of our time. They are manifested by significant and long-lasting changes in weather patterns, global temperatures and the distribution of climatic phenomena. The virtual certainty that climate and CO2 will continue to develop in the future raises many questions about food security, one of which is whether the aggregate productivity of global agriculture will be affected. Climate change is not only affecting crop yields, but also the areas where they are grown. Extreme weather events such as storms, heat waves, and floods can damage crops and make certain areas unsuitable for farming. In addition, changes in rainfall and temperature regimes can lead to changes in the geographical distribution of crops, forcing farmers to adapt to new climatic conditions.

West Nile virus (WNV) and Lyme disease have emerged as significant public health concerns in many parts of Canada. Vector-borne diseases (VBDs) are susceptible to climate change and changing weather patterns because mosquitoes’ and ticks’ lifecycles are significantly impacted by temperature, precipitation, and humidity. Over the last several decades, weather patterns related to climate change in Windsor-Essex County demonstrate tendencies for the further proliferation of invasive mosquito species in the area. In this study, increasing maximum January and February temperatures and number of days in May with temperatures above 30 °C demonstrated a positive impact on the number of WNV-positive pools and the annual rate of WNV. Given the results of this study, health units should consider adapting their vector-borne management strategies and risk assessment tools to include these parameters, which can help health units assess VBD risks for people during the season and develop risk communication strategies to protect public health.

Changing weather patterns and their variables are already negatively impacting food security by damaging crops, reducing yields, and increasing the prevalence of pests and diseases. These pests and diseases contend with crops for sunlight, water, and nutrients, further diminishing agricultural yields and creating issues for crops that were previously unexposed to these threats. Climate-related disruptions in food distribution and transportation, both internationally and domestically, have a substantial impact on not just safety and quality but also access to food. Prolonged dry spells followed by heavy and stormy rains cause interruptions in food production and transportation, reducing farmers' ability to get their grains to market and potentially affecting food prices. This study assessed farmers’ perceptions of effects of changing weather patterns on food security and their coping strategies towards effects of weather changing patterns in smallholder households in Bukiro Sub County, Mbarara District. A sample of 100 smallholder farmers were randomly selected from four parishes of Bukiro sub county and studied using questionnaire and observations. Key informants Interviews were also conducted with nine technical workers and three opinion leaders. Software STAT 26 and Ms excel version 2016 were used to do data analysis. The study found out that changing weather patterns through its variables specifically heavy and stormy rains, late of set of rains, and prolonged dry spells had significant effects on food security. The perceived effects of changing weather patterns established were drying up of water sources (83.8%), decreased land for crop growing (82.4%), reduction in crop yields (77.7%), drying of pastures for animals (67.4%), drying of crops (58.1%), and occurrence of crop and livestock pests and diseases at (56.6%). Also, the perceived weather changing variabilities were late onset of rains (60.1%), prolonged dry spells were responded at 17.6%, and heavy and stormy rains 22.3%. From the study finding farmers clearly perceived that changing weather patterns had negative effects smallholders’ agricultural production systems impacting negatively on food security

Climate change and biodiversity loss are interrelated global environmental challenges. Climate change is a long-term change in temperature and weather patterns over a very long period of time. The form of climate change is related to changes in weather patterns or changes in the distribution of weather events. The main cause of climate change is global warming. Biodiversity is defined as the diversity or variety of life on earth, including types of plants, animals, and microorganisms living in various ecosystems. In the relationship between climate change and biodiversity where climate change can cause species extinction, habitat changes, and ecosystem disruption. While the role of biodiversity is to overcome climate change, where ecosystems play an important role in absorbing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and supporting resilience to the impacts of climate change. Efforts to integrate these two issues in national legislation through a comprehensive approach. Integrated regulations combine the objectives of protecting biodiversity and addressing the challenges of climate change with mitigation actions, namely reducing greenhouse gas emissions toward renewable energy such as solar, wind and hydro; increasing energy efficiency in homes, industry, and sustainable transportation; protecting forests as carbon sinks and reforestation; and reducing greenhouse gas emissions by managing waste to reduce methane emissions as well as energy-efficient building and environmental management. In addition, adapting actions to reduce vulnerabilities impacting existing climate change, such as urban planning based on climate and agricultural practices, adaptive, conservation, and habitat restoration and protection of vulnerable species. Identifying challenges and opportunities, including shifts in plant and pollinator phenology due to climate change. The main challenge is the mismatch in phenology between plants and pollinators, which can disrupt the pollination process, impact crop production, and create plant pests because rain patterns or droughts cause a decrease in crop yields, which can have an impact on economic value. While for sustainable agriculture, the government can provide incentives in the form of subsidies, taxes, and technical assistance to farmers, such as crop rotation, use of organic fertilizers, and soil conservation. To increase awareness and more integrated and effective legal action in protecting the planet, comprehensive efforts are needed, including strong regulations, stricter law enforcement, increased public awareness, and active involvement from various parties. These steps must complement each other to achieve the goal of sustainable environmental conservation.

The argument presented in this paper calls for an approach to flood infrastructure that considers not only the need for a technical perspective in design and construction but also a social perspective. As a result of climate change and changing weather patterns, it is predicted that more intense rainfall will be experienced, as well as rising sea levels, resulting in a greater number of people across the world becoming vulnerable to flood events. The need for flood alleviation infrastructure is therefore highly likely to increase. However industry professionals responsible for design and construction have often neglected to see flooding as a social problem; consequently they focus only on the technical and costeffective, rather than the social end user orientated, aspects of their design solutions. This paper presents the preliminary findings from research that seeks to understand how the social value of flood alleviation schemes is interpreted and discussed. The results are derived from an examination of the Didsbury Flood Storage Basin Improvements scheme between April and August 2013 in Manchester, UK. A series of semi-structured interviews were conducted with both the community and those responsible for the design, delivery and construction of the scheme. The findings presented demonstrate how social value is articulated by both groups, and where a difference in interpretation and perspectives exists. These findings reinforce the argument that adopting a socially, as well as technically, considerate approach for future flood infrastructure design and construction is a necessity, as more communities around the world are exposed to the very real risk of flood events.

Future of food: Innovating towards sustainable healthy diets

Environmental and Health Sustainability of the Mediterranean Diet: A Systematic Review

Inclusive diets within planetary boundaries

Importance of considering environmental sustainability in dietary guidelines

Overcoming barriers to sustainable, healthy diets

SummaryBackgroundAdoption of healthy and sustainable diets could be essential for safe-guarding the Earth's natural resources and reducing diet-related mortality, but their adoption could be hampered if such diets proved to be more expensive and unaffordable for some populations. Therefore, we aimed to estimate the costs of healthy and sustainable diets around the world.MethodsIn this modelling study, we used regionally comparable food prices from the International Comparison Program for 150 countries. We paired those prices with estimates of food demand for different dietary patterns that, in modelling studies, have been associated with reductions in premature mortality and environmental resource demand, including nutritionally balanced flexitarian, pescatarian, vegetarian, and vegan diets. We used estimates of food waste and projections of food demand and prices to specify food system and socioeconomic change scenarios up to 2050. In the full cost accounting, we estimated diet-related health-care costs by pairing a comparative risk assessment of dietary risks with cost-of-illness estimates, and we estimated climate change costs by pairing the diet scenarios with greenhouse gas emission footprints and estimates of the social cost of carbon.FindingsCompared with the cost of current diets, the healthy and sustainable dietary patterns were, depending on the pattern, up to 22–34% lower in cost in upper-middle-income to high-income countries on average (when considering statistical means), but at least 18–29% more expensive in lower-middle-income to low-income countries. Reductions in food waste, a favourable socioeconomic development scenario, and a fuller cost accounting that included the diet-related costs of climate change and health care in the cost of diets increased the affordability of the dietary patterns in our future projections. When these measures were combined, the healthy and sustainable dietary patterns were up to 25–29% lower in cost in low-income to lower-middle-income countries, and up to 37% lower in cost on average, for the year 2050. Variants of vegetarian and vegan dietary patterns were generally most affordable, and pescatarian diets were least affordable.InterpretationIn high-income and upper-middle-income countries, dietary change interventions that incentivise adoption of healthy and sustainable diets can help consumers in those countries reduce costs while, at the same time, contribute to fulfilling national climate change commitments and reduce public health spending. In low-income and lower-middle-income countries, healthy and sustainable diets are substantially less costly than western diets and can also be cost-competitive in the medium-to-long term, subject to beneficial socioeconomic development and reductions in food waste. A fuller accounting of the costs of diets would make healthy and sustainable diets the least costly option in most countries in the future.FundingGlobal Panel on Agriculture and Food Systems for Nutrition and Wellcome Trust.

This study analyzed the environmental determinants to household food security in Kyangwithya West location of Kitui County. Quantitative data were collected using systematic sampling method to select 344 households with the aid of a structured questionnaire. Qualitative data was obtained from key informants and focus group discussants that were purposively sampled. The data were subjected to descriptive statistics and presented using tables and verbatim narratives. The findings revealed that majority (89%) of the participants had experienced weather changes in the study area and a significant number (27%) were food secure. Few households (11%) had not observed any weather change and (28%) of them were food secure. The weather changes observed were assessed and inadequate rainfall was observed by majority (82%) of the respondents (26%) of whom were food secure. High temperatures were reported by (12%) of the respondents (28%) of whom were food secure. Recurrent drought was reported by the least number of respondents (6%) that were the most food secure (30%). Influence of cutting trees on household food security revealed that majority (82%) of the respondents do not cut tree and are more food secure (29) compared to the few (18%) who cut trees. The results reveal that majority of the households observed changes in weather patterns although the percentage of the food secure was low. Inadequate rainfall was the most observed weather change with the most influence on household food security followed by high temperatures and recurrent droughts. Majority of the households did not cut trees and are more food secure than those that cut trees. Environmental factors are thus significant determinants to household food security. The study recommended that regular updates on weather forecast be made available to households to enable them make informed plans during planting seasons.

Changing climate and weather patterns are predicted to have severe negative impacts on food production, food security and natural resources in the immediate and coming years. Climate change alters the development of cocoa pods, insect pests and pathogens which translate into lower crop yields and impact farm income. This study examined the climate change adaptation strategies of farmers on cocoa production practices. A multi-stage random sampling procedure was used to select 60 cocoa farmers from three out of eight Local Government Areas (LGAs) producing cocoa in Kwara State. Interview schedule was used in data collection and analyzed with descriptive statistics and correlation analysis. The results reveal that 60.7% of the farmers were male. Majority (59.9%) of the farmers were between middle and old age with farming experience of 21-30 years and farm size of mainly between 0.4-2.7 hectares. Most farmers (85%) observed an extension beyond the normal dry months of November to February. This situation could have some implications on cocoa production. The main climate change strategies adopted by farmers include praying for rain (86.7%), use of improved varieties, (81.7%), climate prediction (76.7%), changes in cropping pattern and agro-forestry (75% each), control of soil erosion (73.3%) and fertilizer application (60%). Inadequate irrigation, 41.7% and crop diversification, 36.7%; constituted minor strategies. The cocoa production practices still adopted were weeding, 98.3%; seedling planting, 96.7%; insect pest and diseases control, 95%; bush clearing, 93.3%; fermentation and drying, 91.7%; tree felling, 88.4%; pruning, 85% and burning before planting, 70%. However, Pearson product moment correlation coefficient (PPMC) showed that a significant relationship existed between age of cocoa farm (0.016) and cocoa production practices at P< 0.05. Cocoa farmers’ climate change strategies (0.121) were not statistically related with cocoa production practices at P< 0.05. Most of the strategies and practices currently used by farmers should be improved upon to ensure appropriate agronomic practices and adaptation to changes in climate.Keywords: Climate change, adaptation, cocoa production practices, farmers