This week we are kicking off our newest blog series. In this series we will be talking about the real world impacts of climate change across all disciplines. This week, we will be focusing on agriculture and food insecurity.
Food security: a situation that exists when all people, at all times, have physical, social, and economic access to sufficient, safe, and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life.
Food insecurity impacts ~8.9% of the United State’s population. This means that at least 8.9% of the U.S. population does not have access to food that would allow them to live a safe and healthy life. However, due to climate change, this percentage will only continue to increase. With increased weather disturbances agriculture will continue to suffer, which will in turn cause health conditions to begin declining, which has an impact on all other aspects of life itself.
Food insecurity is such an important issue, that it is one of the highest priorities of the United Nations sustainability plan. Some of their important goals are:
Ending hunger, and ensuring access by all people to safe, nutritious food;
Ending all forms of malnutrition;
Doubling the agricultural productivity and incomes of small-scale food producers;
Ensuring sustainable food production systems;
Increasing investment in agriculture;
Correcting and preventing trade restrictions and distortions in world agricultural markets;
Adopting measures to ensure the proper functioning of food commodity markets.
These goals are not only important to the individuals facing food insecurity, but to the rest of the world. As we begin to develop our global economy and society, we depend more on each and every member of society. Meaning that if one sector is facing hardships, the entire world will be affected.
Next week, we will discuss how increased disturbed weather patterns can affect food insecurity and other aspects of our world. Hopefully this week you have learned about food insecurity and have begun to think about how it can affect the entire world.
- Edible Landscape Initiative Team
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