W8

Question 1

How does the FAO define food security?

Answer 1

” 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”

emphasis on consumption, demand side and the issue of access by vulnerable people to food - but implicit within this is the production of food

Question 2

What are the key challenges facing the food system to produce nutritious food

Answer 2

Pop growth
urbanisation
growing wealth
changes in consumption patterns

Question 3

What is a sustainable food system?

Answer 3

one that delivers food security and nutrition for all in such a way that the economic,social and environmental bases to generate food security and nutrition for the future generation is not compromised

Question 4

What are the requirments of a sustainable food system?

Answer 4

means that it is profitable throughout, ensuring economic sustainability, it has broad based benefits for society, securing social sustainability, and it has a positive or neutral impact on the natural resource environment, safegaruding that sustainability of the environment

Question 5

What other factors (aside from cc) are impacting our food system?

Answer 5

water
land
energy
biodiveristy
gender inequality
poverty
political exclusion
remoteness from ubran centres
physical inseucirty

Question 6

What are the three key elements of a food system as a service?

Answer 6

availability
access
utilisation

Question 7

What is the high level impacts of cc on the food system

Answer 7

Production - yeilds are reduced, producer income falls
= in a high emissions scenario 1/4 of maize productivity is lost

Post-harvest storage- pest and disease damage reduce quality and quantity

Transportation - losses of perishable items to high temp/humitidty and more expenses to marketing system

Consumption-quality and availability - more spoilage, reduced availability and impacts in other sectors reduce income availability

Question 8

How much have tempeature risen from pre-IR?

Answer 8

1oc - already greatly reduced global agricultural productivity

Question 9

What are the risks of cc gioing forward?

Answer 9

Changes in precipitation and temperature extremes in this decade will amplify existing risks to both food exporting and food importing countries

Question 10

What are the 2x reasons for concern in agriculture?

Answer 10

• biophysical impacts
  -socio-economic vulnerability

price spikes impacting individual counties increasingly common

Question 11

What are the predictions from IPCC on food globally?

Answer 11

CC impacts are regionally diverse - but mostly negative impacts on crop yields, quantity and marketability of products

• extreme events will be more frequent and force some of the current food production areas beyond safe climatic space for production
• cc will increase the costs and management challenges of producing safe food
• it will increase the number of people at risk of hunger compared with a world with no cc - 8-80 m people in 2050

Question 12

What are the key risks associated with agriculture highlighted in the IPCC?

Answer 12

food security
food saftey
dietary health
livelihoods of people in related sectors
ecosystem services

Question 13

What are some of the cascading risks associated with food and cc ?

Answer 13

food prices, household incomes, food saftey and nutrition of vulnerable groups

drought and heat as a hazard - increasingly frequent and intense –> reduce soil health.noisture –> reduce yield –> reduced labour productivity and capacity –> reduced food –> reduced income

reduced quality of life - malnutrition

Question 14

What is an example of the food system already being stressed?

Answer 14

supply chain shocks from war in Ukraine - major challenges associated with cc
highlight the need for greater diversity of food production to avoid widespread food system collapse

supply chain disruption threatens humanitarian aid

trade relationships need to shift to reliable food supplies

Question 15

What is the yield constraint score composed of?

Answer 15

Soil nutrients
pests and diseases
heat stress
aridity
ozone

compounded and combine to reduce potential yeilds in agricultural crops

Question 16

historically how has global nutritional content of cereal supply changed?

Answer 16

globa nutritional content has decline as production has increased since 1960

same amount of energy being used - p consistent
but iron and zinc within it has reduced

Question 17

What are the food security indicators that the FAO use?

Answer 17

Average dietary energy supply adequacy - is there enough food

Prevelance of undernourishment - is that food getting to those that need it

Cereal import dependency ratio - can a country produce enough food through domestic production and/or imports when it is needed

Question 18

What are some of the challenges associated with mapping food insecurity?

Answer 18

depends on what element of food insecurity you are focusing on

links to cc are not explicitly - is it a story of poverty of low yields or cc

is it a long term or short term challenge

Question 19

Where is the highest prevelance of under-nourishment

Answer 19

Mainly in SSA by proportion of population

27%

but mainly in South Asia by numbers
300m under-nourished

Question 20

HOw is under-nourishment linked to poverty?

Answer 20

• low yields for farmers
• low purchasing power for consumers
• high proportion of income spend on food

Question 21

What is the trend of poverty and food production?

Answer 21

Food production is increasing and global poverty is reducing rapidly

Question 22

With the hisortical trends of food production and poverty why should we still be concerned?

Answer 22

CC and increasingly integrated markets = increased risk of systemic crisis –> ensuring food security is becoming more complex

whether a country gors or imports food - 2008-2010 period, global financial crisis, droughts and Russian wheat - many countries exposed a food export ban

Question 23

What does the IPCC modelled scenarios predict?

Answer 23

decadal scale of impacts
- gradual change in climate - chronic risks
- inter-annual variability of weather - acute risk not well captured by models

they do not capture the potential for high-impact extreme weather that cause shocks to the food system

critical role for financial institutions in encouraging greater resilience of agricultural systems esp. in emerging markets

Question 24

Why is cold important in consierations of agriculture?

Answer 24

some crops require a period of cold during plant emergence and seed germination

if exposed to high temperatures during these stages - consequences for the whole season productivity - not caputued by most models - there is an upper and lower limit which changes with the growth of plants

Question 25

What are some examples of adaptation measures in agriculture?

Answer 25

Drought resistant crops - ability to bounce back

climate smart agriculture -rotation of crops and livestock, minimise soil distrubance- aim to build resilience in the face of a changing climate

Question 26

What was the recent desert locus infestation facilitated by?

Answer 26

two tropical cyclones - creaated desert lakes in usually dry regions of Saudi Arabia

moist soil, warm temp and vegetation provided a suitable environment for breeding and migration of locusts to Yemen and Somalia
= pests remained uncontrolled due to conflict between the two countries

political and socioeconomic weaknesses - armed conflict, weak financial resources and lack of early actions compounded impacts

Question 27

Why was this infestation so much worse then previous infestations?

Answer 27

most damaing in 70 years

recent outbrak can be linked to a unique feature - caused by long-term warm trends

compounding effect - of weather events and weak governance systems, political instability, limited financial resources and poor-early warning systems

Question 28

Why does climate change pose a signficnat risk to food security in the context of pests?

Answer 28

under a 1.5o climate - extreme postive IODs are anticipated to happen 2x as often - occurrence of pest breaks will increases

increases the requirement for adaption measures like early-warning systems and biological control mechanisms