GEOGRAPHY

The Challenges of Achieving Food and Water Security 🥑

The Food and Agricultural Organisation (1996) states that food security means ensuring that all people, at all times, have access to sufficient, safe, and nutritious food to allow them to achieve healthy and active lifestyles. After World War Two, European and North American states put great emphasis on achieving food security, since the vulnerability of food supply chains to conflict or interference became obvious, as they were forced to ration food during this period. Now more than ever, our food supply systems are globalised and interconnected - think about companies such as McDonald’s, Kraft, and Nestle. But the proliferation of major corporations has had major impacts upon our diets, natural environments, and global inequality too.

💡 Things to consider

• Food security is all about geopolitics: Ideas surrounding food security have become increasingly popular as international organisations such as the EU have promoted countries’ need to ensure food supplies into the future. By 2030, the UN’s second Sustainable Development Goal aims to eradicate hunger, and to make sure that food prices are stable, Indigenous and female farmers are supported, and their lands and crops are protected from the effects of climate change.

  

  UN Sustainable Development Goals

  But, some argue that food security is part of the capitalist world system. Food is traded like other assets (e.g., metals and chemicals) despite its necessity. Big firms buy up land in the Global South - displacing smaller farmers - and some supermarkets have replaced wet markets, fishmongers, and bakeries as the go-to place to purchase goods. Agriculture can be seen as a high-tech, multi-billion dollar business, aimed at ensuring that consumers in the Global North can access any foods they want, whenever they want them. As countries become wealthier, they are also more likely to convert crops into biofuels, as these garner higher prices and are more in demand.

• Water resources are hard to measure and to understand: As you’ve probably figured out, we often talk about food security in terms of the global scale, but what about water? Well, worldwide assessments of water supplies are notoriously difficult to come by, since they often rely upon data collected at the country-level. Understanding both water quantity and water quality is vitally important.

  

  When does this GIF stop?

  Efforts have been made: notably, NASA’s GRACE satellites have been recording changes in ice-sheet levels in Greenland and Antarctica, and can look at groundwater depletion in India too. This may encourage governments to work together to tackle water security, particularly as water has become the major differentiator between poor and rich countries.

  

  NASA Grace satellite

• Climate change impacts food and water supplies in many different ways: Some regions, such as places in Canada and Russia which grow grain, may be better off due to changing global temperatures, but the vast majority of places will suffer. It is already challenging to estimate what proportion of soy, for example, comes from illegally-deforested areas of the Amazon rainforest, because food supply chains are often opaque. Here is just one potential scenario:

  Climate change could lead to widespread crop failure in some regions, because of extreme temperatures and more severe and/or frequent weather events. Higher temperatures could trigger the spread of salmonella, whilst warmer oceans may shift fish migration patterns and lead to more cases of shellfish poisoning in humans. Civil war, food riots, and terrorism also pose threats to global food supplies in the future, and pests and diseases may render crops inedible. Whilst some people - particularly children - will suffer more cases of malnutrition and diarrheal diseases, others may be impacted by obesity-related illnesses (e.g., type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease).

  

  Except … some countries will inevitably suffer more …

  But, there is potential for change. Food sovereignty movements - which encourage farmers to rise up against capitalism and protect culturally-important foods - are becoming more well-known, and plant-based diets and recognition of ‘food miles’ and certification schemes (e.g., Fairtrade) are also changing the food landscape.

🔎 Find out more

• Food security versus food sovereignty

• More on food sovereignty

• The ‘neoliberal diet’ in Mexico

• South Africa and Water Stress

• Food Security Report

🍒 The cherry on top

• 👽 The Fermi Paradox: Almost every human has questioned the possibility of extraterrestrial existence, despite the evidence for it being realtively low. Is that actually the case though? This video, featuring Brian Cox, takes us through what advances in technology might - or might not - lead us to discover. Worth watching if you are interested in Physics.

• ⚖️ The Importance of Democracy: How do you define democracy? Has it always looked the same historically? And does democracy manifest itself in the same way across the world? This article addresses these questions and much more. A great read for those interested in History, Politics, or International Relations.

• 🌐 Social Media Algorithms: In today’s world, our political, personal, and even religious views are being increasingly shaped by social media. Its algorithms, designed to show us content matching our interests, are guilty of creating echo chambers and reinforcing what we already believe. This article, written 4 years ago, is still a fascinating read - but think how much has already changed since then. Perfect for those interested in Sociology and Psychology.

👀 Keep your eyes peeled for…

• 3rd March

  • Cambridge Law Webinar

• 4th March

  • Murray Edwards College Cambridge History & Politics Taster Webinar

  • QMUL Humanities and Social Sciences Panel

• 5th March

  • Homerton College Cambridge Biology Challenge (Deadline for Expression of Interest)

  • Magdalene College Cambridge Education Webinar

  • QMUL Taster Event for Women interested in Business and Science

  • QMUL Science and Engineering Panel

  • Queens’ College Cambridge Modern & Medieval Languages Webinar

  • UEA Film/Media Taster Webinar

• 6th March

  • QMUL Medicine and Dentistry Panel

• 7th March

  • Robinson College Cambridge Maths Talk with Tom Crawford

• 8th March

  • Oxford English Faculty Open Day

🗳️ Poll