Ensuring Food Security
by Chloe Hunt
1. Cash Based Transfers
1.1. Don't disrupt local markets
1.2. Can be used to provide incentives for keeping kids in school or following HIV treatment
1.3. encourage healthy food choices
1.4. Empower mothers
1.5. can provide food and other essentials
1.6. People fed tripled to 9.59M in 6 years
1.7. Major source of assistance for Syrian refugees
1.8. Makes up 25% of World Food Program aid portfolio
1.9. fast efficient and secure
1.10. tailored nutrition
1.11. food is local and seasonal
1.12. injects cash into local economy and support local farmers and local businesses
1.13. CBTs injected $1.29B into economies of Egypt Iraq Jordan Lebanon Turkey and Syria in 2016
2. Social
2.1. Population growth creates ever growing demand
2.2. Increased food demand is in areas with low investment in agriculture (developing countries)
2.3. As societies move to consumption of meet demand for grains increase dramatically
3. Political
3.1. Boost agricultural R&D
3.2. Improve Grain reserves
3.3. Protect natural resources
3.4. better access to quality seeds and fertilizers
3.5. tools and training for farmers
3.6. Political instability can create food instability such as with refugees
4. Environmental
4.1. 1 Million Children malnourished linked to El Nino
4.2. Storms and drought impact crops
4.3. Ethiopia, Kenya, Lesotho most affected
4.4. Extreme weather decimates crops
5. Solutions and ideas
5.1. Roads and storage facilities
5.2. irrigation systems
5.3. Worm compost boxes to improve soil
5.4. investment support to improve productivity with better farm equipment
5.5. plant protein - "Beyond Meat"
5.6. mobile technology to share and integrate local knowledge of soil conditions, land use, crop mix,
5.7. improve land rights to encourage investment by local farmers
5.8. vertical farms
5.9. roof top farms
5.10. vertical farms less energy intensive
5.11. can grow crops made to order - reduce waste, improve connection between investment and return
5.12. vertical farms impervious to weather, pests and less susceptible to disease
5.13. vertical farms dramatically reduce water consumption
5.14. stratification and specialization of farming techniques
5.15. Urban farming
5.16. Chicago has 12,000 vacant acres available for urban farming
6. Problems with Green Revolution
6.1. Used 10X more water
6.2. Surface irrigation, damming and diversion of water
6.3. Drowning of land to build damns
6.4. Land damage from waterlogging
6.5. Destruction of towns and villages
6.6. Disrupting water table and reducing drinking water
6.7. water polluted with fertilizer chemicals -carcinogens
6.8. Energy intensive - increase reliance on fossil fuels for fertilizer and mechanization
6.9. Increase from 1 calorie of fossil fuel to 1 calorie of food to 10 calories of fossil fuel for 1 calorie of food
6.10. is the entire food supply created by use of fossil fuels and will we have planet wide famine if/when fossil fuels are depleted?
7. Local Food Systems
7.1. Industrialized food system (Green Revolution) is not sustainable
7.2. 9 Billion people to feed
7.3. few chemical inputs
7.4. sustainable, equitable, democratic
7.5. farmers selling locally receive higher profit on the food they produce
7.6. reduce transport = reduce fossil fuels
7.7. local seasonal foods higher nutritional value
7.8. may not be able to produce sufficient yields
7.9. could be a component of food system
7.10. food consumers are stakeholders in local food system
8. legalized marijuana in Canada could be a $5B industry
9. Defining the Problem
9.1. Availability
9.2. Access
9.3. Utilization
10. Malnutrition
10.1. Mix of Minerals and Vitamins
10.2. Irreversible damage in first 2 years of life
10.3. Passed on from mother to baby
10.4. Preventing malnutrition is cheaper than treating it
10.5. $3.6B problem
11. Economic
11.1. Lack of investment in Agriculture
11.2. Volatility in food pricing, impacts planting decisions
11.3. Food aid can disrupt local farm economy
11.4. When prices are high consumers go hungry or eat less nutritious food
11.5. Insufficient grain reserves can cause price volatility
11.6. Volatile energy prices are passed into cost of food
11.7. Volatility attracts speculation which aggravates price spikes
11.8. Access to credit for farmers is needed
12. Global Food System
12.1. 2/3 of typical national diet originated in another region of the world
12.2. primary region for a crop has the most diversity
12.3. crop diversity is needed to resist disease and drought
12.4. Treaty system is required to allow countries to share crop diversity
12.5. But countries are not participating. For example only 21 of 3000 varieties of Quinoa were shared with researchers
12.6. Massive transportation costs
12.7. Energy intensive and volatile with energy prices
13. Green Revolution
13.1. Nobel winner Norman Borlaug
13.2. Reduce world hunger
13.3. Reduce world hunger
13.4. Research into improving crop yields
13.5. depleted soil, disease and poor growing conditions are stressors
13.6. National self sufficiency in basic foods like grains
13.7. experiment with different varieties which are resistant to disease and drought
13.8. change farming practices to improve yields and ensure sustainable soil conditions
13.9. Resilient to differing growing conditions
13.10. Doubled wheat yields by improving disease resistance
13.11. Doubled wheat yields again using dwarf wheat to improve performance of crop
13.12. Expanded from Mexico to the developing world in India and Pakistan
13.13. 75% of all food is corn, wheat and rice
14. Cash Crops
14.1. Sugar cane produces more $ but consumes 10X as much water as other crops
14.2. Local farmers often can't use the crops for subsistence farming
14.3. coffee, tea, cotton, cocoa, rubber and fruit
14.4. illegal cash crops: marijuana, coca and the opium poppy
14.5. Farmers often forced to give up food crops for cash crops to repay loans to the International Monetary Fund
14.6. Cash crops dominated by large multinational corporations and push out local farmers
14.7. Problems are profit motive, soil degradation, increased insects and pests, food scarcity, less local traditional foods, small farm operations are pushed off the land.
14.8. Benefits are employment, government income, roads for export, lower consumer prices, diversity of commodities available worldwide and year round
15. Industrial Farming
15.1. Handful of companies control vast supply of farms and farm production
15.2. damaging to environment, exploits workers, displaces farmers, disrupt local economies, disrupt local food supply
