The Elephant

The climate change and environmental emergency: a comprehensive resource for journalists, politicians, policy makers, activists and citizens

Topic: Food Production and Consumption


Featured Articles:

Further wet weather raises fears of harvest catastrophe - Farmers Weekly

  2024-03-12 in Farmers Weekly

Further heavy rainfall over the last fortnight is increasing farmers’ concerns of an impending harvest catastrophe. Following relentless rain since

  Tagged under: Food Production and Consumption | Collapse | UK | Agriculture


Increasing risks of multiple breadbasket failure under 1.5 and 2 °C global warming

  2023-04-26 (or before) in ScienceDirect.com

The increasingly inter-connected global food system is becoming more vulnerable to production shocks owing to increasing global mean temperatures and …

  Tagged under: Food Production and Consumption | Climate Change Impacts | Climate Change


Related Articles (45)

Japan’s rice stocks drop to lowest level in decades amid tourist boom and poor crop yields

  2024-07-31 in The Guardian

Japan’s agriculture ministry blames shortage on tourists’ vast demand for rice and low crop yields last year

  Tagged under: Japan | Food Production and Consumption | Farming | Agriculture


Forever Pesticides: A Growing Source of PFAS Contamination in the Environment | Environmental Health Perspectives | Vol. 132, No. 7

  2024-07-24 (or before) in ehp.niehs.nih.gov

Background: Environmental contamination by fluorinated chemicals, in particular chemicals from the per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) class, has raised concerns around the globe because of documented adverse impacts on human health, wildlife, and ecosystem quality. Recent studies have indicated that pesticide products may contain a variety of chemicals that meet the PFAS definition, including the active pesticide ingredients themselves. Given that pesticides are some of the most widely distributed pollutants across the world, the legacy impacts of PFAS addition into pesticide products could be widespread and have wide-ra...

  Tagged under: Wildlife | Water Resources | Health | Plastic | Food Production and Consumption | PFAS aka Forever Chemicals | Agriculture | Risks | Pesticides


UK must 'war game' future food security risks - ARU

  2024-07-15 (or before) in University courses at ARU | Anglia Ruskin University - ARU

Professor Aled Jones’ recommendations are adopted by Committee of MPs

  Tagged under: UK | Food Production and Consumption | Famine and Food Insecurity | Risks


Global impacts of heat and water stress on food production and severe food insecurity - Scientific Reports

  2024-06-22 in Nature

In contrast to most integrated assessment models, with limited transparency on damage functions and recursive temporal dynamics, we use a unique large-dimensional computational global climate and trade model, GTAP-DynW, to directly project the possible intertemporal impacts of water and heat stress on global food supply and food security to 2050. The GTAP-DynW model uses GTAP production and trade data for 141 countries and regions, with varying water and heat stress baselines, and results are aggregated into 30 countries/regions and 30 commodity sectors. Blue water stress projections are drawn from WRI source material and a GTAP...

  Tagged under: Famine and Food Insecurity | Water Resources | Population | Food Production and Consumption | Data | Global Warming | Climate Change Impacts


UK can sustain itself if it converted all animal farmland to forest, Harvard research shows

  2024-03-13 (or before) in The Vegan Society

Researchers found the UK can convert animal farmland to forest and still grow enough protein as well as help combat climate change.

  Tagged under: Net Zero | Food Production and Consumption | Agriculture | Rewilding | Trees


Potentials and perspectives of food self-sufficiency in urban areas—a case study from Leipzig | Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems | Cambridge Core

  2024-03-13 (or before) in Cambridge University Press & Assessment

Potentials and perspectives of food self-sufficiency in urban areas—a case study from Leipzig - Volume 37 Issue 3

  Tagged under: Climate Change Adaption | Germany | Agriculture | Food Production and Consumption


Further wet weather raises fears of harvest catastrophe - Farmers Weekly

  2024-03-12 in Farmers Weekly

Further heavy rainfall over the last fortnight is increasing farmers’ concerns of an impending harvest catastrophe. Following relentless rain since

  Tagged under: Food Production and Consumption | Collapse | UK | Agriculture


Shuttered restaurants, burgers uneaten: why vegan products are being left on the shelf | Jennifer Yule

  2024-03-08 in The Guardian

Have the new vegans had enough of being called ‘soy boys’? I suspect the reason is far simpler, says marketing lecturer Jennifer Yule

  Tagged under: Food Production and Consumption


Burger King Germany Makes Plant-Based Meals Cheaper Than Meat - vegconomist - the vegan business magazine

  2024-03-05 in Vegconomist - the vegan business magazine

Burger King Germany has reduced the price of all plant-based meals by 10 cents, making them cheaper than the chain's meat-based options.

  Tagged under: Food Production and Consumption


British farmers say 'shocking' levels of floods are pushing them to the brink | ITV News

  2024-03-01 in ITV

Heavy periods of rain this autumn and winter have decimated farms around the UK, with some saying their land has been constantly submerged since October. | ITV National News

  Tagged under: Food Production and Consumption | UK | Flooding | Agriculture


Global food production at risk as rising temperatures threaten farmers' physical ability to work, new study finds

  2024-01-19 in Phys.org - News and Articles on Science and Technology

The future of global food production is under threat as temperature rises will impact farmers' physical capacity to work, a new study has revealed.

  Tagged under: Farming | Food Production and Consumption


Insights into countries’ exposure and vulnerability to food trade shocks from network-based simulations - Scientific Reports

  2023-12-08 (or before) in Nature

In the context of a global food system, the dynamics associated to international food trade have become key determinants of food security. In this paper, we resort to a diffusion model to simulate how shocks to domestic food production propagate through the international food trade network and study the relationship between trade openness and vulnerability. The results of our simulations suggest that low-income and food insecure countries tend to be the more exposed to external shocks and, at the same time, they are usually not in a position to take full advantage of international food trade when it comes to shield themselves fr...

  Tagged under: Food Production and Consumption


Climate, Fossil Fuels and UK Food Prices: 2023

  2023-11-27 (or before) in Energy & Climate Intelligence Unit

Climate change and energy add the cost of 10 weekly shops to food bills as floods and drought hit food production.

  Tagged under: Fossil Fuels | Net Zero | Drought | Food Production and Consumption


Global marine analysis suggests food chain collapse

  2023-10-12 (or before) in The University of Adelaide

A world-first global analysis of marine responses to climbing human CO2 emissions has painted a grim picture of future fisheries and ocean ecosystems.

  Tagged under: Famine and Food Insecurity | Food Production and Consumption | Collapse | Fish | Fishing | Oceans


UN Report: Global hunger numbers rose to as many as 828 million in 2021

  2023-10-10 (or before) in World Health Organisation

The number of people affected by hunger globally rose to as many as 828 million in 2021, an increase of about 46 million since 2020 and 150 million since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic (1), according to a United Nations report that provides fresh evidence that the world is moving further away from its goal of ending hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition in all its forms by 2030. The 2022 edition of The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World (SOFI) report presents updates on the food security and nutrition situation around the world, including the latest estimates of the cost and affordability of a healt...

  Tagged under: Farming | Famine and Food Insecurity | Meat Production | Economic Growth | Health | Women and Children | Food Production and Consumption


A comprehensive continental-scale analysis of carbon footprint of food production: Comparing continents around the world

  2023-09-30 (or before) in ScienceDirect.com

Food production is an important source of anthropogenic greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Quantifying the carbon footprint of all the major food categor…

  Tagged under: Food Production and Consumption


The summer food went weird: searing heat reshapes US food production

  2023-09-02 in The Guardian

From wilting wheat to stressed pollinators, US farmers and fishermen see unexpected climate effects

  Tagged under: Drought | Farming | Climate Change | Fish | Food Production and Consumption


Pollinators: decline in numbers / RHS Gardening

  2023-07-14 (or before) in RHS - Inspiring everyone to grow / RHS Gardening

There is evidence that populations of bees and other pollinators are less healthy and abundant than they have been. If action is not taken, pollinator declines will have serious implications for biodiversity, food production and the ornamental garden.

  Tagged under: Wildlife | Bees | Health | Food Production and Consumption


Insect decline a threat to fruit crops and food security, scientists warn MPs

  2023-06-07 in The Guardian

Poor pollination caused by destructive farming methods leads to loss of biodiversity and is a threat to food production, inquiry told

  Tagged under: Farming | Wildlife | Insects | Food Production and Consumption | Biodiversity Loss


Interactive: What is the climate impact of eating meat and dairy?

  2023-06-05 (or before) by in Carbon Brief

Food production accounts for one-quarter of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions. It takes up half of the planet’s habitable surface.

  Tagged under: Meat Production | Food Production and Consumption


Pigs, rabbits and fish are dying from searing temperatures in China | CNN Business

  2023-06-02 by in CNN

With parts of China experiencing record high temperatures and heavy rains, reports of farm animals and crops suffering from extreme weather patterns are dominating headlines in the country, raising concerns about food security in the world’s second largest economy.

  Tagged under: Drought | Farming | Fish | Flooding | Rivers | Health | Food Production and Consumption | El Niño | Trees | Finance


Increasing risks of multiple breadbasket failure under 1.5 and 2 °C global warming

  2023-04-26 (or before) in ScienceDirect.com

The increasingly inter-connected global food system is becoming more vulnerable to production shocks owing to increasing global mean temperatures and …

  Tagged under: Food Production and Consumption | Climate Change Impacts | Climate Change


Environmental Impacts of Food Production

  2023-04-16 (or before) in Our World in Data

What are the environmental impacts of food production? How do we reduce the impacts of agriculture on the environment?

  Tagged under: Food Production and Consumption


Global greenhouse gas emissions from animal-based foods are twice those of plant-based foods - Nature Food

  2023-03-07 (or before) in Nature

The quantification of greenhouse gas emissions related to food production and consumption is still largely hindered by the availability of spatial data consistent across sectors. This study provides a detailed account of emissions from land-use change, farmland, livestock and activities beyond the farm gate associated with plant- and animal-based foods/diets—culminating in local-, country- and global-level emissions from each major agricultural commodity.

  Tagged under: Farming | Greenhouse Gases | Food Production and Consumption


Meat, dairy and rice production will bust 1.5C climate target, shows study

  2023-03-06 in The Guardian

Emissions from food system alone will drive the world past target, unless high-methane foods are tackled

  Tagged under: Farming | Greenhouse Gases | Methane | Meat Production | Cattle and Dairy Farming | Food Production and Consumption


Beyond fed up: six hard trends that lead to food system breakdown

  2023-03-01 by in Insight, the University of Cumbria's institutional repository

This paper is a preprint of a chapter in the forthcoming book Breaking Together (Bendell, 2023). It analyses six hard trends that are already happening, and lead to food system breakdown. First, the biophysical limits of food production are being reached. Second, current food production systems are actively destroying the very resource base upon which they rely. Third, the majority of food production and all its storage and distribution is critically dependent upon fossil fuels, not only making the food supply vulnerable to price and supply instability, but also presenting an impossible choice between food security and reducing ...

  Tagged under: Climate Change Impacts | Food Production and Consumption | Agriculture | Collapse


Honey bee life spans are 50 percent shorter today than they were 50 years ago: A drop in longevity for lab-kept honey bees could help explain colony losses and lower honey production in recent decades

  2022-12-23 (or before) in Science Daily

A new study by entomologists shows that the lifespan for individual honey bees kept in a controlled, laboratory environment is 50% shorter than it was in the 1970s. As the first study to show an overall decline in honey bee lifespan potentially independent of environmental stressors, this work hints that genetics may be influencing the broader trends of higher colony turnover rates seen in the beekeeping industry.

  Tagged under: Butterflies and Moths | Bees | Insects | Food Production and Consumption


Fueling Resistance

  2022-12-14 (or before) in MIT

In Fueling Resistance, Kate Neville dissects the processes, and political economy framework, of resistance to two different alternative fuel projects in two distinct and disparate locations. The comparison centers on resistance to a biofuel project in Kenya and a fracking project in the Yukon territory of Canada. The unwritten premise is that these two energy projects, and the subsequent resistance to them, may not have obvious similarities given their distinct characteristics and locations but in fact have several elements in common. Neville outlines how these cases can be viewed as similar and concludes that understanding the ...

  Tagged under: Economics | Renewable Energy | Solar Energy | Climate Change | Colonialism | Rivers | Fracking | Fossil Fuels | Wind Power | Health | Climate Justice | Food Production and Consumption | Finance | Biodiversity Loss


Heatwave in China is the most severe ever recorded in the world | New Scientist

  2022-08-26 (or before) in New Scientist

A long spell of extreme hot and dry weather is affecting energy, water supplies and food production across China

  Tagged under: Extreme Weather | Heatwaves | Food Production and Consumption


UK farmers count cost as heatwave kills fruit and vegetable crops

  2022-08-01 in The Guardian

Fears of future threats to food security if more extreme heat caused by climate crisis hits production

  Tagged under: Farming | Extreme Weather | Heatwaves | Food Production and Consumption


Meat, monopolies, mega farms: how the US food system fuels climate crisis

  2022-06-30 in The Guardian

From a beef-heavy diet to growing crops that don’t feed people – the biggest challenges facing the agriculture industry

  Tagged under: Farming | Greenhouse Gases | Meat Production | Cattle and Dairy Farming | Food Production and Consumption


The carbon opportunity cost of animal-sourced food production on land - Nature Sustainability

  2022-05-15 (or before) in Nature

Shifting global food production to plant-based diets by 2050 can sequester 99–163% of the CO2 emissions budget towards limiting climate warming to 1.5 °C.

  Tagged under: Food Production and Consumption | Sustainability


Local food crop production can fulfil demand for less than one-third of the population - Nature Food

  2022-05-09 (or before) in Nature

A ‘foodshed’ model indicates the minimum distance between crop production and consumption globally. Results show that most of the world’s population depends on trade to feed themselves, even under different levels of yield gap closure and food loss reduction.

  Tagged under: Food Production and Consumption


The UN's big climate report buried some bad news about our eating habits

  2021-08-14 (or before) in Mother Jones - Smart, fearless journalism

Methane may hold the key to deciding whether the earth continues to morph into a disaster-movie set over the next generation.

  Tagged under: Meat Production | Methane | IPCC | Food Production and Consumption


UN sets out Paris-type plan to cut extinctions by factor of 10

  2021-07-12 in The Guardian

Ambitious draft goals to halt biodiversity loss revealed, with proposed changes to food production expected to ‘raise eyebrows’

  Tagged under: Oceans | Climate Change | Wildlife | Food Production and Consumption | Extinction | Biodiversity Loss


Third of global food production at risk from climate crisis

  2021-05-14 in The Guardian

Food-growing areas will see drastic changes to rainfall and temperatures if global heating continues at current rate

  Tagged under: Farming | Extreme Rainfall | Drought | COP26 | Greenhouse Gases | Climate Change | Africa | Food Production and Consumption


World's top emitters a long way from aligning with climate goals | Reuters

  2021-03-23 (or before) in Reuters

The world's biggest carbon-emitting companies are far from aligning with the Paris Climate Agreement, a report by the leading climate-focused investor group showed on Monday.

  Tagged under: Climate Change | Africa | ESG - Environmental, Social and Governance | Japan | Food Production and Consumption | Finance | India


Calculation of external climate costs for food highlights inadequate pricing of animal products - Nature Communications

  2020-12-23 (or before) in Nature

Agricultural greenhouse gas emissions not only amplify the global climate crisis, but cause damage currently unaccounted for by food prices. Here the authors show the calculation of prices with internalized climate costs for food categories and production systems, revealing strong market distortions.

  Tagged under: Greenhouse Gases | Food Production and Consumption


Organic meat production just as bad for climate, study finds

  2020-12-23 in The Guardian

Analysis also found the lowest impact meat was still far more damaging than the worst plant foods

  Tagged under: Farming | Greenhouse Gases | Meat Production | Food Production and Consumption


Global food production emissions 'would put Paris agreement out of reach'

  2020-11-05 in The Guardian

Study calls for more focus on farming and food waste, behind a third of greenhouse gas production

  Tagged under: Farming | Greenhouse Gases | Meat Production | Food Production and Consumption


Majority of European crops feeding animals and cars, not people - Greenpeace European Unit

  2020-10-23 (or before) in Greenpeace

Brussels, 16 October 2020 – The vast majority of European crop production is used to feed animals and create biofuels, rather than feeding people, new analysis has found. At the…

  Tagged under: Cars | Greenpeace | Food Production and Consumption


Emissions from 13 dairy firms match those of entire UK, says report

  2020-06-15 in The Guardian

Exclusive: Milk giants’ climate impact rising and production caps needed, say researchers

  Tagged under: Farming | Cattle and Dairy Farming | Food Production and Consumption


Is factory farming to blame for coronavirus?

  2020-03-28 in The Guardian

Scientists are tracing the path of Sars-CoV-2 from a wild animal host – but we also need to look at the part played in the outbreak by industrial food production

  Tagged under: Farming | Food Production and Consumption


Time for politicians to make 'stark choices' over climate change

  2019-01-01 in The Guardian

MPs must show leadership on issues such as meat production and air travel, says Clive Lewis

  Tagged under: Climate Change | Meat Production | Air Travel | Food Production and Consumption


Are solar farms really hitting British food production?

  2014-10-21 in The Guardian

Environment secretary Liz Truss has cut solar farm’s subsidies saying they harm food production, but most UK solar farms successfully produce food as well. Karl Mathiesen investigates

  Tagged under: Renewable Energy | Farming | Solar Energy | Food Production and Consumption


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