The Global Food System Driver of Planetary Havoc

Vital for human flourishing

JOSE LUIS VIVERO POL Course on Advanced Studies “Europe 2050: Trends & Challenges”Institute for European Global Studies, University of Basel (05-04-16)

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An Alien´s snapshot of humanity

How are we living on planet

Earth?

OUR HOME

Anthropocene (Crutzen, 2010)Capitalocene (Moore, 2014)

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•Humans are part of Earth’s diversity

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Planetary BoundariesSteffen et al., 2015

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Why & How do we call them poor?

The world is POOR

9The world is UNEQUAL

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Net wealth 60,400 Euro to be 10% richest

Net wealth 667,000 Euro to be 1% richest

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• Food-wise, how is the global food system doing?

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Hunger in Africa

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Hunger in Latin America

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Hunger in Spain

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HUNGER DAMAGES THE BRAIN

Malnourished child brain

Well nourished child brain

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STU

NTI

NG

dur

ing

first

th

ree

year

s is

IR

REVE

RSIB

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Well-nourished child neurone

Malnourished Child Neurone

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HUNGER GAMES: PLAYING WITH NUMBERS

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795 MILLION HUNGRY PEOPLE

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According to “The State fo Food Insecurity in 2015” (FAO-WFP-IFAD, 2015), hunger affects 795 million people now, 216 millon less that in 1990 (from 23.3% a 12.9%)

Out of those, 155 millon correspond to China (72%)

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Africa is doing badly

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Although Food pikes reduced caloric intake in poor households…

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…no effect was detected by FAO statistics

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A tale of two hungers

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17 M households

7 M households

Food price effect

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HUNGER IN UK

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EU Food Charity

Non universal

Non accountable

Non demandable

No right holders and duty bearers

Money-restricted

3.8 Billion € in 7 years

US opposes to the Right to Food

EU has a vague, non-complying attitude

Vivero & Schuftan (in press)

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Two value-based food-producing

subsystems

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The INDUSTRIAL FOOD

SUB-SYSTEM

Foto: Patty´s Flickr Creative Commons

The food sector is the 2nd biggest: A BIG CAKE (10% GDP & 7 trillion USD in 2015)

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160 million chronically malnourished

19 million severely wasted children

HUNGER is largest contributor (35%) to child mortality

1.4 BILLION OVERWEIGHT(300 MILLION OBESE)

2.3 BILLION MALNOURISHED PEOPLE – WE EAT BADLY

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Humans keep eating more and more

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Food System Paradoxes FOOD PRODUCERS STAY HUNGRY70% are food producers FOOD KILLS PEOPLE 6.5 M deaths per year FOOD IS (INCREASINGLY) NOT FOR HUMANS FOOD IS WASTED

Foto: Fringe Hoj Flickr Creative Commons

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1.3 billion tonnes (to feed 600 million hungry people)

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Global Food Trade: not so relevant for humans

essential to corporate control

• Food crossing borders: 23% (15% 20 yrs ago)

• 13 food products make 80% of total trade• Big Corporations control 80% of food exports

(D’Odorico et al., 2014)

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IndustrialFood

Systemproduces

30-40% of total food

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Small farming Systems produce 60-70% of total food

THE PEASANTS’ FOOD WEB

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Small farms occupy less than 25% of world's farmland today

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Agro-ecologyClimate Cooling

Socially resilient

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Food system is the greatest driver of Earth transformation

• Food systems accounts for 48% of land use• 70% of water use • 33% of total GHG emissions • 40% relies on agriculture for their livelihood • Phosphorus & Nitrogen exceeded Planetary

Boundaries

(Ivanova et al., 2015, Clapp, 2012)

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The actual way of producing & eating

(western diets & industrial food system)

is unsustainableIt cannot be maintained

for the next 50 years IAASTD (2008)

UNEP (2009)

UNCTAD (2013)UK Foresight (2011)

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The way we produce and eat food will greatly determine the likelihood of human presence on this planet