Agriculture

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(No Transcript)
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Climate Change the ChurchPRC Regional
ConferenceSt. Simons Island, Georgia15-17
February 2007

• Climate Change and the Industrial Food System (or
  My Beef with Beef)
• Andrew Kang Bartlett
• Associate for National Hunger Concerns,
  Presbyterian Hunger Program

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Agricultures Reach

• Single largest human activity on the planet,
  occupying over 40 of the planets bio-capacity
• Largest industry, 1.3 billion people
• Producing 1.3 - 1.7 trillion worth of goods each
  year

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Agricultures Reach

• Food system uses 10-20 of global energy
  post-production accounts for 80-90
• Arguably the single largest threat to
  biodiversity and ecosystem functions.

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Why is the industrial food system a hunger issue?

• Half planets population lives in rural areas
• Nearly 1 billion people do subsistence or
  small-scale market farming, using little energy
  or off-farm inputs.
• Global industrial food system driven many of
  those who have traditionally sustained societies
  deeply into poverty.

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Industrial food system a PRC issue?

• Heavy reliance on petroleum
• Over-production and concentration lead to social
  destabilization
• Unhealthy food
• Environmental damage
• Unsustainable

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I wonder how many calories it took to produce
and ship this banana to me
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IFS is unsustainable

• Long shipping distances and intensive energy use
  ? pollution and climate change
• Farming practices mine precious topsoil
• Degrades and destroys genetic and biological
  diversity
• Poisons biosphere with planets most lethal
  toxins toxins which are now found in the
  tissues of every tested species

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Food choices

• Our love of meat is from a eco-justice
  perspective a recipe for disaster.

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Beef as a Petroleum By-Product

• Electricity, gas and diesel to grow, harvest and
  process the feed, produce and apply fertilizers
  and pesticides
• To maintain the animals and transport them to
  feedlots and then to meatpacking plants
• To process and package the meat, and to
  refrigerate the trucks that haul it to
  distribution centers, then to stores, and then to
  peoples homes where it is consumed

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• More than 50 of all grain in the U.S. and 40
  worldwide goes to feed livestock

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Energy to Protein Ratios

• Energy input to protein output varies between
  types of meat and between meat, grains, fruits
  and vegetables.

• Beef541
• Eggs261
• Pork171
• Milk protein141
• Turkey131
• Chicken41

David Pimentel estimates that the U.S. could feed
800 million people with the grain consumed by
livestock.
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The Giant Footprint of Livestock
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The Giant Footprint of Livestock

• By 2050, the global production of meat projected
  to double to 465 million tons
• Milk from 580 million to 1,043 million tons

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The Giant Footprint of Livestock

• LAND grazing 26 of ice-free terrestrial
  surface of the planet
• LAND feedcrop production uses 33 of arable land
• Livestock production 70 of all ag land 30 of
  land surface of the planet

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The Giant Footprint of Livestock

• WATER 8 of global human water use (mostly for
  irrigation)
• Largest sectoral source of water pollution dead
  zones, coral reef degradation, human health
  problems, antibiotic resistance
• Livestock responsible for 55 of erosion and
  sediment, 37 of pesticide use, 50 of
  antibiotics, 1/3 or nitrogen and phosphorus
  into freshwater

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The Giant Footprint of Livestock

• Biodiversity species loss at 50 500 times
  background rates found in the fossil records
• Livestock uses 30 of land pre-empting what was
  wildlife habitat
• May be leading player in reduction of
  biodiversity (deforestation, land degradation,
  pollution, climate change, overfishing,
  sedimentation of coastal areas, facilitation of
  invasions of alien species)

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The Giant Footprint of Livestock

• CLIMATE
• 18 of greenhouse gas emissions in CO2
  equivalent
• This is a higher share than transport

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Industrial Food System not just meat

• All food in our industrial food system depends on
  petroleum
• 16-20 of all energy consumed in the U.S. is used
  by the food system
• The distance between field and plate is a key
  reason for this The average food item consumed
  in the U.S. travels upwards of 1,500 miles

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Chicago comparison of Food Miles
IFS
Local

• Terminal MarketAverages
• Apples 1,555 miles
• Tomatoes 1,369 miles
• Grapes 2,143 miles
• Beans 766 miles
• Peaches 1,674 miles
• Winter Squash 781 miles
• Greens 889 miles
• Lettuce 2,055 miles

• Ferry Plaza Farm Market Averages
• Apples 105 miles
• Tomatoes 117 miles
• Grapes 151 miles
• Beans 101 miles
• Peaches 184 miles
• Winter Squash 98 miles
• Greens 99 miles
• Lettuce 102 miles

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Great sucking sound

• In the U.S. alone, in 1997, tractor-trailers,
  averaging 5.9 miles per gallon, traveled more
  than 170 billion miles, using 42.5 billion
  gallons of diesel fuel, to transport food.

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Global climate impact

• Researchers in England compared two versions of
  the same traditional Sunday meal, one with
  imported ingredients, one with locally grown
  ingredients.
• The imported meal would produce 650 times the
  amount of CO2 as the local meal, due to
  petroleum-intensive food transport.

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How do Christians work with others to address
this faulty system?

• Nurturing alternatives to the industrial food
  system by
• building local food economies
• creating a policy climate that allows sustainable
  food systems to grow

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Nurturing alternatives by strengthening local
food economies

• Grants to support sustainable agriculture,
  community food policy work, urban gardening,
  Community Supported Agriculture (CSA), food
  systems education.
• PHP grants for wind energy development and
  methane energy generation

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By creating the policy climate for sustainable
local food systems

• Strengthen local and regional food economies that
  are based on sustainable agriculture through
  local food councils
• Ecumenical collaboration! PRC, CFSC,
  Oxfam America, CWS, NCSA, NCRLC, NCC, NFFC, Rural
  Coalition

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By creating the policy climate for sustainable
local food systems

• Encourage institutional purchasing policies that
  give preference to locally-produced items, such
  as the farm-to-cafeteria programs that are
  successfully sprouting up in schools around the
  U.S.

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By creating the policy climate for sustainable
local food systems

• Shift assistance from industrial ag to small
  medium family farms
• Reward conservation set-aside efforts
• Prevent further concentration in the food
  industry
• Limit industry manipulation of agriculture
  (Competition Title in FB)

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By Acting Locally for Local and Systems Change

• Buy local or regional items from the organic
  section of the supermarket or request that your
  supermarket establish one.
• Get to know the produce manager and find out
  which produce is grown nearby. Request local
  food.

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By Acting Locally for Local and Systems Change

• Move to the right on the
• Food Shopping Continuum
• Megastore (e.g. Costco or Wal-Mart) ? Supermarket
  ? Natural Marketplaces (e.g. Wild Oats or Whole
  Foods) ? Buying Club / Food Co-op ? Non-Chain
  Grocery Store ? Local Co-op ? Farmers Market ?
  CSA ? Community or Home Garden

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Through education and action on climate change

• Electric Stewardship Project www.pcusa.org/energy
  promotes energy audits and energy-saving
  conservation in church buildings and in homes.
• PHP works with PRC to help educate about
  connections between our food/farm policies and
  climate change. pcusa.org/hunger/features/climate.
  htm
• Shaping a betterfarmbill.org Get involved!

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More personally?
Well, what would Jesus eat?
Evangelize eating lower on the food chain
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stepitup2007.org
myfootprint.org
betterfarmbill.org
foodandfaithblog.org