Hey there,
Hope you’re hanging in there amid these persistently chaotic times. About a week ago, I was writing the ‘Speaking Truth to Palate’ round-up, mostly oblivious to what was happening in the broader global newsphere. I had so much to take care of before being offline all-day for our LAFPC shoot that I put my phone on do-not-disturb and adhered very diligently to my Pomodoro timer. Around 11:30pm on Wednesday night, I finally closed my laptop and thumbed through the internet in all its various forms. Chaos had clearly ensued.
So here we are once again, as we have been for most of this pandemic, new normal-ing and trying to maintain business as usual. I am very much on the same page as anyone who has felt distracted and unfocused this week. Sending love and care to those who have been both directly and indirectly affected by war. Holding space for those rightly feeling frustrated by the language Western media has used to describe the current war in Ukraine, implying that some imperiled lives have more value than others. Finally, standing in solidarity with other Black people who are exhausted by the constant reminder of how we are treated *literally* everywhere, a la the abuse Africans and Black Europeans have been subjected to at Ukraine’s borders.
Welcome back to Before the Cutting Board, your weekly roundup of food + supply chain hot topics to help keep you up to speed on what’s going down with your food.
If you’re new to Before The Cutting Board, here’s how it works: The “This Week” section focuses on news and current events, while the “Food Fights” section usually explores some of the interesting debates flying around the food news world. Today’s round-up only contains a “This Week” section due to the intensity of this week’s food news.
I’m hoping that you see the connection between the two news events I’ve shared this week - the impacts of war and climate change on our food systems. Both war and climate change are the results of greed and imperialism - albeit one functions on a longer time scale. Both war and climate change are violently shaking our shoulders, begging us to see that unchecked power, inequality, and our dependence on fossil fuels is not conducive to ensuring our future generations have meaningful livelihoods.
As you may have figured out by now, this week’s newsletter will be quite challenge-focused. And these are realities and challenges that we should all be concerned about. But, there are paths forward and solutions do exist - I’ll focus on the news and debates surrounding those opportunities in next week’s newsletter.
A huge thank you to everyone who has shown love and shared this newsletter since the launch three weeks ago! I’m not lying when I say that your feedback means the world - always nice to know that people are reading this. Please keep sharing and spreading the word!
Without further ado - let’s dig in.
-This Week-
Oil and Food: A Match Made in Hell
Two weeks ago, I sent out some primers on how escalating conflict between Russia and Ukraine could cause a spike in food costs during a time when prices are already at a record-high and food insecurity across the world is intensifying. Since then, as we are all aware, Russia has invaded Ukraine and effectively declared war. This continues to have huge implications for our food supply. Not only because Russia and Ukraine are the combined source of over a quarter of the global wheat trade, but also because of Russia’s role in the oil sector.
We know that oil and food prices are closely linked. High oil prices equal high gasoline and fuel costs which means that it’s more expensive to transport food items from the farm to your grocery store. On top of transportation costs, there’s a whole other variety of ways in which oil costs can tick up the price of your food: tractors, food processing, and fertilizer production for example all require fuel and energy. The higher costs that are leveraged at farmers and processors are then passed down to consumers via our food prices.
Still with me? Ok back to Russia and Ukraine. Russia is the world’s second largest producer of oil and gas, providing 10% of the world’s oil and more than a third of the EU’s natural gas supply. Typically, Russia’s oil and gas exports to Europe travel through Ukraine. Over the last week, there has been a mass exodus of oil business from Russia - both intentional to make a point of withdrawing support from Putin, and also a byproduct of oil stakeholders not wanting to be impacted by the sanctions that have been leveled at Russia. All of these disruptions to the world’s normal supply flow of oil and gas has - you guessed it - caused a surge in oil prices.
Some believe that the oil sector will recover soon enough, but it would be incredibly difficult to deny that this war will have a long-term effect on food prices across the world. Farming and food production is not something that ‘bounces back’. As the Washington Post pointed out, “farms can’t go back in time and plant extra crops to make up for Ukraine’s lost production.” Farming is already cash-intensive and shocks like high oil prices can ruin production plans.
The point of this is not to be “myopic” about a deadly and devastating conflict, as The Counter wryly challenges. Instead, I’m highlighting this part of the news cycle because it really does illuminate the effect that war and conflict has on a wider world that has so intensely globalized its supply chains. It also draws attention to the imbalances in the way these impacts are felt. Something for next week’s “Food Fights”, perhaps.
IPCC: “What are we waiting for?”
The International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released a new report on Monday. Building off of last year’s report which determined that global temperatures have already risen by 1.1 degrees celsius, this report explains more in-depth the relationships between rising temperatures, our global ecosystems, and human society. IPCC reports are actually a very big deal and a good access point to understand how climate change works, but they tend to go unnoticed by those who are not working in sustainability or climate science.
This year’s report has an entire chapter dedicated to food, outlining how our food systems have been affected by climate change and the urgent adaptations that need to be prioritized in order to protect global food supply. The report found that over 30% of land currently used for farming will be unsuitable for growing food by 2100 if we continue down a high emissions path. At the same time, major food producing regions will continue to experience extreme weather shocks - like those being felt in California’s Central Valley, the Corn Belt, Brazil, and Argentina - that will result in increasing food losses. The report also dived deep into the outlook for aquaculture, taking stock of how warming oceans have already led to an intense decline in fish and will continue to do so unless we reverse course on our emission rates.
Interestingly, the food systems chapter discusses inequality in a way unseen in previous IPCC reports. The chapter points out that climate change impacts will compound already-existing inequalities that exist across food access and food production. For example, climate change creates an even larger exposure threat for farm workers who are already beleaguered by low wages and health risks.
At a higher level, the most obvious imbalance of climate change impacts continues to be glaringly clear. Countries that have contributed to greenhouse gas emissions the least are currently feeling the most extreme effects of climate change [see the picture below].
The underlying message of this year’s report? The way that our society engages global ecosystems is destroying our own habitability of the planet and those same ecosystems at a very urgent rate, but there are still opportunities to redesign our institutions and systems in an equitable, fair way.
Among the offered solutions: centering Indigenous knowledge and leadership, moving away from monoculture, and avoiding one-size-fits-all approaches that don’t take equity or cultural factors into account.
Pro tip: The Summary for Policymakers is the easiest part of IPCC reports to digest. This article from Tom Philpott for Mother Jones and this solutions-driven piece from Yessenia Funes for Atmos also sum up the food chapter and the report as a whole nicely.
That’s it for this week. If you enjoyed reading this, please forward to a friend. Even if you didn’t enjoy reading it, still tell your friends - misery loves company :)