Food for Thought
This article was originally shared on Substack.
We hear a lot about climate change. So much that it feels as though we, as a society, are becoming desensitised to the calls for action. It’s just another problem on top of everything else that’s going on in our lives and in the world which makes it all too easy to dismiss amongst the political messaging and fear-mongering.
So I would like to add a little perspective with something more tangible and talk about our supply chain and agriculture.
Some time ago, Jamie Oliver started a Food Revolution1. It was a program designed to reform the school lunch program. Or at least attempt to. The main aims were around addressing obesity, but what struck me was the lack of familiarity with where food comes from. There are many reasons for this, so this observation isn't intended to point fingers, but it highlights one of the areas where modern conveniences can create distance between us as consumers and where we source what we consume every day.
There are campaigns that call for people to “support local” and movements like locavorism that also try to close this distance, both figuratively and literally, by encouraging sourcing what you buy from local businesses. In terms of food, this means sourcing directly from local farmers and farmers' markets or using ingredients that are grown locally, usually within a 100-mile radius2. When you start thinking this way, hopefully, you'll also start thinking about your supply chain which should lead you further up that line to where your food comes from and the agricultural industry.
The agricultural industry plays a significant role just about anywhere where people eat food. It’s also an industry that has been severely impacted by factors that include rising prices of fuel, Russia's war with Ukraine also driving up the cost of fertiliser, and in Australia at least, increasingly frequent and severe seasons of drought or flood.
With reduced yield and increasing operating costs, farming communities are evolving their processes and businesses and actively seeking ways to effect change. Not just to provide more security for themselves but for our global food security (a bigger topic for another day). Because if our food and fibre producers suffer, the rest of us will as well.
Farmers and rural communities are seeing first-hand the impact of climate change. In an environment where food and fibre production revenue streams are increasingly unstable, farmers and their rural communities are needing to establish other income streams. Farmers are taking on off-farm jobs on top of their farm businesses and multi-tasking land use. Rural communities are developing other initiatives to boost their local economies outside of agriculture.
One area of development is in incorporating renewables into farming infrastructure. Renewables can reduce the overheads that come from fuel and energy costs and have the added benefit of reducing carbon emissions. Karin Stark’s family farm was able to cut its emissions by 500 tonnes per year with their 500kW and 1500 panel solar-diesel irrigation system, which is the equivalent of 40 households worth of emissions.
Some farmers are also able to add a secondary income stream through land lease for energy generation. There were previously debates about trading good land for agriculture in exchange for energy, but with advancements in technology such as agrivoltaics, farmers can use their land for crops or grazing as well as energy generation at the same time.
For an increasing number of farmers, it’s about effecting and adopting policy changes and implementing solutions to create a more sustainable future for the industry and their communities. Not to mention mitigating the effects of climate change and its related impact on our global food security.
It’s food for thought.
STEAM Powered
We're taking January off for new episodes so I'll take this opportunity to highlight two of my guests whom I have mentioned in this musing.
In my conversation with Dr Anika Molesworth, farmer, scientist, and storyteller, we speak about Anika’s journey and passion for communicating agroecology and climate change awareness.
I spoke with Karin Stark, founder of the Renewables in Agriculture Conference, about renewables in agriculture, using solar irrigation for her family’s farm, and Farmers for Climate Action.
Quite Interesting
AgZero2030 and Farmers for Climate Action are farmers and other agricultural industry professionals who are working to effect change in policy and industry practices and contribute to solutions relating to climate change challenges.
The Growing Data Foundation “promotes the development of open projects and systems that support sustainable solutions to environmental, social and economic issues”. Think using open data and tools like IoT (Internet of Things) to facilitate solutions for projects like revegetation/restoration in various ecosystems and outreach and communication through data visualisation and stories.
A hacker jailbroke John Deere tractors that support farmers’ right to repair by providing access beyond the consumer interface allowing farmers to perform their own diagnostics and repairs.
Karin Stark spoke about On-Farm Renewables as part of 100 Climate Conversations showcasing Australian innovators responding to climate change.
Read Dr Anika Molesworth’s book Our Sunburnt Country (BookDepository affiliate) (GoodReads) about her journey and that of other farmers and food producers, and the way forward to protecting our land, our food and our future.
Thanks for reading, and see you next time!
Stay curious,
— Michele
Footnotes
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It started several years before the Food Revolution program with Jamie's School Dinners. ↩
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Sugar is often a fun one. ↩